Benedict XVI's on Keeping Catholics Catholic!

The following comes from the Seasons of Grace blog:

What is the largest Christian denomination in America?

If you guessed “Catholics”, you’re right!  According to a 2011 study by CARA (the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate), there are68 million Catholics in the United States—more by far than in any other group.

But the second group on CARA’s list—with 22.5 million, coming in almost 35% higher than the next on the list—are “Former Catholics.”  By comparison the third group, the Baptists, have only 16 million adherents.  They’re followed by the Methodists (7.6 million), then the Mormons (6.1 million), and so on.

So what makes Catholics, who once enjoyed the fullness of grace available to them in the Church founded by Christ, decide to slip out the door?  Some, perhaps, are weak in their understanding of the Faith; some are offended by a particular priest or hurt by a member of the congregation; some are attracted by other denominations; and some are just disinterested and would rather focus on their golf game or curl up with their pillow just a little longer on Sunday morning.

Pope Benedict addressed the problem head-on recently, offering some advice aimed at keeping Catholics in the pews.  The occasion was his June 22 meeting with bishops of Colombia, in Rome for their ad limina visit.  The pope offered a concrete list of ways to keep Catholics from falling away.

1. Be better believers.  The Holy Father issued a call for Catholics to be “better believers, more pious, affable and welcoming in our parishes and communities, so that no one will feel distant or excluded.”
2. Emphasize and teach the Faith.  “Catechesis must be promoted, giving special attention to young people and adults; homilies must be carefully prepared, as well as promoting the teaching of Catholic doctrine in schools and universities.”
3. Celebrate tradition.  “It is important,” the Pope explained, “to emphasize the Church’s tradition, Marian spirituality and the rich diversity of devotion.”
4. Keep avenues of communication open.  “To facilitate a serene and open exchange with other Christians, without losing one’s own identity, can also help to improve relations with them,” he said, “and to overcome mistrust and unnecessary confrontations.”

All of these things, the Holy Father averred, will help the baptized to recover “a sense of belonging to the Church and to awaken in them the aspiration to share with others the joy of following Christ and of being members of his Mystical Body.”

An interesting thing about the Catholic Church:  You can’t really leave.  If you do—if sin or sloth or distraction cause you to stay away—the Church waits with open arms, ready to welcome you home.  The Church has a name for people who don’t come around any more, and it’s not“former Catholics.”  No, the Church calls them “lapsed Catholics,” good folks who haven’t been at the 4:00 p.m. vigil Mass for a while, but who might return and stop in for Saturday confession any time now. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#27) seems to anticipate the homecomings.  Quoting from that most famous “lapsed Catholic” who returned to become a great saint, St. Augustine, the Catechism says:

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.

To learn more about coming home to the Catholic Church (or to learn more about  teachings and traditions which you may have forgotten), visit the website ofCatholics Come Home.

Pope Francis to Fallen Away Catholics: "Come home!"

(CNA/EWTN News) Fallen away Catholics are being invited to “come home” this Lent through a worldwide initiative led by Pope Francis, which points to confession as a primary way to experience God's merciful embrace.

“So often, people are afraid to come back to church or to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for they feel that, since they have been gone for so long, there is no way back,” said Father Geno Sylva, English language official for the Vatican's New Evangelization council.

“This initiative is to let people know that it is never too late and there is always a way back,” he told CNA.

“24 Hours for the Lord” is a yearly event set for the fourth Friday and Saturday of Lent which began in 2014 under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

Taking place on Mar. 13-14, this year's theme is “God rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4) which, Fr. Sylva observed, “is such an important theme of our Holy Father.”

In his 2015 message for Lent, Pope Francis expressed his hope that the Church, “also at the diocesan level,” would observe 24-hour initiative, saying it “is meant to be a sign of this need for prayer.”

The event will begin on the evening of the fourth Friday of Lent with a penance service presided over by Pope Francis in Saint Peter's Basilica. Following the service in the Vatican, Churches throughout Rome will remain open for 24 hours to give pilgrims the opportunity to go to Confession and take part in Eucharistic Adoration.

Fr. Sylva recalled one of the iconic images of Pope Francis during the 2014 penance service for “24 Hours for the Lord,” in which the Pope surprised one of the priests by approaching him for confession before hearing confessions himself.

“There’s something to be said for joining with our Holy Father, joining as a universal Church, in such a prayer experience,” Fr. Sylva said.

He then told of his own experience in 2014 hearing confessions at the church of Saint Agnes in Agony, one of three churches in open Rome throughout the night.

“It was so incredibly moving and inspiring just how many people had come back to the sacrament for the first time many decades,” he said. “When I asked them why they came back, so many of them said they came back because Pope Francis had invited and asked them to. And he had indeed during the Angelus the Sunday before.”

The inspiration for “24 Hours for Prayer” came from the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization, during which the question of placing“the sacrament of reconciliation once again at the center of pastoral life” came to the surface, Fr. Sylva explained.

While parishes in Rome will be open overnight, Churches elsewhere are invited to adapt the initiative to their local situations and needs. Acknowledging that “every parish has a different history and unique culture,” Fr. Sylva said, “The pastor and the community are simply to invite people to come home.”

For those taking part in this year's event in Rome or elsewhere in the world, especially those who have been away from the Sacraments for a long time, organizers have prepared pastoral aids in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Polish. The English edition can be purchased at the Catholic Publishing Company and is available worldwide.

“There are many different moments and steps in the new evangelization,” Fr. Geno said. “The 24 Hours for the Lord allows the Church the opportunity to demonstrate the great harmony of these moments: We invite, we welcome, we catechize and God forgives.”

Additional information on the “24 Hours for Prayer” can be found at the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization's website, www.novaevangelizatio.va.

Interview with Tom Peterson – On Catholics Come Home

The following comes from Brandon Vogt's site:

Tom Peterson was a successful, award-winning advertising executive for almost three decades. But in 1997, he experienced a profound conversion at a parish retreat that set him in a new direction. He applied his advertising skills to spreading the Gospel and the result was two new media apostolates.

The first is called VirtueMedia.org, which helps promote the sanctity of life through commercials, websites, and more.

The other is the one Tom is probably best known for,Catholics Come Home. Featuring high-quality television commercials and a beautiful, dynamic website, Catholics Come Home models the New Evangelization. Dioceses and parishes across the world have used their materials to draw thousands of people back to the Church.

Here's one of their more popular commercials:

Here is Brandon's interview with Tom below:

Catholics Come Home

Catholics Come Home

The following comes from Fr. Dwight Longenecker:

I met Tom Peterson, the founder of the Catholics Come Home project when I was in Atlanta leading a parish mission last month. He gave me a copy of his book, and I’ve enjoyed learning more about his fantastic apostolate, Catholics Come Home--which produces and distributes television ads encouraging Catholics to return to the faith.

Tom tells his own story in this book. Coming from a Catholic family, he graduated from college and jumped straight into a highly paid job in the marketing and advertising industry. Before long he had it made: the wife, the kids, the beautiful house, a garage full of cool cars and a fast paced, successful American executive life style.

Then the Lord got hold of him and turned him around. He began to simplify and deepen his spiritual life. He began to look again at his values and check again what he was really living for. God called him to use his experience, brains and expertise in the advertising industry to beckon Catholics to return to the church. He downsized, learned to live by faith and now works full time spreading the gospel.

With ads going out on television across America the Catholics Come Home enterprise has been a terrific success. Tom’s book, however, does not trumpet that success like a glitzy media celebrity might. His own down to earth, humble style comes through in his writing. Filled with real life stories of how God touched his life and used him to help others, this book is a perfect giveaway to someone you know who is following the American Dream without ever dreaming of anything bigger or better than the American Dream. Tom’s life is an illustration of the point that the problem with many affluent Americans is not that they dream big, but that they don’t dream big enough.

God has greater things for you than the American Dream. Tom shows how a reduction in your lifestyle, new spiritual disciplines and a fresh reliance on prayer and Catholic devotions can transform your life. He calls ordinary Catholics to embark on an extraordinary adventure, and the fact that he has gone on this great adventure himself shows that it can be done.

Tom Peterson witnesses to the world in a way that a priest never can. He shows what great things can be done by laypeople because they have lived the life in the world and can relate to the world and it’s values and witness to something greater in a way that the clergy cannot.

This is a fine little book in the great tradition of humble devotional personal works. There doesn’t seem much that’s new here, but that’s okay. It’s what I call the old, old story–a story that is always new as it comes alive in a real person’s life. Read Tom’s story and allow it to inspire and motivate you to go on that same adventure of following Christ.

Coach Lou Holtz: Catholics Come Home

The Journey Home: Jason Stewart