Fox News Digital shadowed Bishop Robert Barron for a day and spoke with him about the death of New Atheism, partisan politics, stand-up comedy, and why he's not a fan of public excommunications
The Most Popular Catholic Outside the Vatican
Regular type from the article; my comments in italics.
It's common knowledge that the most widely followed Catholic prelate in the world is Pope Francis — Bishop of Rome, Successor to the Prince of the Apostles, and Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.
But less obvious is the runner-up — Robert Barron, bishop of Winona-Rochester, online evangelist and founder of Word on Fire Ministries. Barron doesn’t hold any special position in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. On paper, he’s the simple diocesan bishop of a midsize Minnesota diocese. But through his internet presence and public ministry, a religious revival of global proportions is underway.
The bishop has over 1 million subscribers on YouTube, 3 million followers on Facebook and close to 500,000 on Instagram. Barron has the ear of conservative intellectuals, elected officials, Hollywood entertainers and political activists shaping modern society. He has been invited to speak by executives at companies such as Google and Amazon, and maintains a dizzying schedule that takes him from Washington, D.C., to Rome to Prague to London and beyond.
Barron is an intellectual who has followed Bishop Sheen's path of heading for public visibility through new media. He has developed a media empire suited to his style and interests just like EWTN. Both FOX News and EWTN cater to people who support Trump and are likely supported by big financial supports of both those media giants. FOX did not set Barron against the Pope, other than being a potential media rival.
The bishop speaks and carries himself the same both on-camera and off. He speaks in a casual tone, but doesn't attempt to dumb down theological language — Latin vocabulary is peppered throughout his dialogues and his mind is a near-comprehensive reference catalog for quoting Vatican II documents.
Speaking on controversial moral debates — abortion, gender ideology, IVF, the death penalty — he takes the tone of a sympathetic yet stern parent. There's not much scolding of the opposition, but even less negotiation on fundamental principles. This approachable — yet uncompromising — disposition may be the source of his ministry's wild success.
Surely all the above is far distant from Trump in style and content.
Barron is one of numerous faith leaders sifting through the rubble left by the rise and rapid decline of a particularly anti-religious movement in the previous decades.
"I think the ‘New Atheist’ wave came and went. It left behind a lot of very unhappy and directionless people," Barron told Fox News Digital.
The movement he referenced was a short-lived phenomenon in the early 2000s led by the so-called "Four Horsemen" of atheism — writer Christopher Hitchens, neuroscientist Sam Harris, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett.
More than a decade from the New Atheists’ peak in relevance, not much is left of their march against organized religion.
The "New Atheists" remind me of the "Secular Humanists" of decades ago who were the targets of people like Pat Robertson. I always had trouble finding local representatives of these great threats to Christianity and American Civilization. A lot of self -congratulations by the religious right on their wars on greatly exaggerated threats.
Christianity — and the Catholic Church in particular — has seen a dramatic re-entry into the public consciousness. High-profile converts, including actors, politicians and even some former New Atheists themselves, have brought traditional, apostolic Christianity to the forefront of the culture war for the American mind.
Yes, but what about all average people who are leaving Catholicism, and not only Mainline Protestantism but also Evangelical and Mormon Churches.
"I think what's happening — it's not yet baptisms, marriages, confirmations. I think it's a broader, more elemental thing going on now, an interest — people crossing a river, people entering a door. They're coming toward it," Barron told Fox News Digital.
Specific dioceses have reported entries into the Catholic Church are up by 50-70%, but Barron acknowledges that big-picture statistics on church participation "haven't really turned around yet." He instead sees conversions and renewed interest in Christianity as the beginning of a cultural shift that will manifest more tangible fruit down the road.
I think there is a lot wishful thinking in all this by conservatives whether Catholic or Republican. A lot of what Barron does is preaching to the choir, and giving more and more lectures, books etc. to those who are already committed.
Whether it’s disagreements with Democrats about abortion or feuds with Republicans over the death penalty, the Catholic Church’s moral teaching is too rigid to fit snugly within either party — a departure from the left-right binary that defines American politics.
Barron’s popularity and well-educated perspective on the faith has led many Catholics and non-Catholics alike to look to him as a political figurehead — a proposition Barron is unwilling to entertain.
"The thing we can't do, and we don't do, is partisan politics," he said. "We can't get in the business of saying, 'Okay, don't vote for him, vote for this guy.' Bishops don't do that and priests shouldn't do that."
That pretty much sums up Barron's objection to being classified as a Trump supporter.
Conservatism in America, especially in the Republican party, once was big-tent conservatism which included religious, economic, legal, and social conservatives who often disagreed with one another on specific issues. I think this is a fair presentation by a conservative news organization of a Conservative Catholic bishop with whom they have a lot of sympathy. While I wish both were more critical of Trump, Barron's conservative is hardly evidence of a Trump-Bishops alliance. I would not classify Barron as a far-right media personality like Strickland, and to put him into the same article with the focus on Strickland was a mistake.
The Four Horsemen made good copy but they were never all that popular even with the disaffected because they were insufferable know-it-alls who claimed to have all the answers. Anybody who wants to bring folks back to the Church might want to remember that.
ReplyDeleteFaggioli may be off-base in his reading of Bishop Stern Parent, but trying to silence people by threatening them vs engaging in enlightening debate is right out of the Trumper playbook.
Jack, I agree with you that it was a mistake to put Barron in the same article with the focus on Strickland. It wasn't only the same article, it was the same paragraph and sentence.
ReplyDeleteNot coincidentally, this webinar came out on May 14:
"Gloria Purvis, the host of America Media’s “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” moderated a roundtable online discussion joined by Cardinal Robert McElroy of the Diocese of San Diego, Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester and Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville on May 14. The discussion, “Civilize It: Unifying a Divided Church,” focused on ways polarization is affecting the U.S. church."
It was a good discussion by the three bishops, and Gloria Purvis did a good job moderating it. If you have time it is worth listening.
The discussion is linked in this article on the America Media site:
Deletehttps://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/05/17/usccb-roundtable-polarization-civilize-it-247980
It is also linked on the USCCB site, and is described there as a "virtual USCCB virtual event". The Commonweal article was not mentioned, but the timing was bad.
Oops, didn't mean to say "virtual" twice.
DeleteI think the three media organizations you mention: Fox News, EWTN and Word on Fire, all pre-date the rise of Trump. By the time Trump came along, their "brands" were established. But Trump shook up the conservative media landscape, just as he shook up the GOP. Of course, from what I am told, Fox News continues to be all-in on Trump. I think the two are in a dysfunctional codependent relationship with one another. As for EWTN, I frankly don't know enough about what it is up to these days to know how much Trump has turned/twisted/corrupted what it does.
ReplyDeleteI think Word On Fire tries to proclaim a particular form of Catholicism - a brand more interested in the New Evangelization than in being political or culture-warrior. It naturally appeals to conservatives because much of what it is about is quite literally conserving aspects of the Catholic tradition. To the extent that Word on Fire's audience is conservative and its employees and leaders are conservative, it is subject to the corrupting influence of Trump.
I watched the first few episodes of “Catholicism.” Technically, the visuals were stunning. I found his style of delivery disconcerting. He never looked at the audience - the camera. I stopped watching after a few episodes. I’ve never seen any of his Word on Fire videos. Apparently Barron and Jordan Peterson are buddies.That doesn’t reflect well on Barron. My sense, admittedly based on limited exposure, is that Barron is highly conservative, both religiously and politically.
ReplyDeleteWhen I posted this Fox Digit interview, I had not noticed that the first picture was actually a brief video.
ReplyDeleteIn it, Barron speaks for himself about what he thinks Evangelization is. The first metaphor focuses upon Truth as something to be articulated and debated. (I suspect Barron would say that this is both internally among members of the church as well as those outside).
The second metaphor focus upon the Evangelizer as a physician, diagnosing and curing the ills of the world.
In both, Barron argues for flexibility for listening to others, and for understanding the situation that we are facings. That is indeed “good news” from a conservative bishop. That opens possibilities for dialogue both within the church and with those outside and for a synodal church that listens.
What is missing in Barron’s presentation is the distinction from Francis that we are witnesses of the Gospel rather than protagonists in a struggle with others. That understanding was articulated very well a few months ago by a young priest who was serving in our parish. He had really absorbed and understood Francis; it was more than quotes.
He had such maturity that I was hoping he was being groomed to succeed our pastor who is near retirement age. Maybe that was so because he was assigned after only a few months to being administrator of another parish with the likelihood that will be designated pastor after a year. Our pastor was very disappointed.
We need to become a church of witnesses to the Gospel both in our own lives and among those whom we encounter. We need less people who are protagonists of some agenda no matter how noble it may sound.
I hope that Barron shuns the role of protagonist. I think there are a lot of people who like him to become more of a protagonist, and it will be difficult to resist getting deeply involved in politics and the cultural wars.