rated sitcoms. Viewers will be directed to their parish and will learn more at CatholicsComeHome.org  or CatolicosRegresen.org (Spanish).   In October of 2012 a Bishops Synod will be held in Rome on the theme of the "New Evangelization."

Throughout the pontificate of Blessed John Paul II he called for such a "New Evangelization." Pope Benedict XVI has made the New Evangelization a central pillar of his pontificate. He erected a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization tasked with evangelizing countries where the Gospel was announced centuries ago, but where its presence in peoples' daily life seems to be all but lost.

The call to a New Evangelization invites each of us to live our baptismal vocation, no matter what our state in life, completely given over to the work of the Lord in this crucial hour. We do that when we choose to live at the heart of the Church for the sake of the world. We do that when we share the "Good News", the Gospel, as found in its fullness within the Catholic Church, with others.

Since the Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church we have been constantly reminded that the Church is by nature missionary and that every baptized Christian participates in her missionary activity. The New Evangelization means taking this truth to heart and living differently. It requires an authentic renewal of the Church so that she can undertake a new missionary outreach. Then it requires all of her members taking evangelization as a mission of their own. 

I believe that we are at the beginning of a great resurgence in the Catholic Church precisely for this mission. Just when her opponents are ready to count the Catholic Church out, the sleeping giant is rising. Church history demonstrates that seasons of purification are often followed by times of great restoration and revival for the Church. So it will be in our day.

The Catholic Church is not a mere human institution. If it were, it would have shipwrecked long ago. The contemporary culture has lost its way, throwing off almost every remnant of Christian influence. It has embraced a new paganism. What Pope Benedict calls the "Dictatorship of Relativism" is the bad fruit of a rejection of truth.

Given the current state of moral decline in Western Culture we need to view the entirety of the American continent as missionary territory, ripe for the New Evangelization. We also need to view the once Christian Nations of the European continent as mission territory.  Most importantly, we need to view ourselves as missionaries in a new missionary age.

The Lord of the harvest is calling workers to the New Evangelization of His Church. His Vicar, Pope Benedict XVI is serving Him well by calling us into the fields of contemporary culture which are ripe and ready for harvest. He is enlisting us in a new missionary age of His Church.

In an Angelus message given in October of this year, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed, "Today we live in an epoch of new evangelization. Vast horizons open up to the Gospel, while regions of ancient Christian tradition are called to rediscover the beauty of the faith. The protagonists of this mission are the men and women who, like St. Paul, can say: "For me to live is Christ " -- persons, families, communities, who decide to work in the vineyard of the Lord, according to the image of this Sunday's Gospel (cf. Matthew 20:1-16)."

Tom Peterson is one these protagonists and "Catholics Come Home" is only the beginning of a great movement of the Holy Spirit.  It is a movement for a New Evangelization. The Church can - and will - transform the world of the Third millennium as she did the world of the first and the second millennium.The message and mission of the Church have not changed. Neither has the One who founded her and calls her to continue His mission until He returns in glory.