Aux. Bishop (Elect) Robert Barron on the New Evangelization

Fr. Robert Barron, the director of the Archdiocese of Chicago's Mundelein Seminary and the force behind the successful 10 hour series "Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith" (2011), has been named by Pope Francis as an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Los Angeles.  In Whispers in the Loggia, veteran Catholic chronicler Rocco Palmo announced this appointment as "Bishop Barron Goes Hollywood."

The Los Angeles Diocese is the largest in the United States ministering to five million Catholics.  Each of the three Los Angeles auxiliary bishops  pastoral areas are responsible for over one million faithful, which is greater than many entire diocese. 

While Archbishop José Gomez tenure as Coadjunctor (with Cardinal Roger Mahoney) as  Archbishop of Los Angeles has been seen to be tending to a diocese that is 70% Hispanic, having a "Hollywood" bishop may serve to invigorate the New Evangelization.

It is expected that Barron's ordination will occur sometime before Pope Francis' visit to America in late September.

Pope Francis on Social Media and Spirituality

Cardinal Sean O'Malley on Ordinations

During an interview with CBS News, Archbishop of Boston Sean Cardinal O'Malley offered an interesting opinion on ordinations.    

Much of the interview centered around Cardinal O'Malley's work in reforming clerical child abuse. But when the interviewer Nora O'Donnell pressed Cardinal Sean on whether it was immoral for the Catholic hierarchy to exclude women, O'Malley opined: “Christ would never ask us to do something immoral. It’s a matter of vocation and what God has given to us.”

Overall, the focus of the piece was to paint the bad old Catholic hierarchy as "The Holy See of Misogyny", which subjugates women to second class status, abuses children because of the discipline of clerical celibacy and denies womens' "right to choose" (from contraception to abortion).

In a short interview meant for a general audience, Cardinal Sean did not have the ability to put into soundbites all of the elements of Pope St. John Paul II's Ordinatio Sacerdotales (1994), which declares that there is no scriptural support for priestesses as well as underlining the Magisterium about the Church's teaching authority.

Perhaps Cardinal Sean's vellity about "if I were starting a church" is part of a New Evangelization outreach, but this did not seem like a positive reintroduction of doctrine to the unchurched. 

Scott Hahn on the New Evangelization

A Different Approach to Come My Way

Fr. Austin Litke, O.P. singing "Come My Way" at NYC Grand Central Station 

Pope Francis in Rio, 2013

During the 2013 World Youth Day celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Pope Francis exhorted the youthful pilgrims to “I want you to take to the streets. I want the Church to take to the streets.”  BlackFriar Films, a project of the Dominican Friars based in New York City, interpreted this call to the New Evangelization by taking a different approach to the Christian patrimony and take it to the streets.

In the "Come My Way, My Truth, My Life" video, Fr. Austin Dominic Litke, O.P. sings the traditional Anglican hymn on the streets of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge while donned in his medieval Dominican habit.





The initial juxtaposition of ethereal beauty with the backdrop of the frenetic city which seemingly never sleeps underlines the timeless message which the George Herbert poem (1633) is based.

George Herbert (1595-1633)

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a way as gives us breath;
Such a truth as ends all strife,
Such a life as killeth death.

Such a way as gives us breath;Such a truth as ends all strife,Such a life as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a light as shows a feast,
Such a feast as mends in length,
Such a strength as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:Such a joy as none can move,Such a love as none can part,Such a heart as joys in love.

By exposing youth to the beauty and truth to Christian tradition, Dominicans have experienced a boom in vocations.  Moreover, breathing life into tradition by taking it to the streets makes it contemporary and contemplative. 

Drawn to Eternal Truths–“The Truth Is Out There” Comic

A cloistered Eastern Rite  Catholic monk drew upon his lifelong love of comics to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Amadeus, the nom de plum of the author who is part of the Maronite Monks of The Most Holy Trinity  in Petersham, Massachusetts, penned the short graphic novel “The Truth Is Out There” (2013) to explain the truths of the faith in an understandable manner.

The germ for the graphic novel was based on a conversation that the author had prior to entering the monastery with several cradle Catholics who were born and raised in the faith.  As they conversed, Amadeus realized how little any of them knew the faith.  He concluded that the ignorance of this splendor of truth was a stumbling block for his generation of Catholics.

“The Truth Is Out There” depicts two space aged mail carriers discussing life, the universe and everything at a coffee bar.  As the protagonists Brendon and Eric  contemplate the right path to truth and true happiness , one finds his answers ensconced in the Catholic Church.

Although Amadeus seeks to educate readers, since the characters start at the very beginning readers do not have to possess any faith to appreciate the thoughful ideas which they will encounter.  “The Truth Is Out There” seems to avoid shallow and syrupy characterizations typical of Christian media. And the plot allows the space aged couriers to put their coffee house principles to the test in the real “world”.

The author Amadeus had a lifelong love of comics and was inspired by the “Adventures of Tintin”.  His love of drafting prompted him to become an aerospace engineer.  Yet  in 2003, he answered the call to become a contemplative monk, so Amadeus  tried to put those illustration influences aside for his vocation of Eucharistic Adoration as well as praying the Divine Office and the Divine Liturgy.

Maronite Monks in worship

Amadeus found that: “[T]he moment I entered the silence of the cloister, it was like my head was flooded with cartoons. It was nonstop: I just had all these great ideas.”  With much mortification, Amadeus put the project off for a couple of years.  But Amadeus wanted to share the riches of Truth in philosophy and theology which he had discerned in his life as a contemplative monk.

Initially, Amadeus thought of sharing these insights in an illustrated letter, copying the traditions of illuminated manuscripts.  But he found that too boring and decided to do a series of comic strips because that is what he does best. Amadeus opined that: “The harder an idea is, the more helpful it is to draw it out.”

Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI proclaimed this liturgical year to be the Year of Faith.  While it celebrated the Golden Anniversary of the start of the Vatican II Council, it also embraced Pope Blessed John Paul II’s call for the New Evangelization.  The New Evangelization is meant to repropose the Gospel to those who have heard and forgotten the Good News as well as to those never exposed to the Christian message.

Even though a cloistered Maronite Monk seems like an unlikely messenger for a contemporary call to faith via pop art, the Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways.  Bishop Gregory Mansour, of the Maronite Eparchy of Brooklyn, wrote that :

[S]omehow the words 'comic book' and 'intellectually challenging' don’t usually go together, but they do in 'The Truth is Out There' by Amadeus…Thank you, Amadeus, for presenting the journey from the prison walls of our mind to the exhilarating freedom of the truth in such an exciting way.

While comics are not my favored medium of entertainment or education, if a graphic novel can inspire other readers to see that “The Truth Is Out There” and contemplate eternal truths, that’s wonderful.

h/t: Catholic News Agency