Bishop Barron on Not Dumbing Down the Faith: Answers to Young People's Pressing Religious Questions 

Here here!

I appreciate you for saying this. I had pulled away from his talks because I feel I am more of a traditional catholic but I was so inspired by his interview/talk with Shia LeBouf about his conversion during his role as Padre Pio, and that has brought me back to watching/listening to him. I agree that Bishop Baron is honest, forthright, serious and holy.

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Even though I do like a lot of the traditional catholic wing of the faith, there is also a lot of hate and bad mouthing being tossed around, specially by Taylor Marshall. He’s always quick to point the finger at Bishop Barron but pretends to ignore when Bishop Barron takes a stance more in line with the traditionalist - case in point his recent comments on our president and abortion. Bishop Barron has done more for Catholicism than the vast majority of traditional Catholics that choose to live by their bitter tongues and sow division in the church.

I attend the traditional mass. Taylor does not speak for me. He is bad news. He straight up deceives. It’s unfortunate. Many traditionalist need to be heard and are correct. People like Bishop Barron needs to stop being an enemy of them. Should be room for all. We don’t have to be held hostage by the extremists

I was raised Catholic, left the faith and returned. It seems you would like come back, but are snagged on something. If you desire to be engaged, all I could engage you with is my own experience. I was very faithful and joyful in the Church growing up, but I saw many of my friends turn away and scorn the church, and also saw the rise of the New Atheists like Dawkins and Harris. There were many criticisms levelled at the Church, which I could not answer. And I could not see a forceful defence of the Church. So after a thousand cuts, I lost my faith, and felt compelled to ascent to atheism, almost in a sense of humiliating defeat, like the faith had been beaten out of me. The rationalistic worldview seemed unassailable. It was true because "it worked" and "science flies man to the moon, while religion flies planes into buildings." i believed those slogans. I knew them to be true in my mind. I am an Australian and spent a year in my early 20s living in England and touring Europe. When I returned to Australia I lamented the lack of beautiful traditional architecture we had compared to Europe. This sounds random, but is important. I asked friends if they loved the traditional architecture they saw in Europe, and they all raved about it, but when I said "Dont you think we should build like that today" they all said, "no, we can't, it's in the past." This didn't make sense. I watched lectures and debates about traditional architecture and the modernists, who claimed a mantle of rationality and realism, always deferred to an arbitrary idea of obsolescence, that some styles were in the past and some were not, for some very important reason that no one ever said. And that is the thread I pulled that would eventually unravel the entire modern worldview, which is dependent on notions of sterility, mechanics, obsolescence and a self delusion of objectivity. As if the future was obviously right and the past was obviously wrong, because the iPhone 5 was obviously better than the iPhone 4, 3, 2 and 1. One day Sam Harris (who I was a fan of) posted on FB that of course we can have objective morality if we only *assume*A morality means the well being of all sentient life. I almost chucked my phone out the window. "If Sam! If! IF! IF! IF!You demand all these proofs for God, but expect us to just grant you an entire worldview on an assumption!" It was evident Sam Harris had no reasonable basis to suggest morality was a legitimate concept, but was okay with that. The comments erupted with an argument over the issue, with one side pointing out this obvious flaw, while the other side couldn't even perceive it. I realised the new atheist phenomenon was based around a kind of blindness to the most important aspects of human existence. The kind of rationalism that claims to answer all questions does so by blinding itself to any question that doesn't fit neatly into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Our rational faculties are a vital gift, but the rationalist ideology is a self soothing myth by which man convinces himself he can be his own God. At this point I felt something really off. I can't say I believed in God then, but felt his presence, like feeling cold because I was standing in God's shadow. A year or two later I listened to CS Lewis "The Abolition of Man" audio book. He so thoroughly described and predicted the modernist/rationalist kind of blindness I was seeing, and explained the raising of Technocracy. He articulated how our effort to reduce things to mere rationalist algorithms results in us cutting away anything that can't be articulated through that lens, and that man's conquest for power over nature will always lead to mass human enslavement, since power is always held by a few, and men are a part of nature. In that moment, I admitted to myself that I had a felt a presence for a while and that presence was God. I was bumbling and fairly uninformed, but began to read more. The more I looked into the more I saw how blatantly and shamelessly the new atheists had distorted reality in their arguments against religion. I found that Dawkins denial of the existence of an actual historical Jesus is a rather sad and petty attempt to accept that yes, the evidence is very strong for that. I saw Christopher Hitchens despicable defamation of Mother Theresa was just absolute garbage, and probably motivated by his Marxist leaning to strike back at the catholic Church for helping topple the soviet union in the 90s I saw how so many historical crimes of the Catholic Church are absolutely distorted, such as the crusades, inquisitions, persecution of Galileo and a million other things. I have to take my gorgeous 1 year old daughter to a farm now so she can pat animals and ride a tractor. I can say my return to God and the Church has given me a strength and grounding that is invaluable. Beat wishes to you. God Bless. And Happy Easter.

Oh, and don't get me started about the sex abuse scandal in the Church. I'm happy the failings of the church have been exposed and abusers are being purged... ... But if you do even a small amount of research it becomes clear the catholic Church has been falsely singled out as a hot bed for sex abuse when even at the worst times sex abuse in the church was similar or even lower than levels found in other institutions. The Catholic church, being serious about purging abuse, has engaged in a lot of self study to expose as many cases of abuse as possible. Many of the things you read in the media criticising the church actually is sourced from the churches own efforts to tackle this problem. The Church is the single institution that has most transparently confronted sex abuse in its ranks. It airs its dirty laundry in public and is rewarded with relentless demonisation by hypocritical bystanders who are happy to remain in their own soiled underwear.

@@pattyb6003 Man, that was a long read but a good read. I was baptised this Easter, entered the Catholic Church and Faith with no Christian or religious background. I whole heartedly agree. I feel that much of contemporary atheism is something like an intellectual-trend. And a lot of it presents a type of pseudo-profundity. True, that there is a lot of failings and issues within the Faith and Church, but the modernist line between honest critique and errant deconstruction never becomes a point of focus or method. Overtime, what people “think” Catholicism, Christianity, or even religion itself resembled more of a caricature then true understanding. It’s easy to dismiss something if all they know is that superficial caricature. It’s a sad and pervasive type of misunderstanding. God Bless, from a fellow Australian 👌👍

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink

People need to stop thinking their intellect is superior to that of God.

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I think you brought up a very interesting point. I left the Catholic Church when I was 18 because our religion classes were terrible, and the whole thing didn't make any sense to me. I've been working in science for 25 years, and always been very analytical too. Only now, decades later, I found back to the Catholic Faith, after a lot of work put into wrapping my head around it. I'm actually not quite convinced that religious education for children is really helpful; I think Catholic YT-channels (like this one), blogs and sites targeted at adults are doing a better job at conveying the Catholic message.

Ask questions! It’s essential for spiritual growth.

@@jean-baptistedupont5967 it’s not. I’ve picked up material for kids, and it’s absurd to me what they teach children. I left the church and went to Judaism for about 10 years. I didn’t see Orthodox Jews dumbing down Torah or Halacha to children. As soon as they could read, they were teaching these kids the real deal. I was impressed when a group of children could ask better questions than I could, and I was in my 20s with a college degree! So absolutely…I’m all for this. No dumbing down the faith. To anyone. Give them the richness.

@@ntmn8444 Excellent point! Cheers.

@Bishop Robert Barron Thank you Bishop Barron for this explanation. I really needed to hear this , please pray for my 3 sons young adult boys 27,21 and 18 years old. I do pray for the youth, it is a challenge time, but I believe God is faithful and good always 🙏💒.

Your mother reminded me of Vererable Mama Margarita, Don Bosco mother 🙏💕😃

@Bishop Robert Barron please do not pretend to be the Bishop! Thank you.

protestants will tell you otherwise just because he is catholic....sad

Hello Jeanette, I saw your comment on this Bishop Barron video and God compelled me to reply to you. We have a Playlist on our RU-vid channel to give you insight in The Meaning of Life. We would appreciate if you would visit our channel by tapping our name or using the link below. Please give us a thumbs up/down on the videos and comments/questions are always welcomed! What will help us to spread our message is you sharing the video too! ru-vid.com/group/PLThGAQIV8ca3SvOtBZ6BoxacwkU37-lYb Thank you and may God bless you and your family always!

I agree with Jeannette, power of prayer for these young ones.

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Prayer is everything

I hear you Theresa. Thank God for the Catechism of the Catholic Church because now we have a reference for the basics of our faith. Faith and Reason do not contradict each other. We do have reasons for our faith.

She didn't. Period.

I dont mean to be so off topic but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account? I was stupid forgot my password. I love any assistance you can give me!

@Johan Joseph instablaster :)

@Armani Ibrahim i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now. I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

Hi Ana. I invite you to come home to the Catholic Church when you are ready. Jesus started the Catholic Church despite the failures of some of its members. I invite you to pray about it.

B

@@TodayNowAlways Jesus didn't start the catholic church Constantine did. Jesus preached the kingdom is at hand the Apostles started the universal Church catholic comes from the Greek phrase καθόλου katholou ' Meaning whole(universal)

👏👏🙏🙏🙏

@@seanorourke5137 please check your answer again🙏🙏🙏

So, you aren't protesting ANYTHING really, that's awesome GOOD news☆ Just joking☆ *Thanks for comment.*

@@marypinakat8594 hahaha ; )

@@sjappiyah4071 ☆Stay blessed☆

You are welcome here. Enjoy

@@sjappiyah4071 Everyone, just anyone has a place in the Catholic Church☆

Love this!!! God bless you as you grow in faith and knowledge. 🙏🏻

👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏🙏

P8009⁸⁹AND

The Holy Spirit has such an amazing way of leading each one of us to where we need to be. I can’t imagine what it’s like to see combat, so today, I pray a special prayer for you. 🙏 Fr Mike Schmitz often talks about the brokenness we all have and the healing of God’s love for us. 🙏💙

Keep searching, Bro. God be with you and keep you in the journey of faith.

Thanks for your service brother, God bless you

Same here. It was really watered down. I think it's a combination of a few things - the interpretation of Vatican II, the Land-o-Lakes agreement, teachers themselves were not well-formed, and many students in Catholic school aren't even Catholic so teachers have to tread carefully.

Catholic school teachers don't make a lot of money, so maybe they left you wanting more. That's okay, you have the rest of your life to learn what you are missing.

I got dumped in catholic school for about 2 years and i hated it. Did not agree with me, especially when they tried suppressing my art talent (I drew monsters and such and they saw it as disturbing). Was happy when I finally went to a public school.

I experienced the same thing growing up as a Catholic. I felt my knowledge of my faith so inadequate after high school that I almost left the church. Thank God I didn't but instead, by the grace of God, I started reading Catholic Apologetics and theology books to learn more about my faith including reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Summa by St. Thomas Aquinas, Yes or No by Peter Kreeft, Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Bible, etc. Now I am happy to tell you that I am a practicing Catholic and that I would not leave the Catholic Church.

Yup, when need more evangelization and to teach more people about the faith

God bless you, Ron.

Bishop Baron, I awoke in the night and your video was playing. I listened. I am almost 79 and a catholic all my life but never have I been able to answer the questions you posed and answered so well. My family have fallen away from their Catholic faith and I do not know what to say or do in response to their education which has taught them to question and deny the act of faith but you have shown how science (modern day thinking) and faith in almighty God exist together. Thank you: and slowly, slowly I pray for a breakthrough. God bless you for your faith and teachings. Sincerely, Linda T

Clearly, I have a wee bit of a tardiness problem, lol. I just saw this and thought, I hope he is doing well! May I presume, just in case you, Ron, or anyone else, Jesus is always with us, you're not alone.

Ok

RachelAShalen and thank you👏🙏🙏

Well, God bless you, John. The Holy Spirit has been guiding you in this process.

👏👏🙏🙏🙏

Is there a link to this that you can share, sounds interesting. Thank you

What is the "the traveler's argument"?

Hallelujah 🙏

The Thomistic Institute presentations are wonderful. The Dominican's Aquinas 101 is a gift.

Hello fellow Catechist, We have been teaching for 10 years now and have had the same challenges as you have with teaching the Catechism. That is why we created the Catechism Corner to explore all that we have learned and to present different viewpoints to consider regarding God. Come check out our channel and view the Meaning of Life Playlist! You can tap on our name in this comment or use the link below. Please like/dislike any videos, comments/questions are always welcomed, and share our videos to get this important message out to the world! We are hoping to open the eyes of humanity and bring people back to God. ru-vid.com/group/PLThGAQIV8ca3SvOtBZ6BoxacwkU37-lYb Thank you and God bless you and your family always! Tony

Keep up the good fight.

So you rejected God?

It has to do with everyone of us has a free will and that has consequences; I too had that question; then I stumbled upon a movie called “The Shack” (Netflix , I think) ; It really clarified this very clearly- it was the most spiritually empowering movie-please watch it if you can- good characters and truly beautiful

And , of course , the teachings of Bishop Barron , who is using his gift from God to teach us every day!!

as a first responder and and a chaplain, I totally hear you. What happens in emergency services challenges faith. So glad you chose to use the experiences for your service to the dying. blessings to you and your work.

The election insanity was the fight between God and the Devil , a large number of Catholics vote for pro abortion candidates and it doesn't bother their conscience a little bit .

God bless you fellow Army 💜

Qq

Bishop Barron, I live in Hong Kong. I love listening to your talks and am blehssed to learn so much from you. I am a covert to Catholicism and an active member of the church. We run a Lifeteen program foor our teens and use your materials in teaching them. Thank you. You are great blessing to the Church and us. May God continue to bless you in your ministry.

Need to start doing this with my kids

8:35

I have found myself pouring in listening and living the gospel in this spontaneous and Christ-centered person and Bishop of God in this very critical times, after the loss of our beloved Pope Benedict, Ratzinger and the stepping in of our beloved Pope Francis (The loving Bergoglio). Bishop Barron is a great discerning companion I need, and I will be happy to share this gift from God to mankind in this world wherever I am. Thank you God for his person.

Praise God for your testimony, my suffering was imitated perfectly in your message, literally at the fiery gates I had come to the end, then out of the most terrifying hopelessness I found the strength to completely surrender everything to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I was transformed by the Holy Spirit overnight, I felt I was plugged into the electric grid, the world lost its darkness and was now technicolor, every addiction and its compulsion ceased, after decades of destruction, my sobriety was gifted to me, forgiveness, compassion and Love beyond all comprehension, 8 years on my journey continues getting more Glorious with time, I thank you Brother for sharing and may we continue through testimony to bring all whom we meet to the Truth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ x 🙏💜✝️

Apologies, I'm the husband of Mary Clare who's account is shared. Yours in Christ, Paul xx

Bishop Barron will be running GodTube in heaven.

Enjoy this Bishop's sermon. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WdLf3JaWYx0.html

@@peroercegovac1973 Friend. What proof do you have for your statements regarding Bishop Barron? Also, how can you say that Tam is not Catholic when he clearly states that he is?

If I may give my humble opinion, I think that is an important question to ask yourself, so don't feel bad about it. Even St. Paul says "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." in 2 Corinthians. The Father wants you to seek Him so He can reveal Himself to you.

I've heard Bishop Barron recommeding Thomas Merton´s Seven Mountain Story. Also, you might want to take a look a Joseph Ratzinger´s Introduction to Christianity and listen to what he has to say about religious doubts

Wow! We need more people like you! I was once like you with the same question and much more! I was even close to what they call an “Atheist” but have come to find the truth! I came back to my Catholic roots after studying various Religions throughout the world and eventually realizing what was the REAL question on my mind. It has been THE question of the time and God revealed the answer to me through the Holy Spirit! Please come and check out my playlist of short videos on the Meaning of Life. If you like it, please share it! ru-vid.com/group/PLThGAQIV8ca3SvOtBZ6BoxacwkU37-lYb

@DMT Core www.wordonfire.org/wp-content/media/bishop-barrons-recommended-books-copy-2.pdf

materdeiseminary.org

I AGREE we learn when the priest gives us info on new insghts in reading of the day connects to our day to day living, and how the sacrifice at Mass adoring ,loving , receiving Jesus in our heart, into are whole body is so necessary in order to remain close to our creator and our purpose in life truly all should and can experience daily whenever possible.

Good wishes to you☆ and God bless you heaps☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Great idea!

I appreciate an excellent homily from priests. So I go to the Mass when Jesuit Priests here in our small Island, Saipan. say the Masses. Our Bishop Ryan here in Saipan is an excellent Homilist. Pope Frances encouraging all priests to prepare n give excellent homilies.

@@chailangpalacios1768 Chesterton WASNT a priest but there are SOME HOMILIES" HIDDEN" in his writings.

mmm no, in fact latin america priests use those arguments to justify injustices perpretated by themselves. He sounds ironic to me.

@@franciscopalacios4638 On the child abuse? Im sorry to hear that. There must be a little politician inside the clergy

Right???!!😊 love that too

The priesthood is not sexism because it only allows men to be ordained. Sexism can also be the secular feminist attitude that it is a denigration for women to embrace motherhood. I love God's design of choosing men to be priests because at the heart of it is the image of the Father's love for us.

Remember this, not everyone agrees with Bishop Baron. It is far more important in life to learn how to think and come to decisions that are truly yours, than to simply accept without question that what you are taught as a child is true. I will say this to you, I, like you, do not walk the streets consumed by a fear of being eaten by fire breathing dragons because I don't believe in fire breathing dragons. I also don't walk the streets consumed by a fear of hell because no one fears something that they don't believe is true.

I spent most of my life identifying as a Christian and I am soon to be 65. I now call myself an atheist. I found waking up to be "enlightening" not a "crisis".

Amen! Which thanks to Christ's Body and Blood being offered to us daily in the thanksgiving feast of the Eucharist, we know we can enjoy life forever if we receive Him worthily! 🥰