Catholics Come Home

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I’ve heard a few of my friends from around the country say that their parishes are looking at this program, so I want to take a minute to plug it. A local parish is wrapping up their first one, and I am lucky to have found out about it the week it started. It’s not as in-depth as RCIA or any other CCC class, but it more of an open forum to question those things which have kept someone away from the Church. At the same time, we are learning those things about Catholicism that even some of the Catholics in class didn’t understand before.

I wish my husband could have attended with me. This class has been amazing - I was afraid I’d be the only non-Catholic in my group, but I was shocked to learn how many Catholics have fallen away to join more evangelical Protestant groups. The meetings are organized, but we feel comfortable asking uncomfortable questions because of the premise of the class. Many of the people in my class (myself included) have been happily attending Mass again (or, in my case, for the first time).

Please, if you have any influence in your parish, bring this program to life in it! We’ll be moving back to our hometown soon, and I’m so looking forward to completing RCIA and working to bring Catholics Come Home into our church.
 
Our parish ran this for the first time last year and from what I understand, it was well received. I am glad to hear that it has been a positive experience for you. Welcome home!
 
icamay said:
I’ve heard a few of my friends from around the country say that their parishes are looking at this program, so I want to take a minute to plug it…

Please, if you have any influence in your parish, bring this program to life in it! We’ll be moving back to our hometown soon, and I’m so looking forward to completing RCIA and working to bring Catholics Come Home into our church.
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I am really impressed by this group; it is one of only two (besides the parish) that I support with a regular monthly donation. They work diocese by diocese, in cooperation with the local bishop. They seem to have plenty of plans for the future.

The same man who found them (Tom Peterson) also has an organization called Virtue Media, which airs pro-life ads. It’s done plenty of good in its own right.

Great post, Icamay!

God Bless,
Joan
 
Our diocese is now implementing the program. I have looked through the website and it does look really welcoming and informative. I hope we can get it farther than coffee and donuts, though. We have a tendency to stop there. It’s encouraging that it worked for you!
 
We will be running our program for the 3rd year this coming July. We meet for 2 hours on all the Tuesdays in July. By the time we get to the end of July we’ve usually handled all the questions that they know they have. It “just so happens” that starting in August, also on Tuesdays, at that same time and place, we start our RCIA program. 😃 I usually encourage the folks to keep coming, since many of them left the Church out of ignorance. Seems to be working.
 
This sounds like a good program. It would be great if my parish could run a program. How would I go about getting information to run a program in my parish?
 
I’m not sure it’s a program so much as just a willingness to reach out to folks. My parish runs ads in the local newspaper saying that Catholics who want to “explore coming home” can come and meet. We phrase it that way because our pastor is concerned that we not give the impression that anyone can come home without effort (marriage impediments are our biggest challenge).

Our meetings are pretty free form. We have folks introduce themselves then we make a list of their issues/concerns. We do that to try and organize them into a logical sequence. Then we tackle them one by one.

As I’ve mentioned, marriage issues are our number one difficulty. But we get others - such as “why do I have to do X” or “why do I have to not do X” to be Catholic. The forums on this site make a great place to get familiar with such questions.

I think most of the people who come are just pleased that the Church is reaching out to them.
 
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