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Calling all “lapsed” Catholics: There are plenty of empty pews waiting for you.
That’s the message Roman Catholic leaders in Chicago, Rockford and Joliet plan to hit the airwaves with in a $1.3 million end-of-the-year TV ad blitz aimed at bringing the fallen away back to the flock.
The commercials are to air on network stations ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Telemundo and Polvision for six weeks starting Dec. 16. They will highlight the religion’s social contributions, include testimony from prodigal parishioners who found their way back to the church, and ask folks to “take another look” at Catholicism.
“If you’ve been waiting for a sign, this is your chance to begin an adventure with God that will last forever,” a narrator in one commercial says. In the Chicago Archdiocese, about one in five Catholics regularly attend weekend mass, according to the latest church attendance figures. Last October, 473,000 of the estimated 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties attended weekend services.
“We are going to try to reach out to those people,” Rockford Diocese spokeswoman Penny Wiegerk said. “More than anything else, we want people to know the faith is always there for them. No matter what issue they have that has alienated or marginalized them, it can always be worked through. We want to help them return to the full sacramental life of the church.”
Nearly 75 percent of Rockford Diocese Catholics do not regularly attend mass. “The Catholic Church is like a great big family, and every so often, some people get out of sorts,” Rockford Bishop Thomas Doran said. “We hope that this will be proof that because in the Eucharist we are all brothers and sisters of Christ, we are also relatives of one another, and we always welcome relatives back home.”
Nearly 60 percent of Catholics don’t believe missing mass is a sin, and about 44 percent say they’re too busy to attend church services regularly, according to a 2008 Georgetown University study titled, “Sacraments Today: Belief and Practice Among U.S. Catholics.” That study also found 42 percent of people who identify themselves as Catholics don’t consider themselves “very religious,” and 36 percent reported family obligations kept them from church.
The Chicago Archdiocese’s evangelism director, the Rev. Richard Hynes, holds out hope that the Christmastime commercials will reach people who are ready to return to the church for good.
“We work hard, and God gives the growth,” Hynes said. “If we’re blessed with 10 percent of Catholics, that would be 100,000 people. We’ll see how God blesses us.” It’s going to take more than a marketing pitch, said Karla Jones of Geneva. Jones said she doesn’t attend mass because she’s unhappy with how the church handled priest sex-abuse scandals.
“There have to be changes made before they can invite Catholics to come home,” she said. Hynes said the church hasn’t been “perfect” dealing with the sex-abuse crisis, but it is improving.
“The church has a message of Christ and sacramental life that is part and parcel for those who are angry or hurt. Most priests want to have an opportunity to speak to those individuals,” Hynes said. “We want to be at the table together to receive the Eucharist and the word of Christ together.”
More parishioners also might put more money in the offering plate, but Hynes says that is not the goal of the ad campaign. “If people come back and their faith gets stronger, it might help the offering basket, but I don’t know any pastor who would do it for that reason,” Hynes said. “It’s a nice side effect but not the point.”
suntimes.com/lifestyles/religion/1750870,CST-NWS-cath03.articleThe commercials were produced by a Georgia-based nonprofit, Catholics Come Home. The TV spots first aired in Phoenix in 2000 but really caught on when Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States last spring.