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SkyscraperPlease DONATE NOW to help us preserve the legacy of The Catholic Register

The Catholic Register is the steward of a great treasure of Canadian Church history.

These stories exist on yellowing copies of the newspaper that, in many cases, have become so brittle they crumble between fingers when you try to turn a page.

Our history deserves better.

In January, The Catholic Register will begin its 125th year of continuous operation. To honour that landmark we have launched a fundraising campaign called Forward in Faith to celebrate our past and to ensure our place in a digital future.

The first objective of Forward in Faith is an ambitious project to digitize and make available over the Internet every edition of The Catholic Register dating back to 1893. That's almost 6,000 issues totalling more than 50-million words of Catholic news and inspiration.

The first phase of that project was launched on April 20 when almost 3,000 back issues of the paper dating back to 1951 were made available to the public in the new Catholic Register Archive. The second phase will deal with the first 57 years of Catholic Register history.

These aging copies of the paper describe countless contributions and sacrifices made by clergy, religious and laity to all manner of Church life and Canadian society in general. We must preserve this past. But creating a searchable, online archive of this magnitude is a huge undertaking. We need your help.

The Register has been blessed with an anonymous donor who has kicked off our Forward in Faith campaign with a $35,000 matching gift. So every dollar we receive from other donors will be matched dollar-for-dollar by our guardian angel until your pledges reach $35,000.

In other words, your tax-deductible donation of $100 will become $200 when it is matched. Plus all donations are tax deductible.

Please visit our donation page and donate now. Together, let's move Forward in Faith. Or keep reading to learn more.

Forward in Faith was launched to raise sufficient funds to preserve our past and then move on to fund a range of initiatives to ensure The Catholic Register continues to chronicle Canada's Catholic story well into the future.

Our world is being spun by a technology tornado that has upended the ways we communicate. For newspapers, including The Catholic Register, these are dizzying times that require new approaches to old models. Newspapers must evolve to survive.

The Register faces rising costs in a number of areas: production and distribution of the newspaper; replacement or purchase of computers, servers and video equipment; outlays for software and accompanying licenses; website, multi-media and social media upgrades and maintenance; staffing, training and ongoing content creation for print and digital products.

Forward in Faith donations will support all of these endeavours.

But as we embrace a digital world, we must respect our past. That means employing modern technology to ensure every past issue of The Catholic Register becomes accessible in a searchable format on the Internet. We have a duty to preserve those 125 years of Catholic history for future generations.

DonateButtonPlease visit our donation page and donate now. Together, let's move Forward in Faith.

Remember, gifts to the Forward in Faith campaign are tax deductible and will be acknowledged with a receipt for income tax purposes. (Charitable Registration No. 84212 0685 RR0001)

We are happy to reply to questions. Email us: forward@catholicregister.org