Atlanta, Ga., Nov 3, 2011 / 01:31 am
Catholics Come Home has announced a major prime time evangelization initiative set to air on American TV networks beginning in mid-Advent and ending after Christmas.
The initiative’s advertising campaign aims to reach 250 million television viewers in over 10,000 U.S. cities and in every U.S. diocese.
“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 Catholics Come Home founder Tom Peterson.
The ad used in the campaign notes the beauty and history of the Catholic Church. It mentions Catholics’ traditions of prayer, help for the poor, and work in education.
“Guided by the Holy Spirit, we compiled the Bible,” it says, stating that the Church was “started by Jesus.”
“If you’ve been away, come home to your parish, and visit CatholicsComeHome.org today,” the ad says.
Catholics Come Home says the ad is scheduled to air over 400 times from Dec. 16 through Jan. 8.
The ad, available in English and in Spanish, will air on CBS, NBC, Univision, TBS, USA, TNT, CNN, Fox News and other networks. Targeted shows include 60 Minutes, NCIS, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Late Night with Jay Leno, The O’Reilly Factor, major sports events and highly rated sitcoms.
The organization hopes to inspire as any as one million Catholics to return to local parishes. Since it began its media campaigns in 2008, Catholics Come Home has increased Mass attendance an average of 10 percent in the markets where the ads have shown and has brought 300,000 people back to the Church.
Only about 33 percent of U.S. Catholics attend weekly Mass, according to statistics from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. This means about 42.7 million Catholics do not attend weekly.