``Where
the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
Please, Support Fish
Eaters
In
December of 2010, Fish
Eaters grew too big for its britches. Because of a large
increase in traffic, our shared webhosting just wasn't working any
longer; the website and forum experienced nasty crashes and caused
other websites on the same server to slow down to a crawl. So I've
moved to a dedicated server. And now I have to pay for it each
month. Will you help me do that? I'm a single
woman and, to be frank, am pretty poor by American standards.
It's sometimes very frustrating running a large website. If only half of the
discussion forum members were to donate one quarter a month,
there'd be no worries about the costs of running the site as traffic
and bandwidth and such are now. One lousy quarter. From only half of
the registered forum members, nevermind other site visitors and forum
lurkers. But it seems that only a handful of people are willing to
pitch in -- even though Quantcast statistics tell us that 29% of FE's
visitors earn between $60,000 and $100,000 a year, and 34%
make more than $100,000 a year. I ask those reading this to truly
consider helping out. $20 monthly pledges
from relatively few people would greatly ease the financial
burden that goes with running this website.
Why help? Well, hopefully because you appreciate the information on
living a Catholic life, and like the news, discussions, games, and fun
at
the forum. But if you want
more reasons to donate, read
excerpts from
some of the great letters I've gotten over the years. The bottom line:
Fish Eaters brings
people to the Catholic Church, helps Catholics better
understand and practice our Faith in the traditional way, and helps
non-Catholics understand what we believe.
There are a few ways to help:.
Help by
Shopping at Amazon and my other affiliates (at right)
When shopping at
Amazon, find the
ASIN number of the item you're wanting to buy, and use it to replace
the red XXXs in the URL below. Copy-paste that URL into your browser
window
and proceed. Each time you do this, FE benefits, but you don't pay one
penny more.
The above method helps the most. An easier way with a smaller
"kick-back" is to just use this search box (or the one like it at the
bottom of every forum page):
Help
through advertising
Visit the site's
sponsors -- and consider becoming
a site sponsor! Do you have a
business or product that would benefit from being advertised on
FishEaters? Do you know
someone with such a business? Read the details about advertising on this site here and spread
the word to your friends. Almost all
of my advertisers are repeat advertisers. Exposing your business to
FishEaters' visitors works!
Help
by check
Checks can be
mailed to:
Tracy Tucciarone
736 North Bosart Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46201-2955 U.S.A.
Help through
Paypal
There
are two more ways to help, both through PayPal:
make
a one time
donation and/or
pledge
and make automatic monthly donations. You
can, of course, cancel your monthly donations at any time by logging
into PayPal
and then going to: My Account > Profile
> More Options
> My Money
> My Preapproved Payments.
Excerpts
from some of FE's "fan mail" (senders' names withheld):
I
just wanted to send a quick note saying how much I appreciate
Fisheaters. I'm a lifelong Protestant who has grown very weary of
hearing all the anti-Catholic bias that is typical in certain
Protestant circles--some of it quite uncharitable and downright ugly
(I'm sure you've heard it all), and for the past year I've been doing
some searching around to learn about Catholicism from the mouths of
Catholics themselves.
Many of my favorite writers have been Catholics or Anglo-Catholics
(C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton); I've always loved chant; I've admired
liturgical worship for many years ... and yet I realized I had accepted
as given all my Protestant presuppositions, without doing any thinking
whatsoever about those points.
But it wasn't until I discovered your site that a lot of my theological
biases started to fall away, like scales from my eyes. You were the
first to explain Catholicism in a passionate and convincing way that
made a great deal of sense to me, and which I could actually embrace.
I've attended two masses now (knowing, of course, to recuse myself from
the actual communion!), and I think I need to become Catholic. Though I
still have a great deal of trepidation about it, and have plenty of
time for prayer and further consideration before RCIA starts up this
fall, I can no longer accept doctrines like sola scriptura, or sola
fide; the Bible undeniably teaches the Real Presence and the primacy of
Peter; the Church Fathers are obviously Catholic; I cannot deny the
allusions to Purgatory in verse after verse ... and on and on and on.
Once your eyes are opened, you can't make yourself blind again.
Should I actually end up where I think I'm going--into the Catholic
Church--your site will have had a great deal to do with that. I'm
grateful I found it. Thank you.
I
am not Catholic (I attend a Mennonite Church), but I have spent a
great deal of time on the site for research purposes to better
understand Catholic thought, culture, and spirituality. Your articles
contain a great deal of information on traditional Catholic belief that
is understandable and approachable for the average person (like me) who
has little experience with the Catholic Church. You have married plain
language with the thought of the Early Church Fathers and broaden my
understanding of traditional Catholic beliefs.
Certainly, I don't agree with every article I have read, but for me,
that's not the point. After spending the time that I have on your site,
I think I can better explain and defend from slander Catholic beliefs
to those who aren't familiar with them and, at times, adversarial to
them. I know you don't view your site as "ecumenical", but, I think by
educating others (like myself) on traditional Catholic thought (and not
bending to vagueness, and being unapologetically traditional and
orthodox) you have definitely taken a step toward broadening
perspectives.
Thank
you so much for the extreme amount of time you have spent on your
website. I was raised Catholic, but somehow fell away from the Church.
In the past year, God sent the Holy Spirit to bring me back. I stumbled
across your website and have been "addicted" to it ever since. I am
amazed by the amount of information you have made available. Having
access to this information has renewed my interest in my heritage and
the tradition of the Church. I cannot tell you what your website means
to me. All I can say is you are an angel, and I thank you from the
bottom of my Catholic heart.
My
thanks to you and your team for creating this wonderful website. I have
been a Catholic all my life and I had no idea how ignorant I was. Today
my friend told me it would be good to deal with my difficult
relationship with my big brother by " offering it up ". Because I
wanted to do this properly I realised that I did not really know how to
offer something up. I searched on Google and found your marvellous
website. The article on this subject is deeply inspiring. Thank you so
much for helping Catholic to live better lives.
I
had fallen away as a young teen (sadly, most do in the metro NY area)
and found myself in a lifestyle of hard drug abuse and general
immorality. I had a near death experience at the age of 18 because of a
serious ovderdose.
After this I began to question the existence of our Lord. I picked up a
Bible, turned to the last book and read all of it straight through. I
had been captivated by the idea that this is only a temporary world and
that we would all one day face judgement. A few years later I found
myself at a few protestant services and was happy I had found people I
could discuss my faith with.
Despite how happy it made me I realized it was lacking and wanted to
know more about the faith I was raised in. I typed in "being Catholic"
on google and your site was the first result. I immediately bookmarked
it and now visit it regularly. I have come back to the One, True
Church.
My point in sending this however is not my life story. I want to THANK
YOU for creating such an awesome reference for all Christians. My faith
has been straightened (as much as can be) and I would not have come
back to Christ's True Church so soon had I not discovered your site.
I
was raised (very) Protestant but have been seriously investigating
whether I should join the Catholic Church. I have been reading all
kinds of stuffy theological explanations about Mary, but I couldn't
really get my head around it, even though I was trying really hard to
understand how Catholics see her.
Then I found your page on Mary - and I get it!!! Thank you so much for
your down to earth explanations, they really resonated with me. I
finally, finally get the point about why the Blessed Mother is who
Catholics say she is.
Thanks
so much for all your hard work to keep the site up. I personally really
appreciate it. If it weren't for FE, I would have probably never found
tradition, and may have never discovered what it really means to be
Catholic. I shudder just thinking about it! So, a BIG thanks.
My
name is [name withheld].
I just wanted to let you know that I love your site. I have been
visiting the site for a few weeks now, and it has greatly enhanced and
made more understandable my journey through the Church. I am a convert,
having been confirmed last Easter, and I have been through more than
enough of my share of Vatican II abuses in various places and
circumstances (I live in [city
withheld]). I am still discerning my trad/somewhat trad
stance within the Church, and your site is the one and only site that
has significantly helped me along my way.
I
am sincerely grateful for your website! Thank you oh so much for all
the time you spent putting this together!
I currently am going through the catechesis as i write this, and your
website has been a treasure for me during my conversion from
Pentecostalism.
Please know that you have helped me, and I have very very VERY honestly
been bettered spiritually by your website.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
What
a great website! I have learned MORE about Catholicism on this site
than I did in my 8 years of CCD.
Praise God, I've got a lot
more beautiful notes like these...
