Catholics come Home; the newest ads

Catholics Come Home TV Ministry Reaching Out to Millennials

4 new commercials, youth-focused web site encourage lapsed Catholics to return to Church

June 23, 2016ZENIT StaffCulture and Society

Catholics Come Home^® has announced its upcoming campaign to invite Millennial Catholics home to the Church, through new television commercials and an interactive website, called CatholicsComeHome.com, a companion website to its popular .org site.
Four new evangomercials^TM including “Something More” and “Epic 2.0”,  as well as a millennial-focused website, are in response to the growing number of Millennial Catholics (young adults ages 18-34) abandoning their Catholic faith, as well as an effort to reach out to those young adults who consider themselves unaffiliated with any religion.
Pew studies show that 80% of millennials abandon their Catholic faith before age 23. Additionally, more than 100,000 Americans stop practicing their Catholic faith annually, and only 1 out of every 3 attends Church.
“We took to heart numerous studies showing that American millennials are struggling with addictions, suicide, out-of-wedlock births, joblessness, and other significant life challenges at catastrophic rates,” explained founder and president Tom Peterson. “Our hope is to reduce these disheartening statistics and guide young adults toward healthier, joy-filled lifestyles by introducing them to—or reminding them of—the importance of faith.”
In collaboration with other prominent Catholic organizations, Catholics Come Home has conducted focus groups and message concept testing among Millennials prior to developing and launching their new line of ads and accompanying website.
Catholics Come Home plans to air the commercials through traditional radio, cable and network TV channels, as well as through popular online networks like Facebook and YouTube.

Catholics Come Home has helped more than a half million people home to the Church across North America, based on independent statistics provided directly from partner dioceses.. The apostolate will soon be expanding its outreach to several international communities.

View the Something More ad and other Millennial ads.

What fallen-away Catholics need and want

The No. 1 Thing I’ve Learned From Talking With Fallen-Away Catholics

Family Matters: Catholic Living

•   

by Katie Warner, Register Correspondent Saturday, Dec 19, 2015                

                                                              

I’ve worked for Catholics Come Home, the international media apostolate working to invite fallen-away Catholics and others home to the Church, since its founding in 1997. This has afforded me, personally, the opportunity to dialogue with hundreds of fallen-away Catholics who contact the organization after seeing a Catholics Come Home TV commercial or stumbling upon the CatholicsComeHome.org website. Those who reach out to the apostolate via email, phone or mail make up a small but strong sample of the millions of people that Catholics Come Home has reached out to in less than a decade, and they have taught me a lot about those who leave the Church.
The messages I receive from these inactive Catholics range from cordial to scathing, and it didn’t take me long in this ministry to see that there are common threads in their conversations. Many of these people are hurting; many are angry; many are lost. All have stories; all have reasons for leaving — reasons ranging from “I just drifted away” to “I don’t believe in these teachings” to “Someone in the Church wronged me” (with the first and the last reasons being most common).
But perhaps the most-shared feeling or expression in the many correspondences I have fielded over the years is this: Almost all of these fallen-away Catholics want to know that someone cares.
They want to know that someone cares that they left. They want to know that someone not only notices their absence, but also is actually saddened, or at least affected by it. Sadly, many, if not most, of these inactive Catholics have never found anyone to express this concern to them.
So I make an effort to tell fallen-away Catholics who reach out to Catholics Come Home that they are missed, and their brothers and sisters in Christ — including me — want them home and that their Heavenly Father in particular wants them to again be a part of the Catholic Church that Jesus Christ founded.
As a unity in the Body of Christ, a living organism, we aren’t the same without them, and we care that they are away.
It never ceases to amaze me how even the seemingly hardest of hearts in an initial correspondence can be turned around after hearing that someone, anyone, cares about them and about their leaving the barque of St. Peter.
I’ve been moved to tears more times than I can count by people who seemed bent on spewing their rage toward the Church and have then responded to my reply with words like, “Thank you for answering. You are the first person to respond to me … and to care.” Some of these people have admitted attempting to reach out to other people or organizations, seeking a listening ear or an extended hand of welcome, only to be further disappointed by the fact that not only did they exit the Church without a single person knowing that they had gone, but they also couldn’t find anyone to help them explore the possibility of returning.

So many of our fallen-away family, friends, co-workers, relatives, neighbors and even strangers whom God puts in our path are desperately wanting to know that they are missed. Many just need to hear it from one person — and that one person can be you.
When you come in contact with people away from the Church, I encourage you to do two rather simple, yet important, things.
First, tell them they are missed and that you care that they are away. I used to think it sounded cheesy to say that out loud or in writing, but I discovered that it really was what so many of these people wanted to hear. I add the caveat that you must mean it. Your words, tone and demeanor must be genuine. They need real empathy.
Second, invite them home. Often, when we ask people who return to the Church, after coming across a Catholics Come Home commercial or the website, why it is that they came back, they respond, “Because you invited me.” Don’t miss the opportunity to extend the invitation that may be the catalyst in that fallen-away Catholic’s journey back to Christ and his Church.
Pope Francis has warned of the danger of Catholics being “backseat Christians.” Don’t take a backseat when it comes to welcoming fallen-away Catholics home. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to people whom you can encourage on their faith journeys. That is certainly a prayer that God loves to answer. And when God puts that beloved, wandering child of his in your path, remember the words of the King in Matthew’s Gospel: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

Katie Warner

writes from Florida.

She is the author of Head & Heart,

and her website is CatholicKatie.com.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/the-no.-1-thing-ive-learned-from-talking-with-fallen-away-catholics/#ixzz3uoUD2FYE

Catholics Come Home nationally

Catholics Launch First National Ad Campaign

By Lauren Green

Published December 16, 2011

| FoxNews.com

It's been quite a few years since David Heffernan warmed a church pew on a regular basis. The Queens, N.Y., native grew up Catholic, but he doesn't attend Mass often.

"Probably a little bit of laziness." he says, "or a little bit of shame. It's hard to come back."

Heffernan is exactly the kind of person a new national ad campaign is targeting: lapsed Catholics.
According to a Pew study, about 10 percent of American adults are former Catholics, with more leaving the church annually than are joining.

Catholics Come Home, a television advertising campaign, has proved successful in 30 regional markets, helping raise attendance at Mass by 10 percent overall and by as much as 18 percent in some areas.

Now, for the first time, it's going national -- and potentially reaching 250 million viewers.
Tom Peterson, president and founder of Catholics Come Home, says of the $3.5 million media blitz, "It's taken us over 15 years as a grassroots effort to raise that money, and about 35,000 families around the United States said I want to invite my neighbors and relatives home."

The 30-second spots will air during some of the most highly rated network shows, including “60 Minutes” and “NCIS.” Through Jan. 8 the warm and fuzzy ads will beckon lapsed Catholics back to the pews no fewer than 460 times. It’s being called the largest evangelization campaign in the Church's 2000-year history.

Dr. John Tantillo, a branding and marketing expert, says it's a good idea.

"Why shouldn't the Catholic Church be doing something?" says Tantillo, author of “People Buy Brands, Not Companies.”

He says there's a difference between marketing a product and selling it. "If you get someone to buy a product they really don't want, that's manipulation, and they they'll never come back again,” he says. But "marketing is about satisfying people's needs."

"People tell us that they didn't have a reason for leaving the church, they just kind of drifted away,” Peterson says. “And when the parishes have asked them why have you come home, over 90 percent of them have said 'because you invited me.'"

There are 65 million Catholics in America. The number of parishes has decreased about 7 percent because of closings and mergers in the last 10 years, but, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, the number of Catholics has kept steady. That is in large part because of the growth of the nation’s Latino population. There has been a 40 percent increase in the number of Latino households registered, and Latinos now make up 29% of Catholics in the U.S.

The Catholic Church currently faces many challenges, including competition from Protestant megachurches, an ever-increasing secular culture in America and the sexual abuse crisis that has shaken its clergy worldwide.

"The way the Catholic Church is right now," I would say they are in some ways too far from the real world. That's how I feel," a woman named Leoni, who said she was from The Netherlands, told Fox News outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

The campaign's first step is to get folks back in the parishes. The second step is to keep them there.

"This is a good start," says Father Jonathan Morris, Priest of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and a Fox News contributor. "But when they come home and come to our churches, we better be able to give them something."

Morris' church in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan has witnessed a constant growth in its number of young members. He believes there's a hunger and thirst for the church that just needs to be tapped.

"And when we propose in an interesting way and in a welcoming way,” he said, “I think people will come home."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/16/catholics-launch-first-national-ad-campaign/?test=latestnews#ixzz1gk5mgmWZ

American Idol: Music to my ears

Oh my, American Idol is off the chain this year.  At this point there are no bad singers at all and there may be 3-4 of the best singers I have ever heard on this show.  Two guys are beyond amazing, Scotty and James.  And two of the gals are stunning, Pia and Lauren.  Tonight's musical performances have been amazing.

But that's not the music to my ears I am referring to.  As I sit and watch a littleIdol, between washing clothes, answering e-mails, reading up on this weekend's Gospel, I'm listening when suddenly I hear that music to my ears.  Right there on the big screen, on an amazingly popular TV show, runs another stunning commercial from Catholics Come Home.  I mean watching Idol and I hear a man describe the Eucharist, the Sacraments and the desire to do God's will.  Sweet music!

And of course the sincere and poignant invitation for Catholics who may have left or fallen away to Come Home!  And for those who may never have been Catholic, come see.  This program has been active in the Archdiocese of New Orleans for just 4 weeks.  Already, the Archbishop reports positive results, tons and tons of requests for him to write to those who need a nudge to return, calls coming in to parishes across the Archdiocese.

I hope that if you know someone who needs to be invited "home" you will take action.  And if you reading this need more information about the Catholic Church please reach out to me or contact a parish in your community.

Catholics Come Home; music to my ears; sweeter than even this bunch of American Idol contestants!

Top 10 Catholics Come Home List

>>>The Archdiocese of New Orleans invites all to Come Home! Send me a message if I can help you return to the Church.

Top 10 Reasons to Come Back
No matter how long you have been away from the Catholic Church, you can always come home. You can start going to Mass again (find a parish) and become a part of a parish community that is ready to welcome you with open arms. God is inviting you to dive into your faith in a deeper way than you ever have before.

You may already be feeling a strange inner pull to look into the Church again. That spiritual longing you feel is God drawing you back to Himself. God never forces; He only invites. He leaves the decision to return to the Catholic Church up to you.

There are numerous reasons for coming back to the Church. Though Christ is at the heart of the many reasons to come home to the Church, each individual’s experience in returning can be unique, depending upon whatever speaks to his or her heart.

Here are ten reasons (by Lorene Hanley Duqin of Our Sunday Visitor: http://www.osv.com and edited by Catholics Come Home) that influenced the decision of many of us to return to the practice of the Catholic faith:

•Number 10: Because we want meaning in life.
In the hustle of today's busy lifestyles, many of us suddenly realize that our lives have lost a sense of meaning or purpose. We begin to ask ourselves, “What is my life all about? Why do I do what I do?” There is widespread confusion in our culture with regard to morality and truth. The Catholic Church offers a beacon of light that gives meaning to our existence and leads to eternal life if we persevere.

•Number 9: Because childhood memories surface.
Some people say childhood memories of feeling connected to God surface in later life. We begin to ask ourselves, “Is it possible to recapture that simplicity of faith? Can I ever really believe that God is watching out for me?” The secularization of our society leads people away from the spiritual side of themselves. The Catholic Church offers BOTH religious and mystical experiences that feed the heart, the mind, the body and the soul AS WELL AS an array of active lay ministries that interface and interact with the secular world in order to make it a holier world to live in.

•Number 8: Because we made mistakes.
Some of us become burdened with the weight of accumulated sin. We want to get rid of the guilt of having hurt others. We begin to ask ourselves, “Will God ever forgive me? Is there any way I can start over with a clean slate?” You can always tell God that you're sorry, but through the Sacrament of Reconciliation you have a complete assurance of God's forgiveness. In addition, you are reconciled not only with God but with all the members in the Church, the Body of Christ (CCC 1440) and given the grace to start again with that new slate.

•Number 7: Because we need to forgive others.
Sometimes we hold on to anger and resentment toward individuals who have hurt us deeply. Maybe it was a family member or friend. Perhaps it was someone, (a sister or a priest), or something in the Church. “Will God ever forgive me?” Our modern culture condones and encourages anger and revenge. But hatred and bitterness are spiritual cancers that eat at the heart of a person. The Catholic Church provides the opportunity to seek God's help in forgiving others, even when the other person does not ask for forgiveness or does not deserve it. The ability to forgive is a gift that opens a person's heart more fully to God's love and peace.

•Number 6: Because we want to be healed.
Some of us carry deep spiritual wounds. We struggle with anger at God over bad things that happen–a terminal illness, a debilitating injury, a broken relationship, mental or emotional problems, an act of violence against an innocent person, an unexplainable accident, some natural disaster, the death of a loved one or some other deep disappointment. The Catholic Church cannot change these situations or explain why they happened. But there are people in the Church who can assist in the process of spiritual healing and help you get on with your life.

•Number 5: Because the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth and grace.
Many of us who leave the Catholic Church are blessed by the experience of worshiping for awhile in various Christian denominations. But some people come back when they realize that Catholicism has the fullness of truth and grace. The Catholic Church was not founded by a single reformer or historical movement. It is not fragmented by individual interpretations of Scripture. There are thousands of Christian denominations, but only one Catholic Church. This Church has been guided by the Holy Spirit and protected from teaching error on issues of faith and morals from generation to generation for some two thousand years, as Our Lord Jesus promised: (foretold Isaiah 22:15-25) Matt 16:13-20; Matthew 18:15-18 (in this verse the word is church, not community); 1 Tim 3:15.

•Number 4: Because we want our children to have a faith foundation.
Some of us return to the Catholic Church because we recognize that raising children in a culture that promotes "doing your own thing" can lead to disaster. Children need to experience the spiritual dimensions of life. They need a structured system of belief and a firm moral foundation that goes beyond human logic and reasoning. We return because we want a solid foundation upon which our children can build their lives.

•Number 3: Because we want to be part of a faith community.
Many of us seek a sense of belonging. But community is more than just friendly people, good sermons and interesting activities. A Catholic Christian community is a group of people who gather around the person of Jesus Christ to worship God and live in the light of the Holy Spirit. Catholics come together at Mass, in the Sacraments and in parish activities to pray, to celebrate joys, to mourn losses, to serve others, to provide support and to receive strength for daily life. A Catholic parish offers all of this - and much more - to people who recognize the importance of walking with others toward union with God.

•Number 2: Because we want to help other people.
There are lots of opportunities within the secular world to volunteer. What's missing is the spiritual dimension that service within the Catholic Church provides. It's more than just a "feel good" activity. It's part of the "great commandment" (See Mark 12:28) to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. In reaching out to others, Catholic volunteers become instruments of God's love. The Catholic Church offers opportunities to touch the lives of people at home or around the world.

•Number 1: Because we hunger for the Eucharist.
[The Eucharist is the number one reason that people come back to the Church.]
Many people come back to the Catholic Church because they feel an intense longing for the Eucharist. Sometimes it happens at a wedding, a funeral, a baptism, a First Communion or a Confirmation. Sometimes it happens when people are alone or facing difficulties in life. They describe it as a deep hunger for the spiritual nourishment that comes when they receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This hunger for the Eucharist triggers a recognition of the presence of Christ in other sacraments, which draws them even more deeply into the practice of their faith. It is, without exception, the number one reason that people come back to the Catholic Church.

Most people discover that coming back to the Church is not an event as much as it is a process that involves a little pain, a little laughter, some thinking, some prayer, some discernment and a lot of letting go. “My actual return to full participation in a parish took about three years after I felt the first longing,” one person admitted.

And what do we get in return? The Catholic Church offers union with Jesus Christ:

◦in the Scripture
◦in prayer
◦in the community of others
◦in the Eucharist
◦and in the other sacraments.
It offers spiritual support in good times and bad. It offers divine wisdom which is thousands of years old from people just like YOU who lived in each and every century throughout Christian history: 33AD, 100AD, 800AD, 1000AD, 1300AD, 1964AD and 2005AD. It offers meaning and purpose in this life and the promise of eternal life with Him after death for those who persevere to the end.

You'll know you are home when you begin to feel a deep sense of peace.

My personal side note: For those (families, husbands, wives, etc.) who have left the Church OR non-Catholic Christians who have ruled out becoming a Catholic due to the recent problems in our Church, I want to share the following.

We do have problems, but using the crisis in the Church as an excuse for not being a practicing Catholic or, for non-Catholic Christians, not becoming a Catholic, is no excuse. We are and will always be a Church of saints and sinners. Through the Eucharist, where we REALLY partake in Divine Nature, Our Lord molds us in maturity and, if needed, pulls the grudges we have been holding in our hearts for years from our soul. We have to work with Him in prayer though, not run away.

Let's hope and pray that over the next few years the divinely appointed leaders of our Church will take a serious look [accompanied by serious actions] at the spiritual life and environment of Catholic seminaries in the United States, from assessing and evaluating rectors, seminary professors, vocational directors and sisters who are employed there.

Though the mass media tends to paint the problems in our Church with a broad brush and never in a positive light, remember, there are many holy priests who carry out their vocation in silence and ARE truly holy witnesses of Jesus. (These are the priests you'll NEVER see on the 6 P.M. evening news.) Just as Jesus was rejected by the world, so will the Church He founded and true followers of that Church be rejected.

Within the past seven years, a study on sexual abuse within churches was done based on an incident/church population.

Guess which Church had the lowest incident of sexual abuse? You guessed it: The Catholic Church.

Are you going to hear that from your local news media?

Catholics Come Home New Orleans

Today I saw the 1st commercial run on regular broadcast TV here in the New Orleans market. Throughout Lent the Archdiocese of New Orleans is working hard on this Catholics Come Home initiative. I have to say that I've seen the commercials on the internet before and on EWTN. To see them today on local TV brought a certain sense of pride but also one of great joy and hopefulness. Here are but three of the commercials:


http://www.catholicscomehome.org/real-people-real-stories.php



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6qZd_xP1w


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha8_QIoB4Ow&feature=related

Catholics Come Home New Orleans

Starting on March 9th, Ash Wednesday, the Archdiocese of New Orleans will be airing thousands of powerful ads on TV in English designed by the non-profit charity: Catholics Come Home. These will appear daily in local network and cable stations throughout Lent. There is also a series of Spanish radio ads that will air during the same time period. Each ad points English-speaking viewers to CatholicsComeHome.org and Spanish speaking viewers to CatolicosRegresen.org. All parishioners are encouraged to visit the website where the ads may be viewed online. This initiative means that many inactive Catholics will be returning home to the Church, and many non-Catholics will be inquiring into the Catholic faith. This promises to be an exciting time of evangelization for our parish family, and we encourage you to help us welcome returnees and new parishioners with enthusiasm, love and joy.

This Lent, as we prepare to strengthen our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, we remember our call to share our faith with one another. We remember the words of St. Peter who tells us "to always be ready to give witness to the reason for our hope" (1Peter 3:15). Sharing our love for Jesus Christ and spreading the Good News is a necessary part of our life in Christ. Through the Catholics Come Home campaign we encorage each of you to invite those who may not be practicing their faith or may have never encountered Christ to join us for the Holy Season of Easter.