“We’re in a Very Tough Time,
but it’s a Good Time for the Battle”

Note: The Most Rev. Robert Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, was Thomas Aquinas College’s 2016 Convocation Speaker.

Q: Were you surprised by your appointment to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles?

A: Yes, normally if you become an auxiliary bishop you are in your own diocese and kind of brought along. If I had been made auxiliary in Chicago, that would have been a piece of cake. In my case it was much more challenging, because I was sent out here when I knew almost nothing about Los Angeles. The learning curve was extremely high, and for the first several months it was just a tsunami of novelty every day — meeting people I didn’t know, going places I’d never been before, learning the history of places I knew nothing about. That was challenging.

In addition, most of my priesthood has been spent teaching, writing, reading, lecturing — an academic life. In the last 10 or 12 years, though, my Word on Fire media ministry came along, and that prepared me in many ways for the administrative work a bishop does: I had to raise money, work with a board, deal with personnel issues, do strategic planning, and organize an office. Then in 2012 Cardinal George made me the rector of Mundelein Seminary, putting me right at the heart of administration and, I think, preparing me for what would come next. There I had to deal with the same things — personnel, a lot of fundraising, business meetings, money, fixing roofs, all of it. So I did have a fair amount of administrative experience as I came here.

I arrived here September 1 last year, and I was ordained September 8. So I have just celebrated my first anniversary in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. So much has happened to me in this year, and it has all been so totally new to me, that it seems like I’ve lived here for a long time.

What about your pastoral duties?

I started, of course, as a pastoral person. In my day, in Chicago, we spent a year as a deacon in a parish. I was in a very busy inner-city Chicago parish, and then as a priest spent three years at a parish in the suburbs near O’Hare Airport. So I had four solid years of doing intensive pastoral work in two big, busy parishes. I have always said that even though most of my priesthood was spent teaching and writing, there is really nothing a parish priest does that I haven’t done at some stage, everything from wedding preparations, to funerals, to visiting the sick, going to hospitals, going to the schools, taking care of kids. Honestly, I just followed what the Archbishop of Chicago wanted me to do, and then finally, to my infinite surprise, what the Pope wanted me to do, coming out here.

When you entered the priesthood, did you think you would become a renowned teacher of the Faith, as you have?

No, I did not see that. I knew I would be in a parish for a time, but then I thought I would teach, perhaps at a seminary (even in seminary they were wanting me to get my doctorate), and then maybe I would go on to a university to be a professor. The Word on Fire project opened up in a way that was completely unexpected. And it caught fire in a way that I did not expect at all. Cardinal George played an important role in that. I was being recruited by various universities to teach, and he gave me permission to go for interviews. But when the job was offered, he would tell me he didn’t want me to take it. His line to me, as Word on Fire was just getting off the ground, was, “You’d be very good as a professor, a director of doctoral dissertations, and I can see you with your black briefcase walking around campus. But,” he said, “I just think there’s a bigger stage for you.” At the time, it was somewhat disappointing; but I look at it now and I think there was some Providence in it. He really fostered that side of my ministry. I think of Word on Fire as another assignment because Cardinal George gave me permission to step away from the seminary a bit and to do the Catholicism series, which took off in ways that I never anticipated. Now we have a new series coming out, The Pivotal Players. And the YouTube videos I’ve made for Word on Fire have been viewed something like 20 million times.

You must be known wherever you go. Is that hard to bear?

Sometimes I feel an enormous responsibility. I was in Krakow for World Youth Day, and people came up to me from all over the world, from New Zealand, Holland, England, Australia. I make these videos now up in my room here, and we made them for years back in Chicago. And I’ll knock one off, I’ll write an article, and I’ll do a video. But I have no idea whom it will affect. I have a print of Van Gogh’s great work, “The Sower,” which is one of my favorites because it is my ministry in many ways: You sow these seeds, and you have no idea how they will land — and video enables you to sow them all over the world. It is my conviction that this is what we need to do. People are not coming to us anymore, at least not the way they were. They do not come to us to be evangelized. We have got to go out and find them.

You have a very large pastoral region. Have you been able to visit all your parishes?

Yes, I’ve visited them all — except one in New Cuyama, way up north. In addition, we have deanery meetings on a regular basis, and unless there’s a priest who’s just been hiding, I think I’ve met all the priests of this region. So I have gotten to know this region, I think, pretty well now and feel comfortable, knowing where to go, knowing the parishes, the priests. Because Los Angeles is so giant, though, I still don’t know all the priests of the Archdiocese, though those I’ve met have been great to me.

How often do you meet with Archbishop Gomez and the other regional bishops?

Twice a month we have a bishops’ meeting with Archbishop Gomez. Because I’m the farthest away from the chancery (about two hours away, in good traffic), I arranged early on to have rooms at the Cathedral, just to make the transportation easier. As a result, I probably see the Archbishop more than the other auxiliaries do. We also have the Presbyteral Council meeting, once a month, on a Monday. So typically I am in Los Angeles once a week and stay overnight at the Cathedral when I am there.

Is there anything you really miss about your past life, prior to your appointment to Los Angeles?

Yes. I miss the time for serious reading and research. I still do it, and I am keeping my hand very much in the academic world. But I don’t have time anymore; I can’t sit down and say, “I’m going to read Charles Taylor’s latest book” — 600 pages of dense philosophy — “and I’m going to think about it, and I’m going to write something on it.” I just don’t have the time. I am still trying to keep up, but it’s much harder, and I do miss that.

Is there something that you have been surprised by here, something you wouldn’t have expected?

Well, I would say, honestly, the disparity, economically, within the region surprised me. The immediate reaction people had to the news of my appointment was, “Santa Barbara! Wow! You’re going to be with the movie stars.” On arriving, though, I began hearing about intense gang warfare in Oxnard; I got a letter from someone in Santa Maria ministering in the emergency rooms of hospitals, saying “they’re filled with gunshot victims.” And even here in Santa Barbara there are so many homeless. All of this genuinely surprised me. I wasn’t surprised, though, about the traffic. I’m from Chicago, so the traffic has not thrown me that much. And the weather I love. During the day it’s gorgeous, and in the night it cools down beautifully, so you sleep like a baby.

Do you have particular goals for your pastoral region, in addition to your regular work?

Yes. For my first year here the goal was simply to get to know the region — to visit every parish, every place, see everybody, get out to all the institutions. Going forward, I have two goals, the first of which is to help our deacons — we have a lot in this region — in their formation, both spiritually and intellectually. We have some programs in place, beginning with a retreat I’m going to give at Mission Santa Barbara this fall. I am big on public Catholicism and public intellectual Catholicism. So my second goal is that we should be “in the conversation.” I want to do here in Santa Barbara something I did in Chicago: give lectures, maybe at lunchtime, downtown, not on Church grounds, but on secular grounds, and invite business people, those that have maybe been away from the Church for a long time. I plan to talk about some basic things — about Jesus, about God, about the Church. So I’m going to try that this year, to be a voice in the secular space. If it works maybe I’ll go around to other parts of the region and do it.

Would you explain what the mission of Word on Fire is and what the ministry is all about?

Word on Fire is my media ministry, and its stated purpose is to engage in the New Evangelization. Using the new media, especially social media, the goal is to reach out to the “nones” (those unaffiliated with any organized religion), and to reach out to the increasingly secularized world. It is the New Evangelization, through all kinds of different media.

Do you think it also has an effect on practicing Catholics, inspiring or encouraging them?

Yes, I hope so. I always see it in terms of concentric circles. We have been targeting fallen-away Catholics as the first circle, then disaffected Catholics, then active Catholics, and then reaching out to the wider Christian world. Then we have had a special focus on the “nones,” because that is the fastest-growing group in America, and they are increasingly among the young, those in their late teens and twenties. We are trying to target them in a big way. But yes, I hope, too, to encourage Catholics and reinvigorate their faith a little.

Do you find that it is easier to reach the “nones” than those who hold to the tenets of, for example, a Protestant sect? Are there fewer barriers to break down?

Yes, “nones” could be easier to reach, because a lot of them just have never been adequately exposed to the real thing. When they hear “religion,” they think oppressive sexual morality, they think corruption, they think institutional oppression. But have they really heard the message of Jesus, of God, of eternal life, of salvation? So in some ways I would say probably yes, it might be easier to reach them when they finally hear the real thing.

Following the tremendous success of your documentary series Catholicism, Word on Fire is releasing its newest production, Catholicism: The Pivotal Players, about key figures who shaped the Church and changed the world. How did you determine who were pivotal?

It was hard! Roughly speaking, I wanted to cover the span of the Church’s life. So we chose among the patristic figures, medieval figures, early modern, contemporary, you know. Secondly, I was looking for people who not only made a decisive difference in the life of the Church but also influenced the wider society — people who are really of epoch-making significance. The third criterion was that I couldn’t do people I had already covered in the earlier series, such as in the saints episode where we featured the Little Flower, Teresa of Calcutta, Edith Stein, and Katharine Drexel. I had substantial sections on them and many other females, some of whom I would identify as “pivotal players.” So I couldn’t cover them again. That put us in a somewhat awkward position vis-à-vis women. But Catherine of Siena is included, and I think she really is a pivotal figure.

We are coming out now with the first six of what will be 10 or 12 episodes.

Why is it important for Catholics, and “nones,” and everybody else, to know these pivotal players?

I’m with Balthasar, the theologian. He said the saints are the players. If you want to learn baseball, watch the greatest players, watch how they play. If you want to learn Christianity, you can do it abstractly, which is fine and important; but better is to watch these people; watch the great practitioners of it. I think this is the best way in for people — through lives, through narratives. And once they’re in, I’m delighted that they run off and read all the books and explore all the ideas. But they are a door, an attractive door, I think, the lives of saints. And they are not all saints. We have Michelangelo, who is not a formal saint, of course, and Chesterton, whom we call “The Evangelist.” What I like about him — and there is so much to love about Chesterton — is the joyfulness of his approach. He was not censorious. He was clear, and he called a spade a spade; but it was always with a sense of joy and laughter. I love that part of Catholicism — that we’re not a cramped, sort of puritanical, religion. I loved filming the episode on Chesterton: We went to one of the pubs in London that he would frequent, and we filmed in there. I think it captured the sense of fun in Chesterton that I wanted to communicate.

Now that we have done six pivotal players, I suppose the symmetrical thing would be to do six more, 12 in all. I have four new scripts finished, and our team is working on those, researching the places to film and making arrangements on the ground, getting permissions. Their work is so important. For instance, the cover for the Catholicism series was taken at about 6:30 in the morning at Sainte- Chapelle. We had to pay a fair amount, of course, to get in there, before the crowds got in. The photographer said to me, “Why don’t you just open the door and come in, and I’ll take the picture.” So we did, and the minute we saw it, we said, “That’s the image for the whole series.” It is a stunning shot, and people often ask how we got it. Well the answer is money — and getting permissions.

It has been a wonderful adventure, doing the filming for both series. For the first documentary, we went all over the world, from Africa, to Calcutta, to Mexico. This new series is a little more restricted; we’re doing mostly Europe and America so far.

You have said that you discovered St. Thomas Aquinas when you were a freshman in high school and that studying his works eventually led you to discern your vocation. What is it about St. Thomas that is so powerful, and why should we study him?

St. Thomas is the Common Doctor, the Doctor Communis. He is well known as the Doctor Angelicus, the Angelic Doctor, but he really is the Common Doctor because he is a touchstone. There is something that is so fundamental and basic about St. Thomas that, no matter where you range theologically, you kind of come home to him. There is a capaciousness to the breadth of his mind, and there is a sensibility that is just extraordinary.

For me, St. Thomas meant so many things. It was 1974 when I discovered him — a post-conciliar time and a time of great confusion; religious education, in particular, was not being done well. We certainly didn’t think of religion as something reasonable or intellectually appealing. But then along comes Aquinas and he just opened the eyes of my mind to the fact that religion is intellectually compelling and that, in fact, there is nothing more fascinating on the table than these religious questions.

So Aquinas is especially important because of our rampant secularism and the general consensus of the culture that religion is “irrational.” There is no better figure than Aquinas to rise up and say, “Religion is not irrational.” There has never been anyone in the West more dedicated to reason and to science and to the life of the mind than Aquinas, even as he witnesses so clearly to what lies beyond it. And so it is especially today, when our besetting problem is that religion is being dismissed as irrational, that we need to recover Aquinas.

Another Thomas, Thomas Merton, also had an influence on me as I discerned my vocation. Thomas Aquinas awakened the intellectual fascination, but when I was 16, I discovered Merton’s The Seven Story Mountain, which is about someone falling in love with God. That opened up the affective side to me. I think that combination, that one-two punch of Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Merton, was very powerful, and I began thinking more about the priesthood.

These were pivotal players in my life, to be sure. I know Merton made moves that I would be less than happy with, and he didn’t get everything right, but he was such an important player for me and for many others in opening the door to the Catholic spiritual mission.

What advice do you have for the College’s students and graduates who want to take part in the New Evangelization? Who are some models for them?

My advice would be to read — a lot. I would caution them not to rush into the new technology. Make sure they’re really grounded and formed. Think of Fulton Sheen, who had advanced degrees from Louvain and was very, very well acquainted with the Catholic philosophical and theological tradition. Think of Chesterton and of Newman, of Lewis and Peter Kreeft. Those are the models. My fear is that people are going to rush into the new media, and Facebook, without something substantial to say. I really believe it is the old technology that you have to do first. It’s books! I would read, and read, and read. That would be my advice.

Going back 10 years or so now, when Hitchens, Dawkins, and others were advancing the New Atheism and doing a lot of debates, it was terribly frustrating to see the pathetic efforts Christians were making to engage with them. We had dropped our intellectual tradition, our apologetic tradition, and just run into the arms of the culture; then, when the culture turned on us with knives and guns, we had nothing; we were just mowed down. And so, one thing I tried to do — this was very early on in my new media work — was to respond to the New Atheists with YouTube videos, countering their positions and trying to answer them. I know those have been widely viewed, and I’m happy about that.

We have to be the new Fulton Sheens. This is what I have told the students at Thomas Aquinas College, that they must be the vanguard. I want them to realize that they are in the arena now. What I would say to them is, “It’s up to you. This has been passed on to you, and you must defend it.” As Tolkien said, “It is not ours to choose the time we’re in, but to decide what to do with the time that is given us.” So yes, we’re in a very tough time, but it’s a good time for the battle.