Catholics Come Home, an
organization based in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, will premiere a new
TV series that features individuals who have joined the Catholic Church
or returned to the Catholic faith after many years away. The "Catholics
Come Home" series, which was filmed in more than a dozen locations in
the U.S. and Canada, will debut Sept. 4 at 10 p.m. Eastern time on the
Eternal Word Television Network. The series consists of 13 30-minute
episodes, each featuring an interview with someone who recently returned
to the church as a result of a Catholics Come Home campaign and in
response to "the call of the Holy Spirit," said a news release on the
series. Catholics Come Home, whose founder and president is Tom
Peterson, has worked with dozens of U.S. dioceses on TV ad campaigns,
especially at Lent and Christmas, to invite inactive Catholics to get
more involved in the church, fallen-away Catholics to return to the
church and non-Catholics to join the church. In the series, Peterson
interviews a variety of guests, including former atheists, agnostics,
Protestants and fallen-away Catholics. Each of the half-hour episodes
also will include segments on the Catholic Church's new evangelization,
which encourages Catholics to renew their faith and be willing to share
it. Episodes will air every Thursday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time, with
additional airings on Sundays at 6 p.m. Eastern time. More information
on the show can be found at www.catholicscomehome.org. The EWTN website,
www.ewtn.com, has scheduling information.
The spiritual climax of the Gospel of John, as Father John Waiss points out, occurs at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus utters his parting words: “Woman, behold, your son!” and “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). While these words were addressed to the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the Church has long understood this moment as a universal adoption. To truly image Christ, we must share in His parentage; if we embrace God as our spiritual Father but reject Mary as our mother, we treat Christ as a half-brother rather than our "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). As Origen noted as early as the third century, the profound depths of the Gospel are only accessible to those who, like John, rest their heads on Jesus’ breast and receive Mary into their own homes. This maternal role is deeply rooted in biblical typology, positioning Mary as the fulfillment of the great mothers of the Old Covenant. She is the New Eve , the mother of all the living according ...