This CatholicVote.org video, first posted on the Internet Jan. 19 to coincide with Barack Obama’s inauguration, has become a YouTube sensation.

We featured it ourselves in a pre-Inauguration Day blog entry.

And now, its backers hope to reach an even bigger audience by running the pro-life ad during NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast this Sunday.

Brian Burch is the president of the Fidelis Center for Law and Policy, the Catholic organization that launched the Catholicvote.org project. Here’s what he told the Daily Blog late this afternoon about the pro-life stir the ad has already generated and about plans to place it on TV screens across America to generate an even bigger buzz.

“The ad reached the top 10 on YouTube on Inauguration Day, and it was in the top 20 last week on YouTube,” Burch said. “And it was front page on Washington Post Online on Friday, so I’m pretty certain the White House saw it.

“The ad has been wildly popular, and so last week we sent out kind of a summary of the response. And as part of it, to generate interest we said that people are talking about wanting to run it on the Super Bowl, because there was a big conversation about this in the forum on our website. And we said, “You know it’s probably impossible to raise three million dollars [to run it during the Super Bowl], but we want to run it on TV.’”

Birch says Internet-savvy pro-lifers immediately rallied to the cause of trying to secure a Super Bowl slot for the ad.

“People kind of looked on it as a challenge,’ he said. “A Facebook group launched, and a small but enthusiastic viral campaign began to generate the funds needed to run it on the Super Bowl. Frankly, we didn’t really think it possible to begin with. But as we saw enthusiasm begin to build, we thought, ‘Maybe this is God kicking us.’ And we said, ‘If God wants to make it happen, he’ll make it happen.’ So we started making calls.

“Dollars have been coming in, although we’re far, far short of raising the money we need. And so we’ve reached out to significant pro-life philanthropists and have pitched them, and there’s some interest. And we will probably know by end of day tomorrow whether it’s going to happen or not.”

Either way, the pro-life ad already has won over some hearts at NBC.

“Meanwhile, I’ve been in conversations with NBC,” Burch said. “We have a package slotted. And the key was whether they would even run it in the first place. When I first talked to NBC it went through legal in Chicago and then went up to legal in New York.

“When I first told them it was an abortion ad, they freaked. Typically abortion ads are things that cause a lot of problems for them, especially because a lot of them are very provocative and in your face.

“So while I was on the phone I said, ‘You need to watch our ad right now because I don’t want to waste more time with you if you’re not going to run it.’ They watched the ad, and a person who is involved with Super Bowl ads with NBC said, ‘I’m neither pro-life nor pro-choice, but this is the best pro-life ad I’ve ever seen.’

“She said, ‘I think this is really good.’ And this was the whole point of the ad in the first place, to not be in your face, to drive our message in conjunction with the momentum over Barack Obama’s inauguration.

“And so I just, in the last five minutes, got an email from NBC saying, ‘Our legal has approved the ad.’ Now we can see if we can raise the dollars.”

People wanting to donate to help get the pro-life ad on TV can make contributions on the Internet at CatholicVote.org or at CatholicVote.com.

Burch stresses that the money donated will be used to purchase prime slots on network TV for the ad, whether or not the campaign to run it during the Super Bowl succeeds.

“Here’s what I keep telling people, because I don’t want to disappoint if we don’t run it on the Super Bowl,” Burch said. “We’re going to run this ad, big time national no matter what with the money we’ve raised. So people don’t need to think that if they contribute and it doesn’t run on the Super Bowl, it’s a waste. We’re looking at slots during the State of the Union address as well as during the upcoming Academy Awards. Those are other options we’re looking at.”

Promised Burch, “No matter what, it’s going to run and it’s going to run in a big way. It just may not be the Super Bowl. But that’s in God’s hands — we propose and He disposes.”