English (Main | Young Adult | Children) | Español | Português | Italiano | Français | Deutsche | Polski | Čeština | Tagalog | 普通话 | 廣東話
Donate

What We Do

A Crisis of Faith in our World

It is clear that our society is in the midst of a culture war. More than ever, people need God, but sadly, many have lost sight of the treasures of the Catholic faith. We can see the reality of our fallen-away brothers and sisters not only in our nation as a whole, but even in our own families and neighborhoods. The evidence is shocking:

  • Only 24 percent of U.S. adult Catholics attend Mass on a weekly basis. 1
  • The number of Americans identifying themselves as “unaffiliated” with a religious tradition (whether atheist, agnostic, or “nothing”) is continuing to increase dramatically, and now makes up 16.1 percent of the total population. 2
  • As many as 100,000 baptized Catholics in the U.S. drift away from Church each year.3

Evangelization is critically needed now!

The “New Evangelization” Plan

Pope John Paul II continually exhorted the Church to begin a “new evangelization.” He realized that the old methods needed refreshing, stating, “This vital field of action for the Church requires a radical change of mentality, an authentic new awakening of conscience in everyone. New methods are needed, as are new expressions and new courage.”4

Inspired by the Holy Father’s call to a New Evangelization, Catholics Come Home® is reaching out to inactive Catholics with inspiring TV commercials and an interactive Web site. Here are a few reasons why we use television to invite our brothers and sisters home to the Catholic Church:

  • The average American watches more than four hours of television each day and 98.2 percent of all U.S. households own at least one television.5
  • A 2006 study shows that students recalled two-minute ads better than a full length news story.6
  • No other single advertising medium has the reach and impact of television, combined with the fulfillment of the Internet.

Each of our television evangomercialsTM invites people to CatholicsComeHome.org, where they are given the opportunity to learn (or relearn) the truth about the Catholic faith, find their local parish and return home. As our site says, coming home to the Catholic Church has never been easier!

Our evangomercialsTM and Web sites are Bringing Hundreds of Thousands Home

Catholics Come Home® employs mass media outreach effectively to create a highly successful Catholic evangelism effort never before seen…and the results are astonishing:

“Six months after the CatholicsComeHome.org media campaign ended, a comprehensive analysis was conducted, which revealed the average increase in Mass attendance (returned Catholics, new converts) was 12 percent, even though population growth in the Diocese of Phoenix was flat during that period. This equates to an increase of as many as 92,000 souls who came home!” –Ryan Hanning
Director of Adult Evangelization, Diocese of Phoenix

Based on statistics calculated by the Controller’s Office at the Diocese of Phoenix, with the guidance of statisticians from Arizona State University, it appears that for every $1.63 invested in television media, Catholics Come Home was able to help a soul back to their home in the Catholic Church.

“Thank you for the wonderful commercials that Catholics Come Home, Inc. provided for people to view in the St. Louis area. It was really wonderful when, after the first day of the program, we were receiving calls… from people who saw the ads on television and said that they used this as a special invitation from the Holy Spirit to return to the Catholic faith.” (37,000 returned to the Church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis) –Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, Archdiocese of St. Louis

Reports say that 70% of baptized Catholics worldwide are not practicing their faith and that Mass attendance has plummeted since the 1960’s. As dioceses have partnered with Catholics Come Home®, countless souls are coming home.

To date, where CCH commercials have aired, diocesan partners have reported 500,000 souls who have returned to the faith. This represents an average increase in Mass attendance of 10%. In addition, they’ve reported a deepening of Catholic identity which has often resulted in parishioners returning to Reconciliation, increased involvement in parish life, and an increase in parish and diocese financial support.

Why we need your help now

It is our job as faithful followers of Christ to invite our fellow brothers and sisters home to the Church. But as a Catholic family, we have been failing to maintain and build our family of faith:

  • 72 percent of Catholics have not tried to win a convert to Christ.
  • For every four Protestants, there is one convert. For Catholics, the numbers were 250 to one. That is about one convert for every 807 Catholics.

Catholics Come Home wants to partner with Catholics like you to evangelize our fallen-away brothers and sisters, the un-churched and the under-churched. Many dioceses around the country have already seen the powerful results of hundreds of thousands of Catholics returning home after the Catholics Come Home® commercials ran in their areas. With your help, Catholics Come Home® also extended the invitation to come home nationwide, during our 2010 national Advent campaign. But there are still so many more Catholics to invite home. Please help us spread the Good News to those in your own hometown and to our society desperately in need.

After the U.S. airings are underway, plans are slated for international airings–to help fill empty churches across the globe, and re-evangelize our culture worldwide.

  1. CARA Catholic Poll (CCP)
  2. Pew Forum Reports: Religious Affiliation
  3. Claveau, Victor The 7% Solution, A Guide to Evangelization at the Parish, Community or Diocesan Level
  4. Cf. John Paul II, Discourse to the 19th General Assembly of CELAM, March 9, 1983, Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo VI, 1 (1983) pp660-699
  5. AC Nielsen Co.
  6. Johnson, Carla, Study: Pupils recall ads more than news Associated Press, Chicago, March 6, 2006.

Find a parish to call home.

Need some guidance finding a parish near you? MassTimes.org has a parish-finding resource for that.

Search Now