Bishop Robert Barron, Author at Catholic Herald

Bishop Robert Barron

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Bishop Barron: I had a nagging question about synodality. So I asked the Pope

February 27, 2020

It was a great privilege for me to participate in the synod on young people in the fall of 2018. Along with about 300 other bishops and ecclesial experts from around the world, I spent four weeks in Rome exploring the complex question of the Church’s outreach to the young. About three weeks into the

Bishop Barron: Where the Church’s three ‘groups’ go wrong

February 20, 2020

Some years ago, my friend Mgr Francis Mannion wrote an article concerning the three essential features of the Eucharistic liturgy – namely, the priest, the rite and the people. When these elements are in proper balance, rightly ordered liturgy obtains. Further, from these categories, he argued, we can discern the three typical distortions of the liturgy:

Bishop Barron: What I learned at St Paul’s tomb

February 13, 2020

I write these words on the airplane taking me home from my first visit as a bishop ad limina apostolorum (to the threshold of the apostles). This is the pilgrimage, required by canon law of every bishop, to pray at the tombs of St Peter and St Paul and to meet personally the successor of

Bishop Barron: 1917 and the breaking of Christian Europe

January 23, 2020

I saw the film 1917 on the vigil of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and I think there’s a connection between the movie and the liturgical celebration. Bear with me. First, as everyone who has seen 1917 remarks, the editing and cinematography are so astounding that it appears to unfold completely in

Bishop Barron: The movie that Benedict XVI really deserves

January 09, 2020

The new and much-ballyhooed Netflix film The Two Popes should, by rights, be called The One Pope, for it presents a fairly nuanced, textured and sympathetic portrait of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and a complete caricature of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). This imbalance fatally undermines the movie, whose purpose, it seems, is to

Aquinas, Dr King, and what I told a room of politicians

November 28, 2019

A couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct privilege of addressing an audience of Senators, Representatives and Capitol Hill staffers in a beautiful room at the Library of Congress. This event was made possible by two Congressmen, Rep Tom Suozzi of New York, a Democrat, and Rep John Moolenaar of Michigan, a Republican. Both

Jordan Peterson’s step forward

January 10, 2019

Over the Christmas break, I spent a fair amount of time binge-watching Jordan Peterson videos. For those not in the know, Peterson is not the latest hip-hop sensation; he is a psychology professor from Toronto who has made a rather substantial splash as a culture commentator and public intellectual, largely through appearances on social media.

Arts essay: A masterpiece for a Church mired in scandal

September 20, 2018

Tintoretto helps us fix our eyes on what truly matters, says Bishop Robert Barron I was in Washington DC last week for meetings of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since formal proceedings didn’t begin until the evening, I found myself with a little free time. So I made my way to one of

Beyond the parish

July 26, 2018

Throughout all the years of my involvement with the Church, the parish has been taken as the crucial ecclesial institution. Talk to almost anyone involved in Catholic ministry over the past 50 years and you will hear ample criticism of lots of aspects of Church life, but you will, almost without exception, hear praise of

Arts essay: Dinosaurs claw away at the Enlightenment

July 05, 2018

The original Jurassic Park film from 25 years ago rather inventively explored a theme that has been prominent in Western culture from the time of the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment – namely, the dangers of an aggressive and arrogant rationalism. Beginning in the late 18th century, poets and thinkers such as Rousseau, Goethe, Herder,

Arts essay: Feminism has ruined the Star Wars saga

February 15, 2018

I fell sound asleep for about 10 minutes during the most recent instalment of the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi. This was not only because the narrative had wandered down a very tedious alleyway, but because Star Wars in general has lost its way. What began as a thrilling exploration of the philosophia perennis

Arts essay: The kindest nuns ever seen in Hollywood

February 01, 2018

Greta Gerwig’s new film, Lady Bird, has taken the critics by storm: it is the most-reviewed movie in the history of the Rotten Tomatoes website to have initially sustained a 100 per cent positive rating, and it is receiving serious Oscar buzz for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. Having seen the “coming attractions”

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