Catholics Come Home shares the good news of the catholic Christian faith with the whole world
CATHOLIC ONLINE REPORT: "Catholics Come Home" hopes to inspire one million to come home to local Catholic parishes. The bi-lingual Catholics Come Home commercials are scheduled to air on CBS, NBC, Univision, TBS, USA, TNT, CNN, FoxNews, and other networks during shows like 60 Minutes, NCIS, Kennedy Center Honors, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Jay Leno, O'Reilly, major sports, and highly rated sitcoms.
PrintATLANTA, GA (Catholic Online) - I am a re-vert to the Catholic Church. I returned to the faith of my childhood after a search for truth as a young man. That search led me home to the fullness of truth which subsists within the Church into which I was baptized as a child.
As the years have passed my love for the Lord continues to grow. My greatest joy in life is to help others find Him and the fullness of His life lived within the Catholic Church. Over these years I have come to understand my own vocation as living in the heart of the Church for the sake of the world.
I am an evangelizer at heart. My service as a Deacon has been deeply involved in the New Evangelization.
Perhaps because I am a re-vert, I have often had the joy of sharing the Catholic faith with many "former" or "fallen away" Catholics. Helping them find their way home is one of my greatest joys. I have also had the joy of helping Christians from other communities come into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
I am certainly not alone in experiencing the joy of participating in the New Evangelization. One of its greatest advocates is a very gifted man named Tom Peterson.
I met Tom several years ago at a Catholic Leadership Conference. I had seen my first "Catholics Come Home" commercial months earlier and became immediately convinced that the work of this non-profit media apostolate was going to become one of the most important resources for the New Evangelization in my lifetime.
Anyone reading this article who has not yet seen a "Catholics Come Home" commercial should go to their outstanding interactive web site . Watch these beautifully produced commercials! Read about this fruitful New Evangelization Apostolate. Be encouraged in your own faith and find the courage to give it away to others. Learn to feel good again about being a Catholic Christian.
I recently received some very good news from Tom Peterson about the newest effort being undertaken by "Catholics Come Home" to share the good news of the Christian life as found in its fullness within the Catholic Church. Tom, who refers to himself as an "advertising guy...simple and not a scholar," has built "Catholics Come Home" into an evangelization effort which is unmatched in the Catholic Church today.
Like the little boy with the loaves and the fish in the Gospel account of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish (John 6), Tom Peterson has offered what he had and the miracle continues through the hands of Jesus Christ. This "advertising guy" is utilizing the best quality offered by the integrated media of our age to reach real people with the real hope they need in an age that has lost its soul.
"Catholics Come Home" has cooperated with thirty Dioceses and Archdioceses, the most recent of which is my childhood home of Boston, Massachusetts. It is led by Franciscan Archbishop, Sean Cardinal O'Malley. The Cardinal's enthusiasm since the campaign began speaks volumes, "we've made an outreach to inactive Catholics, launching several television commercials to invite our brothers and sisters home. It's for Catholics, who for whatever reason have stopped coming to church."
What has happened in Boston is happening everywhere these commercials air. Mass attendance has increased an average of 10 percent, and as much as 18 percent. The ads and the interactive website have reached 40 million viewers across the US and 1.5 million viewers worldwide in the past three years. According to census statistics published by participating dioceses, "Catholics Come Home" ads have helped more than 200,000 fallen away Catholics come home to the Church.
"Catholics Come Home" recently announced a major, national, prime-time network television evangelization initiative, for the first time ever in the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church, to air from December 16, 2011 through January 8, 2012.
This invitation of the New Evangelization highlights the history, beauty, spirituality and accomplishments of the Catholic Church. The positive message will reach 250 million television viewers in over 10,000 U.S. cities and every diocese throughout the United States, airing over 400 times during the three week period spanning before Christmas through the Feast of the Epiphany, January 8, 2012.
"Catholics Come Home" hopes to inspire as many as one million souls to come home to local parishes. This evangelization goal is based on statistical census results from Catholics Come Home media initiatives that have aired in 30 past partner dioceses, ranging from Chicago to Seattle and Boston to Atlanta.
Where these ads have aired, Mass attendance has increased an average of 10%, and helped over 300,000 people home to the Church, just since 2008.
The bi-lingual Catholics Come Home commercials are scheduled to air on CBS, NBC, Univision, TBS, USA, TNT, CNN, FoxNews, and other networks during shows like 60 Minutes, NCIS, Kennedy Center Honors, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Jay Leno, O'Reilly, major sports, and highly rated sitcoms.
Viewers will be directed to their parish and will learn more at CatholicsComeHome.org orCatolicosRegresen.org (Spanish).
According to a recent CARA Catholic Poll (CCP), only 33% of U.S. Catholics attend weekly Mass. That means 42.7 million, or two-thirds of U.S. Catholics, are not going to Mass. The number of Americans identifying themselves as non-religious/secular increased 110% from 1990 to 2000, now 13.2% of the total population.
The average American spends 38 hours per week consuming media, with TV and internet being the top two choices. Mormons, Christian Scientists, and Atheists are now advertising.
"These inspiring messages are sponsored by 30,000 Catholic families who want to invite neighbors, relatives, and co-workers to the largest family reunion in modern history" said the Founder of "Catholics Come Home", Tom Peterson.
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