Episode 10: How to Start an Institutional Apostolate, Part 2—Jeff Mirus
By Catholic Culture Podcast ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 10, 2018 | In The Catholic Culture Podcast
Listen to this podcast on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | YouTube Channel
This is a listener-supported podcast! Thanks for your help!
This episode is for anyone who believes he is called to found a Catholic apostolate, or anyone who is overseeing one already. In this second part of a two-part interview, CatholicCulture.org founder Jeff Mirus shares more lessons from his decades of experience founding several Catholic organizations.
In the mid-80s he left Christendom College to start a publishing company. Then circumstances forced him to transition away from full-time apostolic work which, though painful at the time, providentially set the stage for him to return on more sustainable terms, leading to the present online apostolate.
Links
Part 1 of the Jeff Mirus interview https://www.catholicculture.org/podcast/index.cfm?id=9
Books mentioned
Fr. William Most, The Consciousness of Christ
Read online: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/getwork.cfm?worknum=215
Buy used: https://amzn.to/2N3Kgsy
The Fr. William Most Collection https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/
Timothy T. O’Donnell, Heart of the Redeemer https://amzn.to/2zpGrMC
Warren H. Carroll, The Guillotine and the Cross https://amzn.to/2uiShSL
Jeffrey Mirus, Reasons for Hope https://amzn.to/2L0oaXs
Jeffrey Mirus, The Divine Courtship https://amzn.to/2zzsdsL
Dennis Larkin, A Walk to Rome https://amzn.to/2MXqkri
Review of St. Katharine Drexel biography https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otc.cfm?id=1266
Show Notes:
Jeff Mirus interview
3:51
1:20 Summary of Part 1
3:50 Jeff leaves Christendom College to start a publishing company, Trinity Communications
5:54 Why Jeff doesn’t like looking backwards
8:49 Getting Trinity off the ground using Christendom’s mailing list
10:45 Jeff’s two books, Reasons for Hope and The Divine Courtship
11:34 Efficiency of running a small company without a board of trustees and political battles
12:50 Some of the best books Jeff published: Carroll’s The Guillotine and the Cross, Fr. Most’s The Consciousness of Christ, Larkin’s A Walk to Rome, O’Donnell’s Heart of the Redeemer
15:37 Failure of Trinity as a publisher in 1991, Jeff’s realization that he could not do apostolic work full-time
16:34 Jeff learns to program, begins computer consulting and online apostolate, Catholic Resource Network, work for EWTN
19:35 CatholicCulture.org’s predecessor, PetersNet, begins in 1996—funded by computer consulting business
21:24 Trinity does all the programing for Phil Lawler’s Catholic World News, then a separate company
23:16 Importance of making it so Jeff could be removed by other board members if he ever went against the Church
24:27 Why God forced Jeff away from full-time apostolic work in order to put him in a position where he could both support his family and serve the Church without overworking himself
25:33 Programming analogy: Elegant solutions to problems vs. using “brute force”; importance of standing back from problems and learning to delegate and work with a team
30:12 Differences between PetersNet and CatholicCulture.org
32:31 Ethos distinguishing CatholicCulture.org from other faithful Catholic websites when it started in 2003
35:56 Trinity buys Catholic World News in 2006; transition from funding via for-profit company to email-solicited donations just in time for 2008 financial crisis and dissolution of Trinity Consulting
43:19 CatholicCulture.org’s reciprocal model of support; depending on Divine Providence rather than being an institution that exists to perpetuate itself
48:03 Future of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org: transitioning away from Jeff’s leadership
50:01 Final advice for those doing apostolic work: “Unless the LORD builds the house, he labors in vain who builds it.” (Psalm 127)
51:59 This week’s excerpt: St. Katharine Drexel
Theme music: “Franciscan Eyes”, written and performed by Thomas Mirus. Download the Catholic Culture Podcast soundtrack.
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!