Bishop Robert Barron

October 09, 2019

Talking with skeptics on Reddit

I just finished my second dive into the Reddit AMA world. One of the most popular websites in the world, Reddit is a forum for all sorts of online conversations and presentations.

June 19, 2019

The danger of the California confession bill

SB 360, a piece of proposed legislation making its way through the California state senate, should alarm not only every Catholic in the country, but indeed the adepts of any religion.

May 08, 2019

Pain is not metaphysically basic

I write these words on Holy Thursday, as the Christian world enters into the holiest and most spiritually intense time of the year. The long season of Lent has prepared us to delve once more into the mystery of the dying and rising of the Lord Jesus.

February 06, 2019

‘Bird Box’ and spiritual warfare

The film “Bird Box,” based on a British novel of the same name, started streaming on Netflix around Christmastime. Starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich, it is a taut thriller that manages, perhaps despite itself, to shed considerable light on the parlous spiritual condition of contemporary culture.

January 09, 2019

Evangelizing a skeptical culture

During this Christmas holiday, I read Anthony Gottlieb’s breezy and enjoyable history of modern philosophy titled “The Dream of Enlightenment.”

July 25, 2018

What ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ gets right and wrong

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.

June 20, 2018

A reflection on the Irish referendum

I will confess that as a person of Irish heritage on both sides of my family, I found the events in Ireland recently particularly dispiriting. Not only did the nation vote on May 25, by a two-to-one margin, for the legal prerogative to kill their children in the womb, but they also welcomed and celebrated the vote with a frankly sickening note of gleeful triumph.

May 09, 2018

The year’s most unexpectedly religious film

I went to see “A Quiet Place,” John Krasinski’s new thriller, with absolutely no anticipation of finding theological or spiritual themes. I just wanted a fun evening at the movies. It’s wonderful when a film surprises you.

April 11, 2018

A case for priestly celibacy

There is a very bad argument for celibacy that has reared its head throughout the tradition and which is, even today, defended by some. It runs something like this: married life is morally and spiritually suspect; priests, as religious leaders, should be spiritual athletes above reproach; therefore, priests shouldn’t be married.

March 07, 2018

The death of an evangelical titan

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Billy Graham preach about 20 years ago in Cincinnati. At the time, Graham was around 80 years old and clearly in frail health. He came to the podium and commenced to speak, but the crowd of young people, stirred up by the Christian rock bands who had performed earlier, was restive and inattentive. Graham paused, folded his hands, and quietly said, “Let us pray.” With that, a stadium of 50,000 people fell silent. Once a spirit of reverence held sway, the preacher resumed. I remember thinking, “What an old pro!”
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