A Call To Come Home To The Church--Sort Of

Catholic dioceses plan TV ad blitz aimed at inactive members
By Duke Helfand Los Angeles Times / September 13, 2009

LOS ANGELES - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento is home to nearly 1 million Catholics. On a typical Sunday, less than 137,000 can be found in church.

Now, using a strategy straight from the secular playbook, its leaders hope to lure back those who have drifted. (It's the strategy of one particular secular playbook.)

The diocese and nearly a dozen others are preparing to air several thousand primetime TV commercials in English and Spanish, inviting inactive Catholics to return to their religious roots.
In addition to Sacramento, dioceses in Chicago, Omaha, Providence, and four other cities will launch the “Catholics Come Home’’ advertising blitz during Advent, the period before Christmas.
Four more dioceses will follow during Lent next spring.

“I’m hoping that a significant number of people will give us another look,’’ Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto said of the campaign. “Many Catholics have a sense of believing but not always a sense of belonging.’’(Maybe that's because our fellow conservative Catholics are fond of telling us to leave 'their' Church.

The potential audience is huge. About one-quarter of US Catholics say they attend Mass every week, and a majority go to religious services a few times a year or less, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, which conducts social science research about the Catholic church. (This huge audience is also appealing to another particular political group.)

Researchers there also found that two-thirds of Catholics believe they can be good members of their faith without attending Mass regularly.

Inactive Catholics cite a number of reasons for their absence. Many do not believe that missing Mass is a sin, the center reported. Others say they are too busy with family or work, or, as other analysts point out, are more interested in material happiness than spiritual fulfillment.

“There is a strange pattern of people who aren’t practicing but still have beliefs and pick up parts of the faith,’’ said Mark Gray, a research associate with the center. “They may give up meat on Fridays during Lent or attend Ash Wednesday services.’’

Most people raised Catholic remain so in adulthood, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which released a study on religious affiliation in April. Pew researchers found that those who leave typically join Protestant churches or abandon religion altogether, with most saying they simply drifted away from their faith or stopped believing in its teachings.

Many who have given up their religion also said they felt unhappy with Catholicism’s firm positions on abortion, birth control, and homosexuality. The movement of some Catholics into the ranks of the unaffiliated, a trend also evident among other religious groups, is occurring even as the Catholic Church in the United States grows steadily, due largely to an influx of Catholic immigrants, primarily from Latin America and Asia.

The new arrivals have helped push the US Catholic population to more than 65 million, making it the nation’s largest religious group. Catholics account for nearly 1 of every 4 Americans.

(And non practicing Catholics account for nearly 1 of every 10 Americans.)

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The Bishop of Sacramento is Jaimie Soto. I suppose it's just a coincidence that Bishop Soto is on the board of directors of Catholics Come Home. Other members on the board of Catholics Come Home have ties to EWTN, St. Francis of Stuebenville OH, The Legionares, Opus Dei, and Tom Monaghan's Legatus. One of the comments associated with the above article asked a very pertinent question, "What Church are we being asked to come home to?" Apparently it's the one that's trying to kick us out and/or make us vote Republican.)

When I first saw the headline to this article I actually thought some bishop was taking the exodus of Catholics out of the Church seriously, actively trying to welcome home disenfranchised Catholics. I no longer think that. The commercials are slick, I'll give them credit for that. They site statistics which show a 12% increase in Mass attendance in the Diocese of Phoenix AZ after the commercials were run last year. Did I mention that Bishop Ohlmstead of Phoenix is also on their board of directors?

Here's some of their reasoning for the importance of this effort:

The number of Americans identifying themselves as non-religious/secular increased 110% from 1990 to 2000. It is now 13.2% of the total population. Comparing this statistic with the previous one, non-religious-secular individuals outnumber active, Mass attending Catholics by 58% (13.2% vs. 7.59%). Imagine the negative impact these individuals have on culture and public policy. Have I mentioned that FOX news is featured prominently in their video clips?

As many as 100,000 baptized Catholics in the U.S. drift away from Church each year.

One-third to one-half of Catholic marriages now ends in divorce.

72% of Catholics have not tried to win a convert to Christ. Have I mentioned that a significant number of their contributors are converts from Evangelical protestantism?

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. (Maybe there's a message here.)

If every Catholic brought one person into the Church each year, it would only take only three years to be a totally Catholic society. And the purpose of this would be what, to form a de facto Catholic theocracy a long lines dictated by the Republican party?

Should you care to look over their site, you will find that on their shopping page are the products of a number of the men who have made of themselves a cottage industry due to their association with EWTN and Regent Radio. The best thing that ever happened for these guys is Mother Angelica's stroke. They don't have to compete with her anymore.

This is not a call to come home to the Vatican II church most of us called home. This is a call to come home to the Church of the American theo con right. Thanks but no thanks.