Episode 10: How to Start an Institutional Apostolate, Part 2—Jeff Mirus

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