Focus on the Media
A Thomistic Wayfarer: An Interview with Fr. Robert Barron
F
Fr. Robert Barron is expecting the Dominicans to help lead the way in defending
the Church against anti-religious polemics. Here’s how.
or you Dominicans, you young
Dominicans, we need a new
apologetics. And we need it
to be clear, confident, bold, and
smart. It is very important that we
know the obstacles and know how
we must respond. When I was
coming of age, we had dropped all
apologetics. It was seen as antiecumenical, negative, disputatious,
and all that. But what happened
was we dropped all of our weapons.
And then the culture—not entirely,
but sections of it certainly—turned
on us pretty energetically. Read
Dawkins, Hitchens, or Sam Harris,
or watch Bill Mahr, and you’ll find
vitriolic opposition to religion. If
the culture likes us and is open to
dialogue, great, but if the culture
has turned on us, then we'd better
have some weapons. We didn’t train
the last two generations of priests to
have any weapons, to be equipped
for apologetics. I would say that
you Dominicans should be in the
forefront of that recovery.
“A Thomistic Wayfarer: An Interview with
Fr. Robert Baron” by Brother Dominic Mary
Verner, O.P. Excerpt reprinted from the
Winter 2014 issue of Dominicana.
“ n an order
I
whose (arguably)
most prominent
theologian was
called the ‘Dumb
Ox,’ nothing could
be further from
the truth about
the men and
women who have
answered the call
to take up the
Dominican cloth.”
On May 27, 2013, Fr. Brian Shanley,
O.P., President of Providence
College, awarded an honorary
doctorate to Fr. Robert Barron,
who is the founder of the global
media ministry Word on Fire
(www.WordOnFire.org). This
ministry reaches millions of people
by utilizing the tools of the new
media to draw people into or back
to the Catholic Faith.
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4 | TheTrumpet
Preaching to college students
who are used to being preached
“at” in classrooms is a challenging
proposition; the priests at the Catholic
Center at NYU manage to share truth
in such a way that these young men
Dominican Foundation • Dominican Friars • Province of Saint Joseph
and women see the homily as more
than necessary. It becomes desirable.
For the order whose (arguably) most
prominent theologian was called the
“Dumb Ox,”, nothing could be further
from the truth about the men and
women who have answered the call
to take up the Dominican cloth.
We live in a culture where
relativism itself makes cattle of men
and true passion is reduced to fleeting
sensual pleasure. On campus, where
this relativism is often the dominant
ideology, these friars show by their
fearless defense of Truth that, in the
words of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Just as
it is better to illuminate than merely
to shine, so to pass on what one has
contemplated is better than to merely
contemplate.” I am grateful for the
opportunity to work alongside them
as they pass on the light of faith to all
those whom they encounter.
ABOVE: Fr. Justin Brophy, O.P., and
Fr. Austin Litke, O.P., 6