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Published: August 7, 2009
Fallen-Away Catholics?
Reach Them with Videos
CatholicsComeHome.org was the brainchild of Arizonan Tom Peterson, who, according to the group’s website “while on a Catholic retreat in 1997… had a profound reversion experience.”
Now Peterson speaks at Catholic and pro-life events around the country.
 Among those serving on his Theological Advisory Board are Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Scott Hahn, and Peter Kreeft.
Three award-winning videos which have a 2008 copyright have now been made into a CD to share with others.
The first, called “Epic,” details the contributions of the Catholic Church over the ages:
“We are the largest charitable organization on the planet…
“We educate more children than any other scholarly or religious institution…
“We developed the scientific method and the laws of evidence…
“We founded the college system…
“We defend the dignity of all human life…
“We uphold marriage….”
 The second, titled “Movie,” shows three characters who look back at regrettable life incidents and tells us we can be thankful we have the chance to” help God edit your life story and create the ideal ending.”
The third, “Testimonials,” includes stories of Catholics who left their faith and returned. The tag-line:“If you’ve been away from the catholic church, we invite you to take another look.”
You can view the videos directly and order CDs ($20 donation requested) directly from the website by clicking here.
Posted Friday, August 07, 2009 9:26 AM By Carson Weber
We will be airing several thousand of these commercials on many Sacramento television stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, etc.) with 20% of the commercials appearing on Spanish Television. These will air between December 18, 2009 and January 31, 2010. We are still in need of funding! 100% of donations are tax-deductible and 100% of donations go directly towards the cost of purchasing commercials on Prime Time television.
Please make your contribution check out to "Catholics Come Home" and mail it to: Most Rev. Jaime Soto / P.O. Box 189370 / Sacramento, CA 95818.
We will gratefully acknowledge your contribution with a receipt noting your tax-deductible gift.
Carson Weber
Associate Director for New Media Evangelization & Outreach
Department of Evangelization and Catechesis
Diocese of Sacramento, California
email: cweber {at} diocese-sacramento {dot} org
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Posted Friday, August 07, 2009 11:05 PM By Abeca Christian
WOW pretty neat! Sounds great, I also like Catholic Answers website too. I will be sending my humble donation.
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Posted Monday, August 10, 2009 1:33 PM By Bruce
I know survey's get old and many people don't like to be bothered with them; but if done correctly with the right "non-hiddened agenda" type of questions, i.e., questions that seek brief and clear explanatory answers (not just yes and no, true or false, or pick either a,b,c,or d) and motivational incentives; the questions and informative answers can lead to clear facts and resolution of issues. This will lead to our clearer understanding of Why have fallen-away Catholics fallen? and What steps would it take to restore their faith, trust, and return to the Catholic Church? After 3 generations of people have passed since the Catholic Church began its membership decline, it is highly probable that every generation will have multiple reasons and a relationship within itself, but different in many ways from the other 2 generations. It would take a lot of work, and considering the politics, there might be some whom wouldn't want to release the ugly truth in fear of what could be the blames for the great loss in our Roman Catholic Faith and membership. Some honest independant organization ought to do a survey to keep it honest. Unless the real source of the problems are exposed, the outbound migration of millions of more Catholics world-wide won't be stopped, even by this advertised website. May God restore our Roman Catholic Church and bless us all to give up our ways and to follow instead His Way, for the road to Heaven is narrow!
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Posted Tuesday, August 11, 2009 7:20 PM By brian
Bruce , if you are looking for why people leave , this is a pretty good place to start. From the Pew forum. I would guess that the median age of today's catholic chucrh member is rather high also. Not a lot of young blood if that is the case.
Catholicism has suffered the greatest net loss in the process of religious change. Many people who leave the Catholic Church do so for religious reasons; two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated say they left the Catholic faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, as do half of former Catholics who are now Protestant. Fewer than three-in-ten former Catholics, however, say the clergy sexual abuse scandal factored into their decision to leave Catholicism
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Posted Wednesday, August 12, 2009 1:31 PM By Bruce
Brian, Is there a Pew Forum website? If so, I hope I can find it. I know this calcatholic doesn't like to permit other website addresses to be posted in our blogs. If the Pew survey is accurate, it ought to be taken seriously by those whom want to rebuild the Roman Catholic Church here in America. (I don't know if Pew takes polls outside of America.) Also, depending on the level of the questions, a follow-up survey with more specific questions may be necessary to pin-point the sources of catholics falling away, and then the USCCB and magesterium can do something about it. Religious change hmmmm! Could that mean what has happened to our 7 Holy Sacraments, Catechism, and daily spiritual catholic lives and practices? Where did they go? Why did 2/3rds of catholics loose their faith nolonger believeing in church teachings? Could it be the loss of the God-centered catholic catechism to a man-centered new age psycho-therapy, and that the clergy turned the teaching over to laity with much less religious teaching credentials? Why did so many fallen-away catholics follow in the steps of Martin Luther and other derivative protestant church founders? Do they nolonger believe in God's omnipotence? So nearly 30% have left the church due to the clergy sexual abuse scandal. Is it any wonder, whom can loyal catholics trust anylonger if not their priest? How awful this scandal has put fallen-away souls in jeaporady. Ecumenist clergy whom believe and preach catholics can leave the church and find God equally in other religions, including non-christian have not helped the predicament of the current catholic standing either! Besides they've broken God's 1st Commandment. With few exceptions, Catholic Church teaching for centuries was there is no salvation when souls are living outside of the Catholic Church. Pray the rosary for Blessed Mother's help. She's never been known to turn anyone away when humble people pray for the sanctifying graces they need. God bless you.
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Posted Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:16 PM By brian
Just gogle pew forum and your there. I kind of fall into the 30% who left due the clergy absue. Not coming back and very happy in the church I attend every Sunday.
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Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:50 AM By Bruce
Brian, I pray you found a holy Traditional Roman Catholic Parish to worship our Lord and receive His sanctifying graces through the Holy Sacraments. From what I have read protestant ministers are no angels either. There have been many scandals unpublished or covered up in the protestant churches too. The press on the other hand is more gleeful in publishing articles on the scandolous catholic clergy. It is good that we the public know the truth on what is going on with these scandolous clergy, pray for and safe-guard against them; but at the same time it makes a terrible stain/scar on the holy image of the Catholic Church world-wide that will not heal for ages. May God bless you and your family.
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Posted Thursday, August 13, 2009 7:49 PM By brian
I don't think the press is more gleeful to uncover Catholic clergy abuse over other clergy abuse. It probably feels that way to you since it is your church. What the press attacks is the wide spread corruption and coverup in the Catholic Church that goes very high up.That behavior deserves the spotlight upon it to hopefully make sure it doen't happen going forward. I have my doubts. Many officials involved in the coverup are still active in the church today. It is not a time to pack up and go home. I did have my daughter baptized in the catholic church , but the priest in that parrish gave me a hard time. A few years later he was caught abusing alter boys. He probably abused a child right before and right after chastizing me. Such arrogance probably came from the fact he was aware of the coverup and felt protected. Many today blame the lawyers that defend those that were abused. I hope they keep up the lawsuits as more abuse comes to light. The church should get rid of any clergy that took part in any coverup that caused even 1 child to be abused. There are quite a few priests/cardinals/bishops still there that caused 100s of kids to be abused because they were covering up. So , I'm never going back.The minister in my church is a woman and I consider her the best member of the clergy that I have ever dealt with on a weekly basis in all my 55 years. My uncle was a monsignor and a good man , but I did not attend his church on a regular basis. He passed away prior to much of this coming out. My parents were friends with many priests and one of them conducted a mass right in our living room. After his death , he was exposed as an abuser. That info from the Pew forum said about 30% left the church because of the abuse. I certainly don't think the church has done enough to warrant those folks going back. Most left becuase they stopped believing in the teachings of the church. Hard to get them back because I doubt the church is rushing to make changes in their teachings.
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Posted Friday, August 14, 2009 7:52 AM By JLS
brian: The Church is the only organization which has a significant hierarchy, and thus the only organization which the media can possibly investigate the hierarchy of. Your implication that the media does not attack the Church for being the Church is bass ackwards ... The media attack the Church because She is God's solitary institution, and they want to attack God. Nimrod did this by shooting an arrow at God from his tower of Babel. Now with the present day tower of Babel having reached beyond the moon, Mars and so forth, and the government rulers often shooting arrows such as abortion at God, you might want to review your claim of impartiality of the media.
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Posted Friday, August 14, 2009 11:23 AM By brian
JLS .The media goes after sensational stories and the Catholic clergy story is quite sensational. We are talking in general terms here. If you have a specific story about clergy abuse that was reported and is wrong then lets have it. I would say that there are some inaccurate reports. That scenario is not unique to the catholic Church. Tawana Brawley falsely accused police of rape and Al Sharpton jumped all over it. It is going to happen. If you are saying "Poor us , we are always being picked on." , I can't buy that. 1000's of children were molested and it has come to light and it is fact. There is no postive spin to put on that and your response is classic "shoot the messenger" and avoid the reality. The topic here is trying to get back those who have left. Those that left , left for a reason. If you plan to get them back by blaming the media , I don't think that will work. I would think you would want to put your efforts into getting rid of all who participated in a coverup that allowed a single child to be molested and then say to those who left because of the clergy abuse "See , we have done everything we can." Maybe this topic was expecting some fairly tale support like let's get them back and we will all live happily ever after.
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Posted Friday, August 14, 2009 5:37 PM By Mark from PA
JLS, what errant priest and bishops did is not the fault of the media. They need to take responsibility for their own sins and not blame the media. How many of those priests apologized in person to those that they harmed? The bishops were more worried about protecting the priests and their reputations then they were in protecting the children. Condemning those priests and bishops is not attacking God.
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Posted Saturday, August 15, 2009 8:04 PM By brian
Not sure if jls has walked away from this. In reading this over again , I'm beginning to question if jls thinks any abuse took place at all. So , I need to ask a few questions of jls. 1 ) Did abuse happen?. 2 ) Did many bishops and cardinals cover it up? 3 ) Are the total number of children abused more than 1,000 ? 4 ) Please order the following in order of most to blame down to least for clergy abuse.
bishops ,
cardinals ,
children ,
media ,
parents ,
Pope ,
priests guily of abuse ,
Priets not guily , but aware of abuse and not reporting.
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Posted Sunday, August 16, 2009 12:48 PM By Mark from PA
Brian, I will give you my answers to your questions. 1. YES 2. YES 3. YES 4. Most 1) Priests guilty of abuse; 2) Bishops/Cardinals (tied but some were more culpable than others; 3) Pope; 4) Priests not guilty, but aware of abuse and not reporting; 5) Parents, some more than others: 6) Media & Children (tied, media just reporting, children were victims).
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Posted Sunday, August 16, 2009 1:40 PM By JLS
brian and PA, you both are immitating the talking heads of the media, babble and deception with no sense of reality, and a strong sense of hostility to the Church. 1) brian, obviously abuse of the most severe kind happened; where have you been that you do not know this? 2) Some bishops and cardinals evidently covered it up, as has been understood by most publications. 3) No doubt well over a thousand kids have been raked over the coals of Moloch. 4) Children are not to blame, as they are the victims. Media is extremely hostile to the Church and is a mouthpiece of Satan. Priests guilty of such abuse will have a hard time avoiding Hell. Priests not involved in abuse but not seeing it reach the civil prosecutors who themselves were not involved will have a hard time avoiding Hell. Parents and neighbors and communities complicit in the abuse will have a hard time avoiding Hell. The devil is elated over this retinue. Popes do not have an automatic pass to Heaven, not even to Purgatory. Can you spin this some, brian? Your putting categories into a list of how bad the guilt might seem to offer some relief to any who would end up in the "higher" levels of Hell, but then Dante's image of Hell is simply one of imagination ... Hell is all bad. One adult guilty of one child abuse can end up in Hell shoulder to shoulder with another guilty of a hundred cases of child abuse. So, why put a list of from bad to worse?
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Posted Monday, August 17, 2009 11:06 AM By Mark from PA
No JLS, the media is not the mouthpiece of Satan. Maybe by their reporting of this tragedy they have saved some kids from abuse. Perhaps they help to provide protection to kids that some bishops were unwilling to provide. I think parents are becoming more educated today. I ran into a friend of mine from high school yesterday. She told me of how the priest that taught us took a bunch of the girls in my class to the beach for a couple of days when we were in school. It brought back to me how trusting of priests parents were years ago. To me this was totally inappropriate. The parents should have been more wary.
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Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2009 11:41 PM By Abeca Christian
Mark from PA I will have to disagree with you. Satan uses many things to do his evil deeds and the media plays into it unknowingly. Why isn't the media reporting so heavily the abuse of children in public schools as well? They will attack the church because it gets more air time and publicity. Some facts are even exaggerated or even falsified. Oh I won't get into how the media is. Never mind that, it will take a long post. The difference between you and JLS, PA is that he understands a little bit more about the spiritual war. JLS you can't blame PA for not understanding that piece of the spiritual war because that gift was not given to him. God blesses some with bits and pieces of discerning more than others.
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Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2009 11:48 PM By Abeca Christian
Oh yes one more thing, I want to get it clear, I am thankful that at least people were made aware of what was happening (factual only) with some of these priests that were hurting our children, that actually may have been painful for the faithful to hear and deal with but it helped opened our eye's to understand that we are faced with a huge spiritual battle and that we need to test the spirit of many even those who say they are Catholic, because as you can see, no matter where you maybe, even if you are not Catholic, these abuses are complex, they are everywhere. One must not let their guards down. Man created more troubles due to their sins and we cannot blame the church for that because the Church is still teaching truth and bringing salvation to those who are willing to embrace, it is men who have free will and choose sin.
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Posted Thursday, August 20, 2009 4:14 PM By Mark from PA
Well, Abeca Christian, how were those bishops and higher fighting a huge spiritual battle when they transfered rapists and child molesters to other parishes and threatened innocent victims because they didn't want to harm the reputations of their minions? A lot of the abusers were protected because they were loyal to their bishops. Some even got promoted to be pastors or other positions after they had abused young people. How many bishops got punished for putting innocent young people at risk? Look at the punishment Cardinal Law got. He lives a comfortable life and is in a respected position in Rome. He sure made out well, didn't he? He was rewarded for his loyalty. I wonder what all those in Boston who suffered because of his negligence think of his "promotion."
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Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:37 PM By Abeca Christian
I understand Mark from PA, that part of the church totally disturbs me. I feel the same sadness and disgust as you do regarding these abuses. They will have to definitely answer to God for all their evil ways. I praise God that His church is good but the church that people create in themselves, that is the imperfect one.
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Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 3:59 PM By JLS
Whose fault is it when there are lots of bad bishops? PA, you seem to say that the mouth of Satan resides in the Magisterium in that you reject some of the doctrines, yet paint the media as guaranteed against defection from truth. Perhaps when you say you receive Communion what you mean is that you pick up your newspaper every day.
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Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:43 PM By Mark from PA
I think the Bishops are responsible for their negligent actions. I certainly do not say that "the mouth of Satan resides in the Megisterium." You last sentence in 3:59 PM makes absolutely no sense except that it sounds insulting to me and is making fun of my devotion to the Eucharist.
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Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:10 PM By MarkF
Mark from PA, what I don't understand is how you advocate that the Church goes back to the old days when she let homosexuals become priests. You say that these men should and will promise to be chaste. Well, didn't all those other homosexual men also promise to be chaste too? How is what you advocate different than what the Church allowed for so long that lead to the homosexual abuse of kids? Do we make them really, really, really promise to be good this time? The rotten truth that you chose to ignore to continue to worship homosexuality is that the reason that many of the bishops covered up the homosexual abuse is because they themselves love homosexuality more than they love the victims. And so do you. You'd rather have homosexual priests and risk another generation of abuse then to ban homosexuals from the priesthood.
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Posted Friday, August 28, 2009 4:37 AM By Mark from PA
Mark F, priests that abuse young people surely need to be removed but you can't punish the innocent along with the guilty. You talk about the homosexual abuse of kids, which is horrible but the abuse of girls and women by priests is also horrible. Do you discount how some of them were treated? Priests have gotten girls and women pregnant and tragically even conned them into getting abortions and these priests have been allowed to continue serving. Were those priests "worshiping heterosexuality"? No, they were just sinning and abusing their authority. To me they should have been kicked out too. In my opinion, the Bishops were accountable for allowing such abuse to go on.
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Posted Friday, August 28, 2009 7:49 AM By JLS
PA, who is responsible for bad bishops? You seem to consistently allude to the laity as having no responsibility at all; why is this?
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Posted Friday, August 28, 2009 11:35 AM By Mark from PA
JLS, the Pope names the bishops. Here in the US, the laity has no say in the selection of bishops. The bishops are human being and have their faults and failings just like anyone else. In rare cases,. the laity has had a part in getting bishops removed. Cardinal Law is one example (although Rome ended up giving him a promotion) Bishop Ryan of Springfield, Illinois, is another.
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Posted Friday, August 28, 2009 1:12 PM By JLS
PA, how does the Pope name them? Does someone forward him a list? Does the Pope rubberstamp the names on the list? How does the Pope decide whether or not to approve of a name on a list? How do the names get on the list? Who makes the list? If it is the local bishop, then how does he decide who to put on the list? What are the criteria? Is the main criterian money flow? Or is it effective anti-abortion activity, preaching, organization, even though this sort of thing costs money and does not bring it in, like social programs do, since they are in the govt stream of cash flow, and anti-abortion programs are not?
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Posted Wednesday, September 02, 2009 4:51 AM By Mark from PA
Perhaps there are some bishops and/or priests here that can give you a thorough answer to that question, JLS. I would be interested. I don't know all the ins and out of this. I just know that the laity does not pick the bishops. They are named from Rome.
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Posted Wednesday, September 02, 2009 8:35 AM By JLS
PA, you can find out from reading history how the bishops are chosen and by whom. There is no guarantee that any particular bishop or pope is picked with God's approval; our only guarantee is that the Church Herself is indefectable.
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Posted Wednesday, September 02, 2009 6:18 PM By Mark from PA
JLS, I know well how the Pope is chosen. I don't know if there are different procedures for selecting bishops in different countries or if it is the same throughout the Church.
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