Father Robert Barron’s inordinately charitable review of the Noah Movie makes me wonder what they’re teaching at the seminary he runs

by Doug Lawrence

First, let me paraphrase the Modernists: We know that the ancient people who wrote the Bible were crude, uneducated folk who merely set down in writing various myths that had been handed down to them by countless others. In light of that fact, modern-day biblical understanding, illuminated by our superior intelligence and our more highly developed rational thought processes, tends to be  substantially more reliable and much closer to the truth than the plain-sense, literal meaning of the biblical texts.

In short: THAT can’t be RIGHT.
THIS is obviously what God had in mind!

In his twisted but generally positive review of the dismally poor Noah Movie, Father Barron appears to “genuflect” to these Modernist ideas – something he has also often done in the past, in regard to other biblical matters. This tendency, when present in the Rector of a major Catholic Seminary, tends to leave me somewhat ill at ease.

Read Father Barron’s review here

 

The second installment of the popular “Catholicism” series by Fr. Robert Barron is being released this month

Denver, Colo., Sep 4, 2013 / 12:54 pm (CNA).- The second installment of the popular “Catholicism” series by Fr. Robert Barron is being released this month, with a focus on the New Evangelization and the Church’s response to secularism in the West.

“While the content of the Apostolic Faith remains the same, all Catholics are called to share it with new ardor, new expressions and new methods,” said Fr. Barron in a statement announcing the Sept. 3 release.

“We need to reach out to those in our culture and invite them to know Christ and also reach out to those who have already been baptized, but have drifted. We are called to awaken their faith and bring them closer to Jesus Christ and to his Church.”

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Fr. Barron’s Recommended Books on Philosophy

Here are his recommended titles:

• The God of Faith and Reason by Robert Sokolowski
• Faith, Hope, Love by Josef Pieper
• The Four Cardinal Virtues by Josef Pieper
• The Silence of St. Thomas by Josef Pieper
• Aquinas by Fr. Frederick Copleston, SJ
• The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
• The Dialogues of Plato by Plato
• On Being and Essence (De Ente Et Essentia) by St. Thomas Aquinas

More from Brandon Vogt’s blog

Fr. Robert Barron appointed new rector of Mundelein, IL Catholic seminary

The Archbishop of Chicago, Francis Cardinal George, announced today Father Robert Barron has been appointed Rector-President of Mundelein Seminary/University of St. Mary of the Lake. Father Barron will assume this role in July at the seminary located outside Chicago.

“As a priest of Jesus Christ I accept this responsibility with joy,” said Father Barron. “The appointment brings together many of the elements that have long been of great importance to me, namely, the priesthood, theological scholarship, pastoral care and evangelization.”

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EWTN to air “Catholicism” series episodes that didn’t appear on PBS

EWTN will air the following six episodes of “Catholicism” per the schedule below:

• The Fire of His Love – Prayer and the Life of the Spirit: 9 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Nov. 16 and 4 p.m. ET, Saturday, Dec. 3.
• Happy Are We – The Teachings of Jesus: 10 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Nov. 16 and 1 p.m. ET and 10 p.m. ET, Saturday, Nov. 19
• A Body Both Suffering and Glorious – The Mystical Union of Christ and the Church: 11 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Nov. 16 and 2 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET, Saturday, Nov. 19.
• World Made Flesh, True Bread of Heaven – The Mystery of the Liturgy and the Eucharist: 11 p.m. ET, Thursday, Nov. 17 and 4 p.m. ET, Saturday, Nov. 19, and 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, Dec. 10.
• A Vast Company of Witnesses – The Communion of Saints: 10 p .m. ET, Friday, Nov. 18 and 5 p.m. ET, Saturday, Nov. 19, and 11 p.m. ET, Dec. 11.
• World Without End – The Last Things: 11 p.m. ET, Friday, Nov. 18 and 6 p.m. ET, Saturday, Nov. 19, and 10 p.m. ET, Dec. 17.

Link

“Catholicism” – part three: A Marian home run!

by Doug Lawrence

After the last two installments of Father Robert Barron’s “Catholicism” program (WTTW Chicago/PBS/ Word on Fire) I wasn’t really expecting too much, from this one.

But I had obviously forgotten that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who was the primary subject of today’s episode, can never disappoint. (Praise God.)

Using some of the most famous Marian sites around the world for his “set”, Father Barron certainly made his point … and he did it charitably, sweetly, and in a genuinely Catholic way … just as Mary always has.

It was beautiful, and well worth watching.

All glory, praise and honor to God,
who saves us … and Ave Maria!

Related links:

Why Catholics Venerate Mary

Mary, Universal Mom

The Legion of Mary

“Catholicism” – Episode 2: Unsatisfying. Generally pointless. Sometimes misleading.

by Doug Lawrence

Watching the second installment of Father Robert Barron’s “Catholicism”, currently airing on local PBS stations, I couldn’t help asking myself, “Is there a point to this?”

Expecting to pick up a tip or two about the Catholic faith, all I seemed to be getting was a rather protracted explanation of all the things we DON’T and CAN’T know about God.

If we Catholics know so little about God, then what is the basis of what the Church has been teaching for the last 2000 years? Father Barron offered little or nothing to us, in that regard.

Then, question number six of the old Baltimore Catechism, came to mind:

6. Q. Why did God make you?

A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.

“To know” Him, because we must know of a thing before we can love it. A poor savage in Africa never longs to be at a game or contest going on in America, because he does not know it and therefore cannot love it. We see a person and know him; if he pleases us we love him, and if we love him we will try to serve him; we will not be satisfied with doing merely what he asks of us, but will do whatever we think might give him pleasure. So it is in regard to God. We must first know Him-learn who He is from our catechisms and books of instruction, but especially from the teaching of God’s ministers, the Holy Father, bishops and priests. When we know Him, we shall love Him. If we knew Him perfectly, we should love Him perfectly; so the better we know Him the more we shall love Him. And as it is our chief duty to love Him and serve Him upon earth, it becomes our strict duty to learn here whatever we can of His nature, attributes, and holy laws. The saints and angels in Heaven know God so well that they must love Him, and cannot therefore offend Him.

You have all seen some person in the world, or maybe several persons, whom you have greatly admired; still you did not love them perfectly; there was always some little thing about them in looks, manners, or disposition that could be rendered more pleasing; some defect or want you would like to see supplied; some fault or imperfection you would like to see corrected. Now suppose you had the power to take all the good qualities you found in the persons you loved and unite them in one person, in whom there would be nothing displeasing, but everything perfect and beautiful. Do you not think you would love such a person very much indeed?

Moreover, suppose you knew that person loved you intensely, would it not be your greatest delight to be ever with such a friend? Well, then, all the lovable qualities and beauties you see in created beings come from God and are bestowed by Him; yet all the good qualities on earth and those of the angels and saints in Heaven, and even of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, if united in one person would be nothing compared to the goodness and beauty of God. How good and how lovable, therefore, must He be! And what shall we say when we think that He loves us with a greater love than we could ever love Him, even with our most earnest efforts? Try then first to know God and you will surely love and serve Him. Do not be satisfied with the little you learn of Him in the Catechism, but afterward read good books, and above all hear sermons and instructions.

“In this world:” Because unless we do what is pleasing to Him in this world we cannot be with Him in the next. Our condition in the next world depends entirely upon our conduct in this. Thus we have discovered the answer to the great question, What is the end of man; for what was he made?

From this, it’s clear that God revealed enough about himself to enable us to know him and love him. So why all the nonsense?

In my last post I called Father Barron a modernist, because it seemed as though he didn’t seem to believe in Satan, the devil … or at least, he failed to acknowledge Satan’s particular role in the fall of man and our subsequent redemption in Jesus Christ.

Now I’m beginning to see the inherent weakness in all of the various catechetical schemas that have been foisted on unsuspecting Catholics since the beginning of the post-Vatican II deconstruction of the Church:

Many of our current priests and bishops have little or no regard for Tradition, Divine Revelation, the Sacred Deposit of Faith, the infallibility and divine inspiration of Sacred Scripture, and/or the continuing role of the Holy Spirit in guiding the Church.

Instead, we have church leaders, theologians, intellectuals and other alleged scholars attempting to use human logic alone to makes sense out of things which can only be understood in the light of faith, according to the grace of God.

Somebody should have told Father Barron that we Catholics know something about God from reading the Bible … particularly, the Gospels … from the teachings of the Apostles (who knew Jesus Christ personally) from their successors (who learned first hand, what the Apostles knew about Jesus Christ) … from the writings of the saints … from our own personal encounters with God, in and through our reception of the Sacraments .. and from the Holy Spirit himself, who, indwelling the souls of the faithful … intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27)

The Baltimore Catechism seems to indicate that this should be quite enough for us … at least for now. The rest can wait until the Kingdom comes!

It would have been much nicer to have dealt with these “positives” rather than spending half an hour discussing only what we don’t know.

The only redeeming part of the entire episode was the short discussion segment, near the end, when the producer asked a few questions that finally managed to elicit some fairly concrete answers from our good theologian/priest.

Here’s hoping that the next episode, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, will be much more edifying.

“Catholicism” Part One: I give it four and a half stars. But there’s a couple of problems.

by Doug Lawrence

Part one of Catholicism, by Father Robert Barron, which aired tonight on PBS station WTTW, in Chicago, was beautiful, awe inspiring, thought provoking, and inspirational.

Father Barron is a gracious host and guide. He knows his scripture, he knows his Catholic theology, and he obviously knows God. (Thanks be to God, for that!)

But there’s a couple of  problems with Father Barron’s approach: He’s appears to be a modernist, who believes in relatively late dating of the Gospels (he believes that Mark, not Matthew was the first Gospel to be written) and he doesn’t seem to believe in Satan, the devil!

While Father Barron did a great job of developing the idea of spiritual combat … in this case, the meek, non-violent, God-man, Jesus Christ, set against Pagan Rome’s Caesar Augustus and all his legions … allied with the nameless, faceless, unidentified forces of evil. But he totally forgot (or decided not) to mention the “Prince of this World” … Satan, the devil … who was the Christ-acknowledged head of all those pagan (and Jewish) minions.

Father Barron also neglected to mention that one of the most essential and significant results of Jesus’ saving death on the cross was to destroy Satan’s power over mankind, and bring an end to Satan’s (legal but totally illicit) dominion, over all the earth.

Who knows … maybe he’ll take up those subjects in the next installment. Tune in next week for the exciting and inspiring 2nd installment of Catholicism. It’s definitely worth watching.

If you missed part one, it will air once again this coming Sunday, at 4 pm, on WTTW (channel 11.1). Check your local listing for days and times in other areas.

Visit the Catholicism website

Related theological content

Catholicism series: “I hope this is a shot in the arm that reinvigorates Catholics’ sense of faith.”

The Rev. Robert Barron opens his documentary “Catholicism” with words one might expect to hear from a skeptic or scholar, not from a Roman Catholic priest. He calls Jesus a strange and dangerous historical figure and alludes to his potentially divisive nature.

After all, you’re either with him or against him, right?

“I wanted to get people’s attention and draw their attention to the fact that Jesus is a very distinctive and disturbing figure because of the claims he makes about himself and the claims the church makes about him,” said Barron, 51. “He’s not just another bland spiritual teacher among many.”

Read more from Chicago Tribune

Catholicism series with Father Robert Barron to debut this week.

Click to see times and stations

The best sermon you’ve ever heard. The best class you’ve ever taken …

Father Robert Barron’s “Catholicism”

You don’t have to be Catholic, want to be Catholic, or even like Catholics to go on this journey. It’s not a homily. Barron doesn’t preach at you. The series is not just challenging to others, it also challenges itself: Barron’s producer occasionally questions him on camera.

And yet, it’s also the best sermon you’ve ever heard; the best class you’ve ever taken. Or the homily you’ve never heard and the classroom you never had available to you.

The 10-part series, partially to be aired on 80 PBS stations, the EWTN network and available in a 10-DVD set, is a trip to the Holy Land, Chartres, the Sistine Chapel, Calcutta, and Uganda.

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George Weigel gives Father Robert Barron and the new “Catholicism” series a “thumbs up”!

…I wondered whether someone, somewhere, at some point, would do a “Civilization”-like series on Catholicism itself: a Grand Tour of the Catholic world that explored the Church as a culture through its teaching, its art, its music, its architecture—and above all, through the lives it shaped. That has now happened. The result is the most important media initiative in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.

The man responsible for this feat is Father Robert Barron, a priest of the archdiocese of Chicago and a faculty member at Mundelein Seminary. Father Barron is an old friend (and a colleague on NBC’s Vatican coverage), but I’ll risk the charge of special pleading by stating unequivocally that

Father Barron’s “Catholicism”, a 10-part series premiering on public television stations around the country this fall, is a master work by a master teacher.

In 10 episodes that take the viewer around the Catholic world, from Chartres to the slums of Calcutta and dozens of points in-between, Father Barron lays out the Catholic proposal in a visually stunning and engaging series of presentations that invites everyone into the heart of the faith, which is friendship with Jesus Christ.

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George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and was the personal biographer of Pope John Paul II.

Groundbreaking Series on Catholicism Coming Up On PBS

CHICAGO — Inspired by Kenneth Clark’s 1969 BBC television series Civilization, Father Robert Barron always dreamed of doing something similar to showcase the beauty of the Catholic Church.

More than two years and 12 trips to 16 different countries later, the result is an ambitious 10-part documentary series called Catholicism (CatholicismSeries.com). Parts of the unprecedented documentary will start to air nationwide on PBS at the end of September through the fall.

“This is the most important media project in the history of the Catholic Church in America,” said papal biographer George Weigel. “Catholicism could well become one of the most significant efforts ever to advance what Pope John Paul II called the New Evangelization.”

Read more

Coming to PBS in October: “Catholicism” – 10 part series – with Father Robert Barron

Visit the website

Until Father Corapi comes back: A few worthy Catholic “pinch hitters”.

Father Robert Barron’s

“Word On Fire”

Catholic video homilies and commentaries

on key issues of the day.

 

Michael Voris’ “Real Catholic TV”

Traditional Catholic videos

on a host of different topics.

 

Timeless Catholic videos

by the late Archbishop Fulton J Sheen

It doesn’t get any better!

 

NEW! Catholic TV On WGN In Chicago: Sunday Mornings at 9:30.

Just a quick note about a great new, 1/2 hour Catholic TV program that is now appearing in the Chicago area, on WGN (broadcast channel 9) every Sunday morning, at 9:30.

The show also appears on cable (WGN Coast To Coast – check local listings for time and availability.)

The host of the show is Father Robert Barron, who is a brilliant theologian, a great inspirational speaker, and a good priest.

Father Barron is based in Chicago, and he carries on the great broadcast teaching tradition of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Father John Corapi.

No need to say anything more.

Just remember to tune in next Sunday morning. Or, if you can’t wait, visit Father Barron’s website: Word On Fire.