A Facelift for the Catholic Church?

This evening, while watching the show Fringe on Fox, a commercial for the Catholic church aired. I was actually in the other room when it came on, but the ad almost immediately caught my attention, playing as it was in the middle of a blatantly anti-Catholic, anti-religious show, and in the middle of an episode particularly hostile to belief in God.



You can view a longer version here.

Now, as a Lutheran and an historian of religion, I will be the first to dispute some of the claims made in this commercial, but at the same time, it is not unconvincing. At a time when Christianity is increasingly under attack, both openly and by apathy, I find it admirable that the Catholic church would air an advertisement like this. It does make me wonder if this commercial, along with the church's recent open-armed welcome to Anglicans, represents the end of the ecumenism that has characterized, at least ostensibly, Catholic relations with other Christians since Vatican II. Like the recent Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus, this commercial makes no pretense of compromise. Still, one of the most interesting things about this advertisement is how it seems to address two distinct audiences - lapsed Catholics and the public at large - and serves as a modern PR campaign for the church while also inviting those "who have been away from the Catholic church...to take another look."

Does a commercial like this one, taken along with the Anglicanorum, represent the beginning of the end of Catholic ecumenism? Or, is it rather an attempt by the Catholic church to create for itself a new image, using better PR, in which evangelism plays a key role?