Father Robert Barron, rector of Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago,
has produced a new video series emphasizing the primacy of beauty in
drawing people to Christ. “Let's start with the beauty of the faith … I wanted to start with the
splendor of it,” Fr. Barron, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese, told the Catholic News Agency. “I don’t talk about any of the hot button issues.” Slated for release on DVD this August, “Catholicism: The New
Evangelization,” explores the Church's mission in contemporary culture.
The program follows Fr. Barron's critically acclaimed, high-definition
“Catholicism” series of 2011, which aired on PBS nationwide.
His approach to the new evangelization – the late Blessed John Paul II's
term for reaching formerly Christian societies – tends to begin with
“something in the culture that people are watching or paying attention
to.”
The priest, who founded global media group Word on Fire, said is able to
find in these things something “that speaks to the Catholic faith, that
reflects the Catholic faith.”
“So it’s more of affirmative orthodoxy; a positive approach,” he said. “And I think that intrigues people.”
The series focuses on the new evangelization because “it's what we need,
as a Church.” It grew out of conversations Fr. Barron had on trips to
Australia and England, looking at what is “drawing people in these very
secularized societies back to the Church.”
The election of Pope Francis has given the Church the opportunity of a
new, more positive narrative in the mainstream media, and Fr. Barron
suggested that “maybe they are captivated by Francis.”
In concert with his focus on beauty as a route for the new
evangelization, the priest said, “I want to get people off of the
one-sided stress on sexual ethics.”
While acknowledging that sexual ethics are “very important,” he said the
singular emphasis on this one facet of Church teaching “distorts the
message. If you read the New Testament, yes there's a sexual ethic implicit in
the New Testament, but would you get the impression that's the one thing
that we're supposed to do – we're supposed to get people clear on their
sexual lives?”
No, he answered, the primary calling of Christians is “declaring the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead, declaring the kingdom of God
breaking into history, declaring this revolution that's wrought grace.” “Now an implication of that is, get your sexual lives in order, towards love.”
But rather than focusing all one's message on sexual ethics, he declared, “I'd like to widen the lens a little bit.”
CNA spoke with Fr. Barron at a Catholic media conference in Denver,
shortly after a talk he presented, where discussed the “balloons and
banners” era following the Second Vatican Council, when there was a
“dumbing down” of catechesis in much of the Church.
Asked if he thinks that era is starting to change, he responded, “not enough.”
“I worry about that … it needs to change.” The Church needs “a couple of
saints, who will really raise up armies of teachers,” Fr. Barron said.
The generations of Catholics formed under Benedict XVI and in John Paul
II's later years need “to go for advanced studies in philosophy and
theology, so they can pass the thing on in a sophisticated way,” he
reflected.
Going along with this, he said Catholics colleges must “become a
breeding ground of Catholic intellectual life,” having professors, not
only in philosophy and theology, but all the disciplines, “whose
teaching is informed by their faith.”
Fr. Barron called it a “tragedy” that so many Catholic universities have “secularized themselves … aping Princeton and Harvard.”
He promoted Vatican II's idea that Catholic laypeople are called to be “great Catholics in the world.”
Rather than privatizing their faith, Catholics – whether business
leaders, politicians, or media personalities – should let that faith
inform their “decisions, approach, attitude.”
This is “tricky,” he emphasized, saying that “if you're a media person
you can't say, 'I'm going to be announcing Jesus Christ risen from the
dead as I do the evening news.'”
And yet, he calls for the “still unrealized Vatican II vision … of the
laity Christifying the world” by refusing to privatize their Catholic
faith.
Letting faith inform one's decisions in public: “that's evangelization,” Fr. Barron said.
I am just beginning to dive into the beautiful, ancient devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus, and I wanted to share a bit of the journey with you. It can feel a little overwhelming at first to look at the Crucifix this closely, but I’ve found such a gentle guide in St. Bernard of Clairvaux . In his Jubilee Rhythm on the Passion, Bernard doesn't treat the wounds of Jesus as distant historical facts or sights to be avoided. Instead, he approaches them with the tenderness of a friend, speaking directly to the feet, hands, side, and face of our Lord. For someone like me who is just starting out, his rhythm teaches that prayer isn't just about reciting words; it’s a holy hide-and-seek. Bernard invites us to literally hide ourselves within these wounds, seeing them as clefts in the rock where we can find shelter when our own lives feel turbulent or heavy. As I start this process, I’ve been practicing what I call gazing and greeting. Following Bernard’s lead, I look at the Crucifix an...