Cincinnati Archdiocese: Come home

CINCINNATI - The Catholic Church in Cincinnati, Lima and Dayton television markets is inviting its parishioners to come back to the church.

"Most people who walk away from the Catholic Church do so somewhat accidentally," said Father Jan Schmidt from the Saint Margaret of York parish in Loveland, Ohio. "They just stop going to mass for whatever reason."

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati was approached by members of Catholics Come Home to try and get folks back in the pews. The non-profit group had already produced the television commercials and extended the use of them to the church.

“In this Year of Faith, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is recommitting itself to the New Evangelization in many ways,” said the Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr, Archbishop of Cincinnati in a news release. “One of the most important is this major outreach to our inactive Catholic brothers and sisters of the Archdiocese, inviting them to rejoin us at the table of the Lord.”

In order to get the television ads to air for five and a half weeks, 3,500 donors contributed more than $200,000. The campaign will begin on Dec . 14.

Schmidt said that the national campaign that ran last year brought a few of his members back to mass. He added that many returning members may be surpassed at what they see and hear.

"Our music is very contemporary as well as using a lot of the old traditional songs that we use in the Catholic Church," said Scmidt. "It's an invitation to take a look at the church you were born and raise in."