Over the past few decades the Catholic Church in this country has been at the mercy of the secular media. With a few exceptions, like the election of a pope, the beatification of one, or an international youth rally, the focus has centered on what's wrong with the Catholic Church, specifically the pedophile scandal and its alleged coverup. And the effect has been devastating: nearly 2/3 of U.S. of Catholic laity no longer attend weekly Mass.
Now, believe it or not, it's the Catholic laity that have risen up to take back the stage and refocus the spotlight on what's right with the Catholic Church. Led by Tom Peterson President and Founder of Catholics Come Home (CCH), tens of thousands of Catholics have raised the funds necessary to air the biggest prime time Catholic evangelization effort in modern history. And its airing has become a reality.
Now through the New Year's holiday Orange County viewers can join over 250 million viewers in over 10,000 markets across the U.S. to see over 475 Catholics Come Home commercials spread over networks like CBS, NBC, TBS, TNT, Fox, CNN, USA. ION, DISH, UNIVISION and the Hallmark Movie Channel, on prime time shows like 60 Minutes, NCIS LA, Blue Bloods, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, Law and Order, Leverage, Bones, NBC Nightly News , the Today Show, Jay Leno, the O’Reilly Factor, popular sitcoms like Friends, King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond as well as major College Football Bowl Games.
Highlighting the benefits of the Church Jesus Christ Himself established, the goal of this advertising campaign is to inspire as many as one million souls to "come home" to their local Catholic parishes. If the test market results are any indication, that goal is entirely attainable. Markets like Chicago, Seattle and Boston have already seen an average 10% increase in Mass attendance after the spots have run. In the first dozen dioceses in which the commercials have aired over 300,000 Catholics have already returned home.
To repeat, this effort, though blessed by the Church, has been fueled by the individual contributions of individual Catholics themselves. Requests for donations have reached my email here in California, for example, the same way requests have been made by political candidates. And thousands have responded to make the CCH advertising campaign possible.
“These inspiring messages are sponsored by tens of thousands of Catholics who want to invite neighbors, relatives, and co-workers to ‘the largest family reunion in modern history’. Our true hope and real change won’t come from Washington D.C. this Christmas. The answers to our most critical needs come from Heaven via a manger in Bethlehem, where Jesus continues to change hearts and our world for the better! ” said Catholics Come Home President and Founder, Tom Peterson.
If you can't wait to see the Catholics Come Home commercials (or if you can't wait to see them again) click here.
Be sure to share them with all the Catholic brothers and sisters on your Christmas list that we need to invite back home.
Be sure to share them with our non-Catholic brothers and sisters you''d like to hear our message.
And be sure to take a lesson from all the individual Catholics who have made this possible. As Christ Himself taught us: we're all in this together.
This year let's all pray for a crowded Christmas Mass.
Related articles:
Only 23% of OC Catholics attend Mass regularly
The last acceptable American prejudice
Comments