Friday, December 18, 2009

Catholics coming home

Photo to the left is inside the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican during an April 2007 trip to Italy by the chief executive blogger of Pierini Fitness and his wife.

Regular readers of Pierini Fitness sooner or later have learned that I’m a “card-carrying” and proud Roman Catholic. It’s not easy being a Catholic, both in following my faith and in listening to the occasional mean-spirited comments that people sometimes say about the Catholic Church and Catholic priests. Today I'm especially proud to be a Catholic in my Diocese of Sacramento.

Beginning today, the Diocese of Sacramento will begin airing thousands of prime-time television commercials in English and Spanish on network and cable stations inviting inactive Catholics to return to the Catholic Church. The advertising campaign, called “Catholics Come Home” will take place during Advent and include three different commercials that will air more than 5,200 times.

The ads present Catholicism from different perspectives. One offers a historical view, enumerating the church’s accomplishments and noting that the Catholic Church is the largest charitable organization on the planet. Another ad depicts people at the ends of their lives, viewing a home movie of their behavior over a lifetime, regretting the harm they’ve done to others and wishing they could change their life stories. The briefest ad simply presents the comments of Catholics who have returned to the practice of their faith.

Here’s one of the commercials:




In addition to doing my best during the Christmas season to eat healthy and exercise, I’ll also be doing my best reaching out to Catholics coming home.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum