Author Topic: John Vennari Medical fund. (Read 10584 times)

Wavy Davy · « **on:** August 19, 2016, 08:38:40 AM »

Moderator: Please read my post below, before you get out your wallet.

A GoFundme campaign was recently begun for Mr Vennari and his medical expenses. As many know, he recently publicly announced his battle with cancer.

The initial goal is modest given the cost of treatment these days, any and all donations are no doubt, much appreciated:

If everyone who reads this mail gave just 5/10 bucks, it would not doubt be significant.

Thank you.

https://www.gofundme.com/2kf7j5r9

JezusDeKoning · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2016, 09:44:34 AM »

When you consider the sheer membership of CathInfo, this could be fulfilled if every active member donated $5/CAD$7 to this.

Wavy Davy · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2016, 09:49:19 AM »

Fingers crossed for John then.

Throw in some aves too!

Matthew · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2016, 12:54:06 PM »

Quote

Dear Freinds. My name is Ken Doyle, I sing the Latin Mass at St Anthony's Church in Buffalo, NY.

Some are already aware that Catholic Journalist John Vennari (Catholic Family News), a Buffalo resident, has recently publically announced he is ill with cancer. Let us assist this warrior for Christ in his latest battle.

John's work has been an inspiration to countless numbers of Catholics for many years. Let us repay his efforts now with any material assistance, no matter how modest, we can afford at this time.

Your help in this matter, accompanied with prayers for John, would be appreciated beyond words.

Thank you all in advance.

John's public announcement can be read here:

http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/4e842a392223b5758ceb116f3879d205-624.html

Those that prefer to donate directly, via check, can do so at the following address:

John Vennari
2316 Delaware Ave, PMB 325
Buffalo, NY 14216

Do we know this Ken Doyle from a can of paint? Should we trust him to collect $5,000 for John Vennari? Yes? No? I honestly don't know.

Does anyone here know him? And why doesn't John Vennari set up a GoFundMe page himself? It's not like he's a priest who naturally has lay volunteers helping him. He's a famous name, yes, but he's not a priest.

What does John Vennari think of this? Does he trust Ken Doyle to do this fundraising for him? Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't.

I would recommend CathInfo members to go with that DIRECT option -- mail John Vennari a check directly. And someone should verify that this is really John Vennari's address. I'm serious!

I know, I'm cynical. But I've seen too many scams and frauds in my time, even among Traditional Catholics. You'd be surprised just how much serious evil dares to cross the thresholds of our Traditional Catholic chapels. We have to be careful and not naive.

Do you know how many scammers use "good causes" to steal their ill-gotten income? Relief for Tsunami victims, people with cancer, widows of murdered police officers, you name it. The causes are good, but the scammers TAKE ADVANTAGE of people's sympathy.

Let's put it this way: how many of you imagine that your priest has heard these things in the confessional:
(Or, he SHOULD hear them, if the offenders had the good will to repent for their sins!)

Drunk driving
Murder
Practicing the Occult
Serious fighting, causing someone to end up in the hospital
Rape
Sodomy
Child abuse
Grand larceny
Embezzlement
Robbery
Burglary
Wife beating
Complete Adultery
Fornication
Birth Control use
Abortion

If you think to yourself, "Nah.... I doubt it!" then congratulations! You're still innocent and naive about how good and special Traditional Catholics are. They might attend a better Mass, and maybe more of them "try to be good" compared with the general population (since they have to stand up for the Faith somewhat) but there is still plenty of sin, and I mean serious, grave sin.

Trad Catholics are still human, and among their number there are those guilty of a lot more serious sins than the commonplace "I got angry", "I was impatient", "I disobeyed my parents", "I was distracted during the Rosary", or "I shopped on Sunday".

Those are the kind of pecadillos or "fashionable" sins you don't care if people find out about, or they're things that most Catholics were guilty of at some point.

P.S.
I'm not crazy for "even questioning" the legitimacy of this, since the person promoting it (Ken Doyle himself?) went ahead and posted it without even asking me. Now that's far from conclusive evidence, I'll admit. But in the past I've observed that super honest people usually ask for permission rather than forgiveness. Even if it's not technically required, they often ask me first.

But don't get me wrong -- I'd be questioning this even if he HAD asked for permission. We always have to question. We always have to be on our guard.

Ladislaus · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2016, 12:59:08 PM »

Quote from: Matthew

I would recommend CathInfo members to go with that DIRECT option -- mail John Vennari a check directly.[/b]

Are we sure that the above is actually his address?

cathman7 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2016, 01:30:48 PM »

http://www.oltyn.org/page5/page5.html

Yes, it is.

Wavy Davy · « **Reply #6 on:** August 19, 2016, 01:55:01 PM »

If anyone PM's me I can give 'em Ken's number directly to speak with. Also, I believe there are contact details on the Gofundme page.

And yes, that is definitely Mr Vennari's actual postal address, so if there are people who are concerned about direct digital donations, they can send John a cheque directly.

Wavy Davy · « **Reply #7 on:** August 19, 2016, 02:16:42 PM »

OK, so Mr Doyle apologizes for his imprudent posting before asking permission.

Mr Doyle does not frequent internet fora and is ignorant of netiquette etc.

He is happy to converse, via phone, with anyone with concerns or doubts. He is also happy for people to send checks directly to Mr Vennari, in fact that would fine and preferable he says.

Mr Doyle just wants to get the word out to those who have appreciated Johns work and his almost certain sacrifices in terms of the work he has chosen. The internet represents a new and wider platform for such dissemination of information and outreach, which many readers of the Catholic Family News may not be aware of or readily exposed to, hence the GofundMe.

PM for contact info.

Wavy.

Matthew · « **Reply #8 on:** August 19, 2016, 02:20:55 PM »

Obscurus is right -- John Vennari's page gives his address. So at the very least we know the address is legit.

If you want to be 100% sure your money gets to John Vennari, you can't go wrong with mailing a check directly to that address.

If John Vennari sees this thread, maybe he can vouch for the legitimacy of the GoFundMe page and the man who set it up.

As an aside --

"Giving the benefit of the doubt" doesn't apply to business, when money is involved. That is a public, business matter. Do you assume every babysitter is good to go, or do you run a background check? It's not rash judgment, rash suspicion, or cynicism to run a background check on a prospective employee. It's "just business".

When money is involved, you have to keep honest people honest.

At our chapel here in Texas (with a very small congregation) someone walked off with a $100 Visa gift card that was left in the back of the chapel. An announcement was made in the next week's bulletin that we knew it was there and that it was "lost" -- but no one came forward, and we never did recover the $100. So there you have it: some traditional Catholic, someone who drove to a person's home to attend the Tridentine Mass was equally happy to rob GOD of $100 to feed their own personal gluttony and materialism.

Money is just too tempting for some people. Like I said, it's nothing personal, we just have to be eternally vigilant -- the opposite of naive.

Matthew · « **Reply #9 on:** August 19, 2016, 02:26:18 PM »

Normally a new member can't send/receive PMs until a couple days after he joins.

But to facilitate donations to John Vennari, I manually changed the Join date for "Wavy Davy" to August 15th, so now he can use the Private Message system a couple days early.

Now he can receive PMs and give out John Vennari's contact info as needed. (Wavy Davy said he was going to give out *Ken's* contact info. What is giving them Ken's number going to do? What is Ken going to say, "Yup, it's me Ken. John Vennari says I'm the most trustworthy person on earth. Trust me!" From a security standpoint, that doesn't seem to make much sense.)

Matthew · « **Reply #10 on:** August 19, 2016, 03:16:41 PM »

Quote from: Wavy Davy

OK, so Mr Doyle apologizes for his imprudent posting before asking permission.

Mr Doyle does not frequent internet fora and is ignorant of netiquette etc.

He is happy to converse, via phone, with anyone with concerns or doubts. He is also happy for people to send checks directly to Mr Vennari, in fact that would fine and preferable he says.

Mr Doyle just wants to get the word out to those who have appreciated Johns work and his almost certain sacrifices in terms of the work he has chosen. The internet represents a new and wider platform for such dissemination of information and outreach, which many readers of the Catholic Family News may not be aware of or readily exposed to, hence the GofundMe.

PM for contact info.

Wavy.

Mr. Doyle apologizes you say -- but it's you, Wavy Davy, that posted this! Did you forget that?

First, you seem to go out of your way to distinguish between "Wavy Davy" and Mr. Ken Doyle. But if I apply about 4 of my brain cells, putting two and two together, it is clear that they are the same person.

Second, you suggest an empty, meaningless "verification" of legitimacy. What is calling the potential scammer to talk to him in person going to do, to verify his legitimacy? That doesn't even make sense.

What are you going to say on the phone that's going to convince potential donors? Why not just lay it all out right here, for everyone to see? Or is it because an expert scammer knows human psychology well, and needs to manipulate different people using different techniques and arguments? That would make sense.

That would be like verifying a babysitter is safe by looking up her name in the phonebook. Yup, she's a real person! Good to go. Or like saying, "Of course this Mass is valid. It looks like a Mass!" Um...that doesn't prove anything. Proving existence isn't the same as proving goodness or legitimacy.

Trust is earned. We all know nothing about you to start with; all we have are these posts to analyze and go by. But just from your handful of posts here, I must say you're not exactly headed in the right direction...

This SEEMS like a pathetic attempt to mislead us. This behavior seems very fishy to me. That's not conclusive, of course, so I could be wrong. But all I can say for sure is: let the buyer beware! (or donor, in this case)

Again, I strongly suggest that anyone wishing to help John Vennari send him a check directly to his address, which is verified:

John Vennari
2316 Delaware Ave, PMB 325
Buffalo, NY 14216

Marlelar · « **Reply #11 on:** August 19, 2016, 04:03:00 PM »

Does anyone here know Mr. Vennari? Could they call and verify this is legitimate?

Marlelar · « **Reply #12 on:** August 19, 2016, 04:08:15 PM »

I just sent an email to his gmail account asking him to verify the individual. I will post his reply.

Matthew · « **Reply #13 on:** August 19, 2016, 04:43:15 PM »

Someone should keep an eye on the page, too, and take a screen cap (or print to PDF the entire page) and send to John Vennari, along with the message, "Deo Gratias! Ken raised $5,000 for you!"

So if he doesn't get it, there will be problems.

Of course, by then it will be too late to get any of the money back, and all we have is the name (pseudonym?) that can receive a bad reputation.

Wavy Davy · « **Reply #14 on:** August 19, 2016, 09:10:26 PM »

OK, there are some important updates coming regarding this campaign. Mr Vennari will be formally adopting it as his own to insure no confusion or doubt remains, and there are some informational updates coming from John with regards his situation and accruing medical needs.

There will be a link to this campaign added to John's website in the next day or so

Stay tuned