Angel Friends FAQ

Saturday Ramblins, Vol. 1, No. 22 (October 17, 1998)

Members, old and new, regularly send questions and comments to Angel Friends. Some of them are specific to the individual writer and his or her concerns, but several questions have been asked frequently. I will attempt to answer them.

Q. Do you you use a special program to send out the quotation everyday?

A. No. Angel Friends uses a program available most anywhere software is sold, Eudora Pro Mail, running through an Internet Service Provider (ISP). It's intended for personal Internet e-mail, but I've adapted it to send the daily posts, "Extras," and Saturday Ramblins.

Like many e-mail programs, Eudora Pro has the ability to create individual mailboxes for addresses. It takes 28 separate mailboxes to store and send the more than 1,000 posts each day. Transmission takes three to four minutes. The drawback is that, to keep the list current on a daily basis, each name must be entered or deleted from the list by hand. So, depending on the number of subscriptions or members unsubscribing, it's can be high maintenance.

I've thought of getting a bulk e-mailer or subscribing to a list server, but they are expensive and it is my intention that Angel Friends will always remain a free service.

Q. Do you get any complaints from the things you send out?

A. Surprisingly, and by the grace of God, there has been only one complaint in the nearly two years Angel Friends has been in existence. A humorous post was sent out as an "Extra" and one member complained about a part of the content he believed to be inappropriate.

More recently, a "Welcome" post was sent to a new member, who immediately sent it back objecting to the passage used at that time, a quotation from Fra Giovanni which reads, "Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty; [b]elieve me, that Angel's hand is there." She demanded to be unsubscribed immediately, saying that angels do not cause such things as trials, sorrows, etc.--that they only spread good. She went on to say that I should be removed from the Internet for spreading such lies. Well, to each his or her own.

The most common occurrence is someone who subscribes and receives the "Welcome" e-mail, plus the post for that day and the most recent edition of Saturday Ramblins. Within the same day, I will receive an e-mail asking me to remove him or her from the list. I suspect it's due to content. Imagine that, a service called "Angel Friends" which has a spiritual dimension to it? Go figure.

Q. There seems to be a decidedly Catholic slant to much of what you send or write. Is this a Catholic service?

A. Because I am Catholic, as is the editor of Saturday Ramblins, Judi Amey, some of our bias is bound to spill over into things published through Angel Friends. However, we both strive very hard to emphasize those things all good people of faith share in common. The purpose of Angel Friends is to be one little candle on the Internet.

Q. Papa Jon, are you a priest?

A. I have been asked that question many times, believe it or not. I have a couple of dear friends who are priests and who would get a good chuckle out of the question. No. I am not. Not even close, for which the Roman Catholic Church breathes a sigh of relief.

If you have more questions you would like answered about the Angel Friends Internet Group and its service, send them in and Saturday Ramblins will answer them from time to time.

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