The diocese of Sacramento is following in the footsteps of a number of other dioceses around the country by running an evangelistic campaign to encourage fallen-away Catholics to “come home” to the Church. Using the incredible “Catholics Come Home” materials (if you have not seen their videos, you MUST do so – they are simply the best evangelistic videos ever produced), the diocese is hoping to encourage at least 100,000 (!) Catholics to return to the practice of their faith.

Here are some more details:

The diocese has an estimated population of 950,000 Catholics, but only about 136,500 attend weekly Mass.

Msgr. Murphy said he was bothered to see so many Catholics filling fundamentalist churches.

“I’m glad they’re going to church … but we want them back,” he said.

According to the monsignor, parishes throughout the diocese are preparing to address questions and concerns by returning Catholics.

Mike Halloran, executive director of the Catholic Foundation, told the Sacramento Bee that nearly 60 percent of the money for the $380,000 campaign had been raised. The money will go to the commercials only.

The ads will run in the Sacramento market 1,200 times over the six weeks from December 18 to January 31. Officials hope they will encourage 100,000 Catholics to return to church…

Catholics Come Home, Inc. was recently awarded the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management’s 2009 Best Practices Award. Receiving the award, Peterson said his group was “blessed by God’s grace” and thankful to be recognized for its work.

He reported that the organization has now helped bring over 100,000 Catholics and converts back to the Church.
The “Catholics Come Home” ads first ran in the Diocese of Phoenix in 2008. During the campaign an estimated 90,000 Catholics returned to churchgoing. Ryan Hanning of the Diocese of Phoenix told the Sacramento Bee the diocese witnessed a 12 percent increase, the largest single year increase in the diocese’s history.

Hanning said that surveys of returning Catholics showed that most had left the Church because they had gotten too busy with daily life. A much smaller percentage cited church teachings on marriage and homosexuality as reasons for their absence.

Though Catholics make up an estimated 23 percent of the U.S. population, only 33 percent of them attend Mass on a weekly basis.

Based on the success of these campaigns in the past, I don’t see why every diocese in the country doesn’t use them.

St. Paul, pray for us!