A National Campaign has come to Michiana. The Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend is asking Catholics to come home. Ads running this winter invite Catholics to re-visit their faith. Saint Pius X Catholic Church in Granger is no exception; they want people to feel they have a home at their church.
Pastor William Schoole at St Pius X Catholic Church said, "We hope that people who were baptized as Catholics might come home again."
His message has been broadcast across the nation and now St Pius is localizing it and making it their own.
"At Christmas time we put cards in all of the pews inviting people to contact us," said Schoole.
And the work didn't end when the holidays did. "This month and next month we have a series of meetings called fireside chats where we're inviting people to just come and chat about what's going on in their lives," said Schoole.
The whole purpose is to make people who have stopped practicing their faith feel comfortable again with Catholicism.
Dan Allen with the church said, "Our mission as the catholic church is to welcome people of all background and nationalities and really to be a universal church."
He adds that no matter what your previous experience with the Catholic Church has been Saint Pius wants you to know the church wants you there.
"We find sometimes people may have been alienated by someone in the Catholic Church so we want to kind of repair that damage and seek their forgiveness," said Allen.
Even though there's now a local campaign to welcome people into the church Allen said it's not a new concept.
"Always part of our mission to welcome a stranger someone who may have never been with us before but also to welcome those who have been with us but for whatever reason have gone away," said Allen
So will commercials do the trick? Regardless, Saint Pius says its door is always open.
The church said it always gets an influx of people around the holidays so it's too soon to know if the elevated number of parishioners is a result of the campaign or the liturgical season.
