Clarion Call: Catholics Come Home

A few weeks ago I mused on my own belief in this Catholic Myth: the Church doesn't advertise.

The basic preconception I had was: if you're Catholic you go to a Catholic Church, no question -- that's just how it is. I was surprised then when Washington Apb. Wuerl hit the airwaves with the Maybe It's God campaign.

So now I was a little better prepared to read the CNS report of the Phoenix media blitz which recalled upwards of 92,000 Catholics to the pews.

An estimated 92,000 inactive Catholics in the Phoenix Diocese have come back to the church in the last year thanks in large part to a groundbreaking television advertising campaign called Catholics Come Home.

The promotional spots featured people and locations from around the Phoenix Diocese to promote the church during prime-time television. The cornerstone of the campaign, the Catholics Come Home Web site, addresses often misunderstood aspects of the faith.

This is obviously good news to have so many new and fallen away Catholics returning home where they can experience the sacraments and the love of the Church for them and their eternal welfare. It's always exciting when people encounter God directly -- I could tell stories -- or through the ordinary ministers of grace in the Church. Many, many people are simply waiting for an invitation, an apology, or an offer to reconcile themselves. There will always be those who reject everything and choose to live in their bitterness, as evidenced by such pejoratives as recovering Catholic, but in the final analysis methinks the lady doth protest too much.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. The part that caught my eye was the use of the term "groundbreaking" to describe the Phoenix campaign. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines groundbreaking as: markedly innovative. Hey, that means that nobody has done this before, right? As in, this is new and different.

Ok, so a little double-jointed pat on the back for recognizing that this is out of the norm. The Church traditionally hasn't advertised using the media. This is new ground here people: I mean even the Pope has a YouTube channel these days!

But even this new media blitz for the Church isn't quite the same as marketing; it's evangelistic, teaching; it's care for souls, restoration and reconciliation -- not "come to our Church because we've got bingo and great music". The closest we get to the hard sell is usually the annual Bishop's Lenten Appeal.

"Wherever they've been, they can come back home. It's a message that resonates," Hanning said. "I never thought I'd have thousands of Catholics calling and e-mailing me and saying, 'I'm proud to be Catholic and I want to help others.'"

Maybe It's God

Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl just busted my #1 myth about the Catholic Church: she doesn't advertise.

In my travels during my working life, I have had many occasions to visit various Catholic churches in various American cities, whether it be for Sunday Mass, or more likely a holy day of obligation. As every practicing Catholic adult knows who has been forced to travel on such a day, MassTimes.org is your one stop shop for this kind of thing. If that doesn't work, Google Maps will substitute in a pinch; failing that, every hotel I've even been to had some kind of card or printout directing you to the three nearest Catholic churches.

Open your local paper to the religion section and you'll see all kinds of ads for various Protestant or Bible Churches and a random religion or two; this is especially true around Easter. What you don't find is any ads for Catholic churches. Same thing goes for the Yellow Pages.

Strange? Curious? Why don't Catholic churches advertise? The answer is simple: they don't need to. Everybody knows, if you're Catholic you go to the local Catholic church -- there's no thought required. Oh, there are those Catholics who'll avoid St. Cecelia's because "Fr. Mike doesn't do it right" and go to St. Mary of the Valley because they like the folk mass, but that's a kind of intra-Catholic shopping.

Those other churches advertise because they need the membership, and that equals financial support. They need to advertise to get people to come to their particular church to stay in business. "Come to our church because we've got great preaching and fellowship".

Catholic churches don't need membership for the same reasons that independent churches do. Catholics are generally numerous enough (in cities) that they don't advertise to increase their numbers -- they have a built-in audience. Catholic churches are set up by the diocese to serve the faithful -- hey, we got Catholics here who need sacraments and stuff, we'd better send a priest. Yes, the faithful have to support the local church or it'll fold too, but the rationale is different and benefits from diocesan central planning.

Now, I may have to revise my theory in part. I was driving home from work when I heard Archbishop Wuerl on the radio inviting fallen away Catholics to "come home" this Lent. I nearly fell out of the car.

"Longing for Something? Maybe It's God."

was the ad. Archbishop Wuerl has a soft spoken, sing-songy kind of voice. Maybe his voice is really just "pastoral", but the acoustic muzak that accompanied the ad made it sound sort of stereotypical "churchy". As soon as I got home, I looked it up on the Web -- sure enough, it's a real campaign put on by the Archdiocese of Washington.

There is an accompanying YouTube video of Archbishop Wuerl inviting those who have drifted away to rediscover their faith and their church. I must say he carries it off much better on video than in the radio ad. What I do like about it is that it is a personal invitation, and that's what people will respond to -- not heurmeneutics, not a general plea, not the promise of better music.



ADW has a decent Web site: it has a personal instead of an official feel to it, including a blog. The Archdiocese and the Church in general are starting to really embrace technology to reach the people. There's still a ways to go, but you gotta give 'em props for trying.