Catholics Come Home

A few days ago I watched Tom Peterson (Catholics Come Home) being interviewed by Colleen Carroll Campbell on “Faith and Culture”.

Tom said he once considered himself as a mediocre Catholic who was working in the advertising business.  Then on a retreat in 1997, before the Eucharist, he had a conversion experience.  He said to God, “All right, I want to do your will.  What do you want me to do?”  For a couple of months he went to daily Mass, frequent Confession, and prayed for guidance.  Then he had a dream, of a baby in a suitcase being smothered by a pillow, while he kept struggling to protect the baby.  That led to the foundation of Virtue Media, a pro-life apostolate.

Then the diocese of Phoenix contacted him.  They wanted to do something to win inactive Catholics back to the Faith, and asked him if he would help.  For Tom that was another dream come true, and so began the tv project, “Catholics Come Home”.  The results were astonishing.  In Phoenix alone there were 3,000 responses.  People who had thought that their sins excluded them from the Church forever, felt encouraged to return, and were welcomed with open arms.

The Phoenix project was a once-off effort, but years later it was resurrected.  It now airs around the country, and is picked up in many countries around the world.  Surveys reveal that more than 200,000 people have come into the Church through this project, some of them former Catholics, but some who had never been Catholics or members of any Christian faith.  Sometimes people are just wondering where to go, and Tom Peterson is doing his part to help them find a welcome home.