By Anon –
Three years, 365X3 = 1095 days. This is the period that Indian Catholic Matters (ICM) has been around. A remarkable feat for an online publication that puts out original Indian Catholic content every single day, and is now ranked in the top 50 of Catholic websites in the world, has over 6,000 articles and is read by thousands of online readers everyday and is the Indian partner of Aleteia, the world’s largest Catholic website, besides being listed on the CBCI website, and referred to by the Vatican Media. During these pandemic times, many catch the online Mass these days on ICM.
I have been fortunate to have witnessed the growth of ICM over the years from just an idea to where it is today. It is a remarkable story of sweat and toil, and also of God’s Blessings.
The genesis of ICM started from conversations with the ICM Editor over shared parents’ faith classes that we used to attend every Sunday. These classes were conducted by the Holy Cross Fathers at our Parish, during the Children’s faith classes times.
Over time, we started discussing content that was shared on the Catholic WhatsApp groups. This was the main forum of discussing faith-related matters outside the Church at that time. During that period, mostly US-based content was being shared. We wondered why there was not much relevant Indian catholic content out there, that is, content specific to the Indian catholic community. In a country that was gifted the Catholic faith by the Apostle of India, 2000 years ago. Why were we not proud to share Indian Catholic content? A search revealed this was a void waiting to be filled. So, the venture started without a budget, without any manpower besides the Editor and one assistant, no office and no connections to the powers that be in the Catholic Church. The first step was to register the domain, and then get started off after invoking the blessings of the Parish Priest. After a lot of thought, the domain, indiancatholicmatters.org was selected and the logo was designed by an Indian Catholic Graphics designer, completely pro bono.
If only I had known the magnitude of work involved behind an online publication, I might never had got involved. All the major editorial decisions were made by the Editor ICM. A media man by profession with experience spanning all regions of India and with many leading online and offline publications, he wanted to devote his life to the Lord after suffering a near fatal heart attack on stage at an event in Sri Lanka. His wife was wholly supportive of his Mission.
Getting content every day was the most difficult part. And who would give content to an unknown publication that had no money to pay authors too? And the exacting standards of the Editor seeking original Indian Catholic content that had to be put out every day at the specified times were hard to satisfy. We had to contact these authors by email, phone or personal visit. Many times these requests were turned down, about equally many times, these requests were accepted, once the authors slowly got convinced of the Mission. It was never the desire to seek fame or fortune from this, just for the Greater Glory of God. Somehow, the Lord provided. From Catholic Religious, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Nuns and more importantly laity, articles started coming in slowly but surely. The motive was also to build bridges with the Indian Catholic community and others. As the Mission grew (and this is exactly how the ICM Editor views it – as a Life Mission), ICM evolved to its own mode of delivery – sending out a WhatsApp Digest daily with links to the daily stories and reflections and also setup its own WhatsApp Channel, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels too. Being a daily online publication, it’s a constant daily effort put in.
Running an online publication is not easy, and one has to be careful at every stage about the content being put out and he could not face the constant pressures.
Of course this has not been easy. Much sacrifice, including economic, has been made by him and his family. Money is needed to sustain the mission, as always funds are needed for technology upgradation, connectivity etc. There have been critical situations faced such as server hacking attacks and crashes, resulting in sleepless nights for the Editor. Somehow, whenever there is a critical need for help, some money or the other comes in, to keep the Mission alive. Partnerships explored trying to expand the scope of the Mission have not always worked out. This Mission has never been about any personal Glory or fame or money but purely for the Glory of God, is the ICM Editor’s firm conviction from the inception and I know he has stuck on these values, come what may.
“Today content is not an issue. We are in for the long haul,” says the ICM Editor. This is indeed remarkable for a start-up, which got off the ground just three years ago. We certainly need many more like him in our country, taking forward and enriching the Indian Catholic community by working with the Catholic Church and Community as a laity-driven initiative.
May God Bless ICM always, and may it continue to shine on, a beacon of information in the community.