Coming soon to a TV near you...the Catholic Church!

'Catholics Come Home' has announced a major, national, prime-time network television campaign, for the first time ever in the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church.

The TV ads will start next month, and air for a three week period through New Year's week. 

The 'New Evangelization' highlights the history, beauty, spirituality and accomplishments of the Catholic Church.

Watch one of the commercials:



"I'm excited about it, because I think it's just good evangelization and we're taking advantage of the technology that is before us. And Pope Benedict XVI is doing the same thing," says New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

And, he says it's probably about time.

"Maybe because we're so old...we haven't really used, very well, the technology before us."

But, even he's getting with the times.

"Now I'm doing a blog every week. And that would have never been heard of ten years ago," Aymond says.

He says the new, nationwide advertising campaign is quite an historic event.

"First time in the 2,000 year history...at least in the United States...that there has been anything for the whole country just saying 'we're Catholic and come home,' or if you're already Catholic, 'have a sense of pride in that identity'."

Archbishop Aymond says the TV campaign is not meant to take people away from other churches or denominations...but, is aimed at Catholics who've been away from the church.

"It certainly invites people who are away from the church to come home and to be a part of the community again. But it also provides for Catholics who are still very much a part of the church to recognize what the church does and to recognize the mission of the church again and to really take a sense of pride in that."

The bilingual 'Catholics Come Home' commercials are scheduled to air on CBS, NBC, Univision, TBS, USA, TNT, CNN, FoxNews, and other networks during shows like 60 Minutes, NCIS, Kennedy Center Honors, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, Jay Leno, O'Reilly, major sports, and highly rated sitcoms.

The message is expected to reach 250 million TV viewers in over 10,000 cities and every diocese throughout the U.S., airing over 400 times during the three week period from December 16 through January 8.
 
'Catholics Come Home' hopes to inspire as many as one million souls home to their local parishes.

This evangelization goal is based on statistical census results from Catholics Come Home media initiatives that have aired in 30 past partner dioceses, including New Orleans.

Where these ads have aired, Mass attendance has increased an average of 10%, and helped over 300,000 people home to the Church, just since 2008.