{"id":2398,"date":"2008-04-08T08:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-08T08:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/welcome-home-2.html"},"modified":"2008-04-08T08:44:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-08T08:44:00","slug":"welcome-home-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/welcome-home-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Welcome home"},"content":{"rendered":"

How’s this for 21st century evangelization: an enterprising person has created a website geared specifically to wayward Catholics. And it’s having a phenomenal impact.<\/p>\n

Check out the story, from Catholic News Agency<\/a>: <\/p>\n

<\/a>In less than three weeks, 3,000 Catholics returned to the Church in the Diocese of Phoenix due to the effort of a new lay apostolate, CatholicsComeHome.org. The program consists of a website and commercials aired on local television that effectively portray the truth and goodness of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CNA, Catholics Come Home, Inc. founder and president, Tom Peterson explained that the ads are designed to take people to the website, CatholicsComeHome.org, where they can find answers to questions about Church teachings, and also to put them into contact with their local parish to be led home, back to the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Prior to founding Catholics Come Home, Peterson worked in advertising until he attended a retreat that completely changed his life. It was then that he knew God was calling him to use his advertising talents for evangelization.<\/p>\n

Years later, he was contacted by the Diocese of Phoenix to help start a three-week campaign which was launched last month. In Phoenix, the commercials were aired on all major television networks and also ESPN, Lifetime, FOX News and others.<\/p>\n

After the first commercial campaign, not only did the diocese report a marked increase in Mass attendance, but over \u201c31,000 unique visitors came to the website from Phoenix and other US cities plus 60 foreign countries, with questions, to look up Mass times, to read information on marriage issues, to watch testimonies or to order Matthew Kelly\u2019s book, \u2018Rediscovering Catholicism.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The commercials aired on television are produced by CatholicsComeHome.org. Before airing the ads, two of the clips, \u201cEpic\u201d, and \u201cMovie,\u201d were shown to a focus group that consisted of former and practicing Catholics, non Catholic Christians, as well as those without any faith. <\/p>\n

The feedback received from the group was outstanding. Seventy-eight of the 100 participants had positive responses to the ads. In another assessment, the organization found that before watching the videos, 90% of the participants had negative impressions of the Catholic Church. After viewing ads one time, 54% had a much more favorable impression. Hearts and minds were changed after viewing these creative and inspired ads.<\/p>\n

The first commercial, \u201cEpic\u201d portrays the history, beauty, and spirituality of the Church that Jesus started 2,000 years ago. Peterson mentioned that \u201cmany people don\u2019t realize the history of the Church. They don\u2019t realize that Peter \u2013 the Apostle from the Bible \u2013 was the first Pope. They don\u2019t realize the vast accomplishments that the Church has made over the centuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEpic\u201d also effectively represents the universality of the Church. The clip shows a Mexican fiesta, an African Mass, a Tongan baptism, aid workers serving in a Vietnamese jungle, among other scenes.<\/p>\n

The reaction to the video has been overwhelmingly positive. Viewers commented, \u201cAfter seeing \u2018Epic\u2019, it made me proud to be Catholic.\u201d Priests have noted that the video made them feel \u201cre-invigorated about their vocation.\u201d The video also has touched former Catholics who have said that the video showed the truth about the Church \u2013 \u201ctruth that they haven\u2019t seen in decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second commercial, \u201cMovie\u201d has a different effect. Peterson described the ad as mirroring the Book of Revelation which states that we will give an account of our lives at the end of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are brought to tears when they watch \u201cMovie,\u201d said Peterson. It shows that though Jesus\u2019 divine mercy, \u201cno matter what we\u2019ve done, we can accept the mercy of Jesus who will help us create the perfect ending to each of our lives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more at the CNA link<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And you can visit the website mentioned at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How’s this for 21st century evangelization: an enterprising person has created a website geared specifically to wayward Catholics. And it’s having a phenomenal impact. Check out the story, from Catholic News Agency: In less than three weeks, 3,000 Catholics returned to the Church in the Diocese of Phoenix due to the effort of a new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\nWelcome home - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/welcome-home-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome home - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How’s this for 21st century evangelization: an enterprising person has created a website geared specifically to wayward Catholics. 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