Bishop Robert Barron, Author at Catholic Herald

Bishop Robert Barron

Arts essay: A tiny world with a big Christian message

January 11, 2018

When I saw the trailer for Alexander Payne’s new film, Downsizing, I thought the movie would be a light-hearted farce, relying principally on visual gags. In fact, the jokes based on the contrast between regular-sized people and their five-inch tall counterparts are surprisingly rare. Most of the film deals with events within the world of

Why the iPad generation is turned off by faith

December 07, 2017

Jean Twenge’s book iGen is one of the most fascinating – and depressing – texts I’ve read in the past decade. A professor of psychology at San Diego State University, Twenge has been, for years, studying trends among young Americans, and her most recent book focuses on the generation born between 1995 and 2012. Since

How ‘Mother!’ gets the Father all wrong

October 12, 2017

Darren Aronofsky’s latest film Mother! has certainly stirred up a storm, and no wonder. It features (spoiler alert) murder, point-blank executions, incinerations, and the killing and devouring of a child. I know: pleasant evening at the movies. Mother! will just seem deeply weird unless you see it as a fairly straightforward allegory. Once you crack

The brilliant biblical metaphor in Arrival

December 15, 2016

Like ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Starman, Independence Day and a host of similar films over the past 30 years, Arrival explores the theme of an alien visitation to earth. In this version, Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams) is a linguistic expert who is called upon by the US military to facilitate

Doctor Strange takes some spiritual medicine

November 17, 2016

Scott Derrickson’s new film, Doctor Strange, has received rave reviews for its special effects, its compelling storytelling and the quality of its actors, but I would like to focus on the spirituality implicit in it. Doctor Strange is far from a satisfying presentation of the spiritual order, but it represents a significant step in the

Children should be rebels

November 10, 2016

I recently had the privilege of speaking to around 9,000 middle and high-school students from the Catholic schools of Los Angeles archdiocese. They were gathered in the cavernous Galen Center at the University of Southern California (USC), and the atmosphere in the room was electric. There was a good deal of upbeat music and games,

Salvation in five acts

October 20, 2016

This autumn I am giving presentations to all the high school teachers, staff and administrators in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. These talks take place on an annual basis, and they are dedicated to a regular cycle of topics. This year, the theme is morality. Lucky me! My guess is that disquisitions on doctrine or

Learning to love ‘Here I am, Lord’

September 29, 2016

For the past week, I have been sequestered at the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum in Rome, an institution about five miles west of St Peter’s Basilica. I’m here for the Formation for New Bishops programme, more colloquially known as “baby bishop school”. My colleagues are about 150 other bishops from around the world who have

It’s our fault the young are leaving

September 08, 2016

After perusing the latest Pew Study on why young people are leaving the active practice of Christianity, I confess that I just sighed in exasperation. I don’t doubt for a moment the sincerity of those who responded to the survey, but the reasons they offer for abandoning Christianity are just so uncompelling. That is to

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