Chicago Catholic News: TV ad blitz targeting Chicago's "lapsed" Catholics

TV ad blitz targeting Chicago's "lapsed" Catholics

(UPDATED: 9/4/09) Roughly two-thirds of Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago do not attend mass regularly, meaning more than a million and a half people in Cook and Lake counties could be considered "lapsed" or "non-practicing."

Hoping to bring them -- as well as inactive church members elsewhere in the region -- back into the fold, the archdiocese is partnering with the Joliet and Rockford dioceses on a special evangelization program that includes a blitz of TV ads, ChicagoCatholicNews has learned.

Between mid-December and late January -- the Christmas season -- commercials beckoning "home" non-church-going Catholics will hit the Chicago market. Airing in English (and to a lesser extent Spanish and Polish) the spots are expected to run across a range of networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Telemundo and Polvision.

The exact number of ads has not been settled on, but they could reach 2,000 or more, meaning the average TV viewer in the Chicago area might see them 25 times during the five-and-a-half-week run, church officials said.

The archdiocese would not talk about the cost of the campaign -- called "Catholics Come Home" -- other than to say it's being covered by bequests and special donations and is not impacting any other program.

But one priest with knowledge of the program said the pricetag is likely around $1.3 million, with the archdiocese shouldering roughly $800,000 of that.

The time is right for this type of evangelization effort because "we see a larger number of people inactive in their faith," said Nancy Polacek, the point person on Catholics Come Home for the archdiocese.

Of the 2.3 million Catholics in the archdiocese, fewer than a third are believed to attend mass each week. That's a figure common across the country.

Last year Catholics Come Home was tested out in Phoenix, Ariz., and Corpus Christi, Tex., and the results were considered impressive.

"Our study indicated a 12-percent increase [in Sunday mass attendance] across the board -- which could translate to as many as 92,000 Catholics 'coming home,'" said Ryan Hanning, coordinator of adult evangelization for the Diocese of Phoenix.

Asked whether that also translated into greater giving in the collection basket, Hanning said: "We are still trying to analyze that fully . . . but it appears it had a deep impact on how people supported the church" financially and through volunteerism.

In spite of what some critics have suggested, Hanning said the church was not motivated by money, but by helping people.

That's echoed by Penny Wiegert of the Rockford diocese, which includes Kane and McHenry counties. She said: "This is not about money or numbers, it's about souls."

Adults, not children, are the target of the campaign in Chicago, officials said.

"There are really three audiences: one is people who have been inactive in the faith, and we'd like them to enjoy the richness of the Catholic Church and 'come home,'" Polacek said.

"The second audience is people who are currently active Catholics," she said. The program aims to foster "a sense of pride" and "Catholic identity."

Lastly, the campaign is targeting parish staff, to help them "improve in the way they welcome people and form adults in the faith."

Several TV commercials already have been produced by Catholics Come Home Inc. -- a Roswell, Ga., non-profit that was founded by a former advertising executive named Tom Peterson and is behind the Chicago effort. (A member of the billionaire Ricketts family, which just bought the Chicago Cubs, is on an advisory board of Peterson's group, according to its web site.)

In addition to the TV ads -- which can be viewed on the Catholics Come Home web site -- the program will include resources and guidance for parishes so the returning faithful feel welcome, and are able to play "catch up" if necessary.

Church officials said they also will take note of why people drifted away from the faith.

By ChicagoCatholicNews
Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com

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