A Fraternitas Update

June 12, 2015

At the beginning of the month, I announced Fraternitas, a community for Catholic men. If you missed the announcement, here are the basics: For a low monthly fee, Fraternitas will help you build your Catholic library, meet other brothers in Christ, form a local chapter in your community, and give you access to exclusive webinars with Catholic leaders, among other things. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I promised more details would be coming, so here’s another quick update.

Limited Access

I was absolutely blown away by the number of you interested in Fraternitas. In the first couple of days after the announcement, over 750 of you submitted your email saying you wanted to join! That brings the number of you eligible to signup to 2,983. Wow.

As I mentioned previously, signups will open on June 27, the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Originally, I had planned to limit signups to 50 charter memberships, but due to the amount of interest, I have upped that number to 100 charter memberships. Be sure to sign up early on the 27th. With nearly 3,000 of you eligible, the open spots will go fast. If you haven’t submitted your email yet, do so using the form below to make sure you can get in on launch day.


Bonus Gifts

As a special thank you, our first 50 Fraternitas members will be receiving some special gifts: The beautiful and sturdy Catholic Gentleman one decade rosary, as well as some official buttons and stickers.

mini_rosary

stickers

Free one decade rosary and stickers… a $20 value. 

Well, that’s all the news for now. Launch day is only about two weeks away! I can’t wait. Next week, I’ll announce our first book and webinar guest. Stay tuned!

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Sam Guzman

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  1. thepapergryphon says

    I can’t wait! I’m definitely going to try to be a charter member. I’d like to be as prepared as I can, so I have a few questions. What time will the signups be available? I work nights and sleep during the day. I’d hate to miss out on an opportunity due to my schedule. Also, when will we know the monthly/sign-up fee? I just bought a house and would like to budget accordingly.

    Pax!
    Mike

    • Sam Guzman says

      Mike, I look forward to having you on board! And I completely understand the need to budget. It will be $19.99/month.

  2. Greg says

    Fraternitas has been ‘hard-copied’ and will be brought to breakfast tomorrow for the Men of Bl John’s (Ordinariate in Orange Co., Ca) and Beyond (if the Lord wills, several of our non-Catholic brothers!) to consider. Blessings on your fwd movement with Fraternitas! gk

    • Sam Guzman says

      Greg, I’m so glad to hear it! As a former Anglican myself, the Ordinariate is close to my heart. God bless you!

      • Pat_h says

        Maybe you can relate to us (assuming you haven’t already) your trip across the Tiber back home to Rome.

        In my town, there are two Anglican churches, one of which was formed by an Episcopal Priest who departed his parish when he could no longer reconcile the state of the Episcopal Church with his beliefs. From the outside, I’ve never been able to grasp why Anglicans, who seem to know what they believe, don’t just all come over to the Catholic Church. Indeed, one Anglican church here purports to be “Anglican Catholic”, and I can’t follow why if you feel yourself to be Catholic the best policy isn’t to end all doubts.

        I do like, by the way, the concept of knowledgeable Roman Catholic men meeting and discussing with our fellows who may be Orthodox and/or Anglicans.

        • Greg says

          Hi Pat, I did not know if you were replying to Sam or me. Sam is a former Anglican, now Catholic (if I knew that before, I had forgotten, Sam! :> ). And the Ordinariate was expressly established by Rome for former Anglicans, however, Francis expanded it to provide a bridge to other Protestants (or other non-Christians of course) to be grafted into the Catholic Church. If any of your friends from these other church communities are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, do let them know the Ordinariate may offer them an opportunity to retain the liturgy they already know and love! Here is the link if interested: http://ordinariate.net/ Blessings.

          • Pat_h says

            I was asking Sam, but I appreciate your response.

            For whatever reason, the separation between we Catholics and the Orthodox, and the separation between the Anglican “Catholics” and us fascinates, and saddens, me. The problem would seemingly be a different one between these two categories, but with the traditional “high” Anglicans I’ve always wondered why, when they seem so sincere and so conscious of Catholicism, they don’t remove all doubt by simply coming on over.

  3. Pat_h says

    Out of curiosity, how does this concept vary from the Knights of Columbus?

    I’m not a Knight, but it was originally formed as a fraternal organization, by my understanding, during the golden age of those organizations. Does this concept vary from the Knights, and if so, how so. Does it take away from the Knights? Are the Knights not filling a role that they should be filling?

    • Sam Guzman says

      They differ pretty drastically. The Knights is a full fledged fraternal organization, with degrees, ranks, and even uniforms. They are heavily involved in charitable work, sell life insurance, and even help with disaster relief. The Knights have nearly 2 million members worldwide.

      Fraternitas, on the other hand, is very loosely organized and is not a true “fraternal” organization like the Elks, VFW, or the Knights of Columbus. It has an online focus with optional local chapters. Members receive a book in the mail each month, so if anything, it is more like a book club than it is like the Knights. And you won’t see any official uniforms or ceremonies with Fraternitas!

      I envision Fraternitas as somewhere between a formal, ceremonial organization like the Knights and a simple program like That Man is You. The idea is to build Catholic brotherhood by facilitating friendships, spiritual reading, and healthy, iron-sharpens-iron conversations. All without being to strict or formal about the structure or topics of conversation. To my knowledge, no one is doing anything quite like this, so that’s why I am launching Fraternitas. I hope that answers your question!

      • Pat_h says

        Thanks. That helps quite a bit.

        A good friend of mine who was born and baptized a Catholic, who fell away while in college, and who then became a sincere solo scriptura protestant, has come back into the Catholic Church recently as part of a dedicated personal effort to learn about the doctrines of the early Church. Of course, once you do that, and find the Fathers, you are left with a pretty clear path.

        Anyhow, he mentioned to me that he wished we could form a group of local men like this. A few of us to go get a beer every now and then and discuss the higher topics. I have to admit that once he mentioned that, I felt like this was something I wish existed. We enjoy discussing these topics with each other (often before we start out day at work) and something along these lines, whether part of this or not, would really be a good and enjoyable thing.

        “The Knights is a full fledged fraternal organization, with degrees, ranks, and even uniforms.”

        Excellent point. I think, frankly, that some of those attributes may explain what I observe to be at least a local decline in the Knights.

        When I was a kid, the Knights here had a club house that had a full bar. I’m not condoning a species of rowdyism, but the Knights was a place where Catholic men often stopped by for drink on some evening of the week, and its St. Patrick’s Day parties were legendary. It was a home of a certain type of muscular Catholicism.

        Now it no longer has a clubhouse and has very much declined. It still exist as an organization of dedicated Catholic men, but it doesn’t seem to be a home of Catholic Men with the Bark On, if you know what I mean. I’ve never been tempted to become a Knight (and the last organization I joined voluntarily was the Army), and I”d find the uniforms embarrassing.

        I hope in this last comment those Knights here, and I know there are some, will not be offended, but take this as a bit of an outside observation. The nature of fraternal organization’s appeal has really changed over the past century, and that’s something that any such organization should ponder. I’ll note that I have one very good friend who is a Knight and I really admire him, so I hope my comment isn’t taken the wrong way.

        Well, time to wake every one up for Mass, so I best conclude.

  4. Jim says

    I can’t wait, I too have wanted something like this locally as well. Really looking forward to the launch.

  5. Matthew says

    I am very much looking forward to potentially be a Charter Member as well – thank you, Sam, for this fantastic opportunity!

    Our of curiosity, when is Launch Time? I want to make sure I have a device nearby so I can be there as close of on-time as I can be.

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  1. […] been sharing details on the launch of my new men’s society, Fraternitas (see here and here). To review, Fraternitas is a community for men offering you the opportunity to build you Catholic […]

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