2018 Synod: Listening Session with Young Adults

so our speaker today is Bishop Robert Barron many of you already know who he is he is the auxiliary bishop for the Los Angeles Archdiocese of Los Angeles and he is our regional bishop here in Santa Barbara region he is the founder of word on fire as well as the creator of of the Catholicism series and the follow-up Catholicism pivotal players and he's going to be here with us today to ask you some questions because he's going to be going to Rome and speaking with the Pope about about vocations and discernment for the young people so we want to we want to welcome him as well as our host here father Luke Matta and he are modest scuse me and and he is here to interview and and question Bishop Baron with your questions and wonderful comments that you've already said so we want to welcome both of them to the stage right now if you will all please give them a warm welcome [Applause] [Music] thanks everybody listen thank you everybody for coming I'm delighted to see you it always lifts me up I mean to see especially young people coming together to you know understand the face to celebrate the faith and I really wanted this day because as you heard I'm going to the Synod so every three years they have a synod which is a gathering of bishops from around the world to consider some important topic in the life of the church so over the years we had many different topics so the Pope decided this year to talk about young people and a lot of us were just delighted with that choice you know because you guys you're the future of the church and how we reach out to you how we engage you is is essential right so anyway last November along with a few others I was elected as a delegate to go to the Synod so the bishops conferences around the world elect delegates then the Pope chooses some of his own as well so we're all gonna gather next week it's October 3rd we start and it'll be a whole month of deliberations every day I think everyone in the Senate is allowed to give a four minute speech so I even written mine yet I really seriously wanted to hear from you before I do it so I'll write that next week at some point and if I'm lucky I'll be able to to give us a little four minute talk but then what we do is we break into into small groups based on languages so all the English speakers Spanish speakers French speakers etc and then we try to process what we've heard and then finally the Synod produces like a document that's meant to express our views and it's on youth and vocational discernment the whole idea of hearing the voice of God and how to respond so anyway you know in preparation for this in my word on fire work I hear from young people all the time so I'm on you know YouTube and I hear people's comments there we have podcast shows and people respond but I thought you know I'd love to hear from my own region so we decided to organize this event and again delighted you came and and the idea of really is for me to listen to you today you know I could have given a talk to you but I thought they don't want to hear me talk I really want to hear from you what's on your minds and hearts and listen I mean under this rubric that I can literally bring your concerns right to Rome right to the Vatican right to the to the Pope and say here's what I'm hearing from young people so anyway that was the idea behind today so we've already called a number of questions from you I have not seen any of them so father Luke was is nice enough to kind of serve as moderator and just to you know introduce these questions again I don't know what they are and and I don't want to so much like give answers to all your questions as though that's gonna settle it it's really for me to hear from you so I might say a few things in response but it's it's more you know what's on your minds and hearts what I'm interested in okay so that's that's the format for this morning so with that maybe father Luke Thank You Bishop Aaron really what an honor and we're so grateful I think on behalf of all the young people who are here this morning we're so grateful to you we happen to have a regional bishop who it's kind of a superstar and we're so lucky to have you here really it's an honor and yes a lot of of the people here today have a lot of questions I think there is no way we can go through all of them no but I selected some of them a number of them were repeated so it's good because it's your own idea of where people are and here's the first question yeah I recently started watching your YouTube videos and your Catholicism series both have been helpful in strengthening my faith I read orthodoxy and started reading the Summa Theologica because you mentioned them in the video also you confirmed me at st. Maximilian Kolbe about two years ago back then I didn't know who you we're so it is good but I have now the opportunity to be with you and here's my question as a freshman at Cal State Northridge and there there isn't a Newman Center on campus is there anything being done to establish more Newman centers well you know I think the Newman centers are some of the best places today for engaging young people and and there's been kind of a revival of Newman centers around the country here I mean as Catholic centers at the universe especially at the secular universities because as you know I mean very often people feel under the gun at the secular universities where religions often seen as something old-fashioned or old hat or even oppressive and and I found as I wander around the country very often these vibrant Newman centers I just met a couple of the focused missionaries are here right UCSB as focus missionaries and they're doing fantastic work all over the country in engaging a college students around the faith so I I believe in this Newman centers I'm delighted to see the revival in them glad you mentioned the YouTube videos in Catholicism series maybe some of you've seen those but what I was trying to do is show the the truth of Catholicism but also the beauty of it exactly I really think that beauty is a way into people's hearts sometimes more than truth did I mean and we're a beautiful religion it's a great thing about Catholicism think of the arts and architecture and poetry and literature you know we've kind of embraced the beautiful and that actually came up in that in that document that came out in March based on what young people had said that the way of beauty is often a really good way into the faith and so I'm curious to know if that's true for for you guys that that can be an effective way to really engage the mind and heart but anyway the Newman centers I think are terrific and really important here's another question dear bishop Erin thank you for taking the time to give youth a voice we need one in our Paris and my question is but do the youth do when there is no place for them in the church after confirmation how do we encourage Perry's leadership to hire a youth minister yeah you know the Archbishop Gomez has said that's one of his goals that every single parish have we engaged youth minister and I think that's that's a very good goal it's a it's a classic problem you know in the Catholic Church is that a lot of people get confirmed and then it's like graduation day it's like see you later you know I tell the guys and gals that I confirm in the region Pope Francis was talking to a group of Confirmation students he said now remember this is not the sacrament of arrivederci that's like you're not graduating and leaving the church this is the sacrament of beginning right confirmations and initiation but parishes do face that I mean how do we re-engage young people and you guys know that I mean it's just a hard age often when the key pillar of 17 18 19 20 what gets them involved I mean in some ways please you tell me if you had a chance to say to Pope Francis so if he was right here your holiness here's the way to get 18 19 20 year olds involved what would you tell him you tell me who's got an idea i I'm Pope Francis what would you tell me go ahead come again so the church speak so not [Applause] yeah good it's helpful so not so much trying to compromise or trying to bend over backwards to make it appealing but to say what the Church teaches clearly and strongly would would energize and engage young people yeah what else comes to mind please go ahead please go ahead yeah and that's yeah so and what am I likely to hear and I mean to mean that honestly so if today we're doing kind of a listening session and if if I were listening 18 19 20 21 year old what would they say to me go ahead yeah yeah and again that's the way of beauty Pope Francis says that one of his encyclicals the the via pulchritudinous he put it in Latin it's the way of beauty as a way into people's hearts and that can be expressed right architectural liturgical II if the liturgy is done beautifully yeah good what else is on your mind I'm so curious go ahead please yeah she mentioned Eucharistic Adoration and I've always been fascinated by that that younger people seem to be drawn to this practice that you wouldn't think like you're just to sit or kneel for an hour before the Blessed Sacrament I mean what a young person find that engaging my own pet theory is it's because of of these machines that we all have right and that we're so preoccupied with our you know our technology so that we kind of like being able to sit prayerfully for a long period curious about that people enjoy respond to Eucharistic Adoration yeah in support of the Eucharistic Lord I appreciate please go ahead good yeah no that's good you good strong voice I heard that I don't think it's something that comes naturally to a lot of the young people I work with because they haven't been taught how to unplug and how to focus and how to really sit with God mm-hmm no you're right it's a it's a discipline it's a practice and like anything else am i how do you play golf and how do you play a musical instrument you got to be brought into that world and trained and I'm speaking as a bishop I've been at this for a long time but when I go on a retreat honestly the toughest thing for me is to put this away and put the email away and it is because that you we're like all kind of addicted to it aren't we and no no put that away you don't have to check your email obsessively you don't have to check your facebook feed it's not that important but we do get addicted to it and then you got to be trained what do you do in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament it's it's a it's an art and it's a discipline that's good please go ahead yeah no good I think you all heard that so greater access to the sacraments so I wonder if people feel that that somehow after confirmations over the young people feel well and I'm not being invited into the sacraments I'm not being availed the opportunity especially with confession yeah that's helpful go ahead please yeah yeah stagger the mass times even no it's good as practical suggestion but a good one what makes daily mass more available to people that's that's important please go ahead yeah life is scary Qatar [Music] yeah [Music] go ahead thank you for that and and there is a question the next question is similar to what you worth maybe you wrote it as a young Catholic alive in 2018 it seems like the church is constantly looking for ways to adjust to our age and our culture but I live in a culture of death why would anybody want to adjust the church to this kind of culture why are we trying to renew the church when my path to Christ is exactly the same as he has been for centuries since the beginning of the church why not renew the culture instead of renewing the church yeah good they're searching questions observations you're making there and they're classic dilemmas if you want in the history of the church call it the identity relevance problem and that goes back to the very beginning what I mean is there's the identity of the church so that it's got a structure it's got a form there's something eternal about the church absolutely and the church is always reaching out to whatever culture it finds itself in right so if it remains hyper stressed an identity it can lose a sense of connection when it becomes hyper stressed on connection it loses identity right so there's the classic way of stating the problem and watch it up and down the centuries my hero of st. Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages used Aristotle which was the kind of the science of the time right and many people thought that was very innovative and very dangerous but he thought it's the way best to reach out with the integrity of the faith to the culture so that's the general issue now how do we do that today you know is there a way to maintain our identity and our substance and our form and our structure and engage the modern world it's been a lot of my work you know with the YouTube stuff and all that is try to find points of contact in the culture I tend to have you know like in in movies or music or books or whatever's going on to find is there is there an analogy anyway or a point of contact with the faith so I quite agree it doesn't mean we abandon the faith and we try to just make it so amorphous that it appeals to anybody but there's still the the outreach you know so trying to find that balance I think is key God knows I live through a time like when I was kid younger than you guys where we were so strong on relevance I mean believe in a church kind of lost its its form and its identity I mean nobody least of all me wants that but I think there's also that other dynamic this of John Henry Newman said that the church is like like an animal in its environment right so if the animal moves through its environment and it takes in what it can it resists what it must otherwise it dies so an animal that is completely open to his environment is called a dead animal it's become its environment an animal that is is completely closed to its environment is also a dead animal it's not being fed etc so there's the church which is not a thing but a organism right it's the mystical body living its way through the world anyway I'm speaking more abstractly but those are the great principles involved I think that's really important to hear that from young people don't want a church that's become the world right that's become the environment within ho-hum who needs it will always be more entertained you know by by Beyonce and Justin Bieber than anybody playing music in the church I mean it's just it goes so if we're just trying to become the culture forget it so we come with our integrity and with our form and structure anyway that's it's helpful to me to hear that go here is open up to later to see one more kind of several people ask questions more or less on this topic as young people it is socially acceptable for us to walk away from the church there for those of us who are still here one the truth unadulterated how can authenticate radition be promoted in the world today yeah okay so one that the same lines and I know the walking away from the church thing I mean I've been studying this for a long time the stats are not good and you guys know that from your experience right now the one that stays in my mind for every one person that joins the Catholic Church so think of our CAA programs and people coming in for every one six are leaving the Catholic Church the army of what we call the nuns now at the end o n is those who say I have no religion the numbers for Catholics under 30 right now so people right in your age group is 50% one half of Catholics your age are now saying I have no religion so that's a very serious issue one that I want to bring to the Senate if I can is and I think everyone knows it what we're facing a major crisis so what do you do there's the question and and what I'm hearing from a number of you and from the questions is one thing we don't do is water the project down one thing we should not do is kind of cave into the culture and so on so I get that I get that that's important I think some people I know with that statement that came out in March from the young people that gathered in Rome they thought there was too much of that language of you know accommodation and we need to change this and that and I know there are other voices I'm hearing them today they're saying no that's not the way to go so I get that and I do I want to bring that too to Rome please go ahead I want to follow up please hello I just wanted to address the idea that sometimes the people who do gather in Rome the people who gather here are the people you're teaching to the choir right we tend to be the people who would say don't water down the teachings don't make accommodations we like it the way it is to some extent because we're here so what is how do you address the idea of the people who aren't here are the people we're trying to bring back but we're not getting their opinions in the room yeah and you're right about that and what I do in my work for example we're on fire one thing I've liked about like YouTube for example is it gets you totally outside the choir I mean believe me when I tell you I hear all the time from young people that don't like the church and don't like what we teach I mean I I definitely hear that and I'm happy to you know when I first started YouTube is your ago and I did some videos you know I know anything about YouTube it just started I didn't know you could comment on YouTube oh man did I find out I mean because yeah let's face it 95% of people that write on your comment but they're not saying hey bishop are you great I really like what you I mean 95% are coming after you so I mean I certainly know about that the trick is now how do you engage people like that and my approach has been to accentuate the positive as I say to accentuate those elements within the culture that are resident of the faith and that speak of it so it might be some movie that plane I never never thought any connection there but oh yeah there's actually an analogy with our Christology or our understanding of God or something so that's what I've used with with folks on online I'm not I'm not afraid to come back at people in fact I kind of like that when I get a really harsh response and once you filter through the you know personal stuff I say okay okay at least I got some traction now okay you gave me an argument well I can I'll argue back you know and I've actually found I wonder if you I wonder if you confirm this that people your age like that they like arguing about religion and you know if we can again get beyond all the emotions and you know name-calling let's really talk about this and and what I hear you saying is X Y & Z and I think x and y are okay but Z isn't right then alright then they come back at me and I I like that I like that the give and take so that's what I've tried to do to engage those who are outside you guys are living in it I mean you know that your friends and your peers are those who are leaving the church in great numbers I'd love to hear from you too how do you engage them how do you engage them go ahead I feel like the Catholic Church society views it as something that's you know so judgmental and like as a young person there's so many people who have different views and different beliefs so walking into church it's like you um you automatically feel kind of like judged and I feel like coming into my which I did to feel like that but they were so open and like I feel if you just have like a more open Church and like just understanding and actually like hearing people out like obviously you don't have to agree with them but just hearing people out just making people feel comfortable it's something that you know actually really helps people because I feel like that's why people leave ya know I appreciate that and this is good because we we don't want to lead with judgment Jesus doesn't do that doesn't lead with judgment Jesus calls to conversion no question about that but he tends to lead with that invitation you know it's the woman at the well it's the kiyose the man born blind look at all the different stories so that's good that's helpful if the church begins with judgment the first word we hear is one of moral correction that tends not to get a lot of traction with people especially young people because I mean you know this what's the number-one value in our society is toleration right I mean don't be judgmental is accept people as they are well you know and as the church I think we have to say yes and no to that I mean yes in a very fundamental way as a as a child of God is a beloved adopted son or daughter of God of course everyone's welcoming with love and so on and then people are called a conversion which always means there's gonna be a no to something you know we're all sinners in this room so we all need to have hear the word know as well but I I'm with you i think beginning with judgment if that's how people feel the church coming at them that's not gonna work go ahead please so I guess thinking a little bit along that same line something that would be wonderful so it's a little bit more depth and clarity I know a lot of good friends and myself included we often found at the time of confirmation you know we finished confirmation and then we had no idea where to go yeah we're entering that new stage in life in that new stage of depth where we're really seeking the truth we want to know God's will for ourselves particularly but we're not getting instruction and we're too young to figure it out just on our own you know obviously there's some degree of self discernment but assistance in that is that often seems lacking in parishes ya know I'm with you on that you know what our books to read what are people to talk to what our communities to get involved in who are discussing some of these manners I think maybe our parishes could be a lot better at doing that and especially with that age group the post-confirmation pre-marriage me what are you doing though were you guys on what do you do with those years and there are a lot of great resources because one thing about our time you know when you guys all came of age after 9/11 and with the rise of the New Atheism and all these critiques of religion right well as a answer to that a lot of good resources emerged of apologetics and theology and spirituality and things online think of Emma when I was a young person we had to go to some little bookstore to find you know now I'm lying you can find the whole Catholic world you know so I'm with you if parishes got better at giving us access giving you guys access to that material but also communities you know like groups of people that could gather and then share their faith or questions you know you know I mentioned Thomas Aquinas my great hero Thomas's whole approach is question answer question answer isn't it he doesn't just write a treatise with a guy that it's a question and questions came from people like do you know in the Middle Ages he was teaching people your age and they they raised questions and then he responded to them so more of that I think would be great appreciate it go ahead please yeah yeah to lead by example and to just show that Catholicism isn't as colty as like the culture makes it seem and yes scary and like judgmental and just show that we are the true church that Jesus started and that we're just about love and that people mess up and that it makes Catholicism look bad yeah but that's the own person sin that messed up and not the church and to just kind of show that and just really strive to just lead by example and not just throw words down people's throat I think we'll get more people yeah the famous line from soon-to-be st. Pope Paul the sixth the people today need witnesses more than teachers and if they listen to teachers it's because the teacher is also a witness and that's to your point you know if you're modeling what it means to be a Christian that has far more impact and it makes your words than far more credible that when you start to teach so absolutely I mean who's witnessing this Christian thing you know this very unique way of being in the world which is called a Christian way of being so I'm really with you on that I love the fact who you mentioned the cult think is the one thing Catholicism is not at its most authentic is a cult which is like a little private group turned in around itself and little fussy practices the church from the beginning even when there are a handful of people around the cross the church was meant to be a universal global reality that transcends the cultures friend sends the countries we don't like like I'm not an American Catholic I'd never ever want to say that you know to be a Catholic cut the hollows right according to the whole the universality the arms of the Bernini colonnade in Rome that reach out to gather in the world that's the opposite of a cult right we want to resist any cult-like quality we're a universal religion so that's helpful that if we start looking like that so gone wrong you know good please go ahead I think a young adults kind of live in a culture of isolation and I think that emphasis of community is really important too for even people to not be intimidated to am and church but to come into that existing MIDI where they're welcome and they have a place of both accountability but also vulnerability to help form each other in in the faith and and be able to kind of have something to fall back on when things are tough or what yeah we're having questions about that faith to emphasize that that communal aspect of the church yeah a couple things came to my mind there the one would be you know if if a youth minister asked you guys what would bring you in to an event at the parish you I know youth ministers from time immemorial he said you know we try this and we try that and and the young people don't come or we we sponsor this you know the pizza and whatever and the young people all come what would make you come to an event in a parish what would you find really attractive go ahead please yeah might coming if you want to huh what was attractive to me to come yeah was I saw who else was going yeah I was looking at like beautiful we're going yeah I know that's helpful go ahead and just basically affirming that every time I've been to a youth event where I just felt like this total worthwhile use of my time and I was happy to be there was there was a sense of joy among the people I think this goes back to the witness thing yeah the youth leader and and those involved had the sense of joy in being Christian that made it so attractive where the youth events that were bad were kind of like um it's like quasi kind of this is kind of like mass and it's good to go to but no one actually wants to be here or something yeah the sense of joy I got that um made things really attractive in a certain clarion call to what it means to be a Catholic and so I always associate that with the john paul ii so the spirit I'd the privilege of being in Krakow for World Youth Day back in 2016 anyone go to that curious there were a number of people from LA and to go to the church st. Florian's where Jung Karl whitey WA was the parish priest and he's founded youth groups you know and that's what he did with the kayaking trips and the hiking trips in the forest and all this is he was drawing the young people into a very vibrant joyful embrace of Catholicism you know and he was a very effective we would say to the hate youth minister so studying him and his method is kind of interesting should we get a couple more questions how about that father Luke this is one that several people have asked and he's very current it has to do with the present situation of the church and scandals and yeah and here's one how can we encourage our friends and family to continue living out their faith in the church within the church in the midst of the scandal especially those who do not yet have a solid relationship with Christ yeah that's it's a good question I I wrestled with it you know I think is Catholics do it's a tough time you know the 2002 periods the most you were really young at that point if you were in existence at all that was bad enough and the church responded you know institutionally pretty well to make changes and indeed numbers of sex abuse among the clergy have really fallen off dramatically since those changes that's important to say but then this recent business with Cardinal McCarrick has just really contol of us and it's terrible I mean it's terrible it's it's undermines the work of the church in every way I mean I know that as a as an evangelizer you're trying to you're trying to blow some wind in the sail of the little sailboat of someone's faith and then boom this thing comes along so I totally get that I totally get the difficulty of it and we are trying now I'm a bishop and we're trying to respond institutionally I I've called for a all transparent lay led investigation to find out what happened in the McCarrick situation I still think is a good thing to do as a first step but here's the broader thing though everybody we're not Catholics because of the moral integrity of our leaders and that's an old issue it goes back to san agustin so-called don assist controversy back in his time and the idea there was there were certain Catholics who had who had apostatized they had left the faith during a time of persecution then they came back and its priests and bishops in some cases and they came back and the people said hey hey wait a minute these people are compromised I mean they can't be celebrating the sacraments and then I don't want to receive communion two hands of this you know loser and agustín made this great distinction between the moral quality of the minister and the objective nature of the sacraments you know but it's a very important distinction because we're not Catholics because we think are all our leaders are Saints I wish they were I wish I were saying you know but we're not Catholics because of that we're Catholics because of Jesus Christ risen from the dead we're Catholics because of the Trinitarian God we're Catholics because of the mass we're Catholics because of the sacraments especially the Eucharist we're Catholics because of the Blessed Mother we're Catholics because of epistemic Authority right that's why we're Catholics and so it's awful this time we're going through and and it undermines us in every way and we have to respond to it institutionally but in itself it seems to me that's not a good reason to say I'm opting out all right I'm leaving the church or I give up I did a video a little while ago and I just said no it's the time to fight and I love this room is full of young warriors which I love you know it's not the time to cut and run it's time to fight and we fight for the church and if that means some some hard words have to be said and hard actions have to be performed so be it that's at war is like but this is the moment of to fight and we need you guys in the front lines of that the laity and I by the Vatican to vision it's not a church that just belongs to the clergy it belongs to the people of God you know and so you have a role to play a man absolu so don't run fight I would say understanding completely how awful this is and how it undermines the work we're trying to do I'm sure it'll be a major theme at the Synod it wasn't planned to be you know when we got this thing organized but I'm sure it's gonna be a major motif thank you of baisha baron for that testimony here's another question that several people have asked yeah was in similar ways when should we engage with coworkers and friends in conversations about morality or things like that I work at a secular Community College where subjects like birth control gay marriage surrogate pregnancies come up frequently even I can tell you my boss is gay and I'm not sure what to do how can we engage them and when is the time to do so yeah it's a good question and you know family members face that a lot when do I engage or challenge or a question or invite conversation with a family member who I think is in a bad space either spiritually or morally yeah I go back to something said earlier I do think the witness thing probably should come first leading with moral correction rarely works very well I'm saying and I'm not saying you bracket it completely you don't I think you get there but I think beginning with your own witness as you say like to the joyfulness of the faith your witness publicly as a Catholic let people see who you are wearing a sign of the faith on your person sign of the Cross in your place of work let them see oh that person is a Catholic she's a Catholic oh boy she seems joyful you know this book by Sherry Weddell of called forming intentional disciples called she said the first step is always trust building you know before someone is trust they're not gonna listen to you so if a co-worker you know is doing something youth you know to be morally wrong and you begin with moral correction but the person doesn't really know you or trust you almost a hundred percent chance they're not gonna listen to you that the first step is the establishment of trust that oh yeah they know you they like you they understand you're a Catholic so that it's coming out of some relationship I think that's the key you know before you get to moral correction probably the establishment of a real friendship and Trust and I you get there I'm not saying oh forget about all that morality business no no I think you get there but you get there carefully and with the real pastoral sensitivity otherwise it people just won't listen likely you know go ahead we as young adults we're taught how to maybe engage in small groups at the parish we're taught how to pray effectively and more fervently yeah as young adults and even teens though we don't get a lot of instruction on how to evangelize the masses and I'm not saying like do extravagant things but just to even have a conversation with someone who may disagree and I think that's really important for a parish no that's and I say I'd like to bring that this this general concern to the cynics I think it's really right something I'm doing with word on fire now you know our my media ministry we're broadening it outwardly as a as a movement and part of that movement is what we call the word on fire Institute and its purpose is exactly what you said it's how to train lay people in evangelization what is the good news how do you share it what are practical recommendations for evangelizing so I think you're right a lot of people they wouldn't know where to begin with that but it's not gonna happen from on high I think evangelization happens from below it happens people in workplaces and in families and you know so I'm with you on that we're trying to search it through as well but I think that's important to bring to to Rome you know good please go ahead just in regards to that and love the other things we were talking about yeah the thing that really like in regards to how relativist we want to be and in how enculturated we want to be its the stats unlike how much the mainstream Protestants and the Anglicans are hemorrhaging followers but then the evangelicals and the Mormons are growing so it's more than people like Jordan Peterson that come out of nowhere and Mass huge followings like yep where do we find our route among all these different strategies I guess yeah good and I think we're trying to think it through and those are good examples because I think you can make a very persuasive case that those churches that really just completely accommodated themselves to the culture are not - yeah well I mean if the strategy was oh this will really bring people in it clearly hasn't worked I think that's just non-debatable you know Peter says interesting I you guys do listen to Jordan Peterson do you know who he is he is an interesting phenomenon you know I I'm coming to know what he's about but the fact that he speaks especially to young men and kind of a direct bracing challenging way it's part of his of his appeal I think and he's appealing it seems to me to kind of Jungian psychology in the sort of archetypal psychology a movie like Star Wars was filled with the Jungian archetypes and that's to say things that are really fundamental in our psychological makeup so I think that has an appeal to people but especially they're kind of bracing challenging you know hey here's what life's about and that's tough and here are 12 things you can do to make it better and it obviously is appealing to millions of especially young people so I get that it's not it's not a hand wringing like I'm not sure who I am and you know I hope you like me and I'm not really sure what I'm all about that's not Peterson and he's been pretty successful so yeah I think there's something to learn there something to learn there go ahead please thank you this question somewhat follows in line with the even previous question if how do we why aren't a lot of why there are a lot of nuns and why having a lot of people that were raised naturally in the Catholic like church like still bare so like how do we even like talk to and approach someone who's of a different like denomination or a different religion on questions of morality yeah I too have noticed that a lot of like nondenominational Christian churches like have so much like like heavy turnout and their young adult gatherings more so than like the denominational like Christian churches like like established Prague mainstream right so it's kind of like the Catholic Church has extol a lot and then it's the nondenominational so like the two ends of the spectrum habit and it's maybe because like they've tended to modernize like the music that they do in their fellowship gatherings they gave like totally into it yeah yeah so it's not maybe so much that it's based in like traditional stuff but maybe it's like like adapted maybe to the times yeah and that's you know a discussion with we have him for a long time and what makes those churches appealing I remember years ago I was at my home parish outside Chicago and my sister who's like what three years younger than I am she said you know everyone's leaving st. John's archer's to go to and she named the local kind of Congregationalist Church that was real into the and it was it was the music and it was fellowship and it was like real welcoming she said you know they don't make any moral demands and they just say everyone's welcome and so it's like the dark and the light side of it you know that the the music and and come on in and everyone's welcome is a good thing there's a good thing but then I said well yeah but what about the only Eucharist and the sacraments and and a call the conversion is part of the picture too now how do you relate those two to each other you know how much welcome and how much challenge but I think that's worth we have been thinking about it for a long time like what makes a lot of the May Church places appealing to young people and you've named some of it I think the fellowship the music is a big part of it you know this guy Rick Warren out here in Southern California right one of the great mega church founders it's very interesting cuz he said they have their Wednesday service which is the hey everyone's welcome and hey call me Rick and everyone come on in but then once people are in they don't stop there then they start making serious demands on people in terms of discipleship in terms of training and in terms of mission that once they're trained then they're gonna be sent out as missionaries and if you're not willing to cooperate he said you don't come to the classes and all that you're out so in a way sometimes we can see just the come on everybody in your welcome side of it but we don't see the demand side of it as well so anyway I thought that was sort of interesting yeah sure go ahead please okay well I see that these these initiatives are good for community especially in like you said an isolated culture which is not good it seems like sometimes the emphasis can be too much on on these on these groups and that to me seems a little bit more like a club ultimately I would I would be Catholic even if I were the only person on earth I don't I don't go to the church so that I can have a club I love that I can see people in my parish that I love I love saying hi to them but I don't think the main focus should be on these initiatives to kind of have these I don't know how these groups have these gatherings because sometimes you said what's what makes those appealing and sometimes I'm thinking well I don't go to the church for a club if it's something like I'm like teaching maybe Jaypee twos theology of the body then I'm attracted to it but I'm not attracted to a sort of like a rock music hang out in the church basement that seems that seems that odds to me so sometimes I feel like those groups that are successful you know no judgment no more all judge mater just kind of come and have fun that that to me is a club the Unitarians that's a club you know you don't you don't go there to get guidance for how you live when you go home and those questions of why do we exist you know you don't get the answers there so well I would say that yes I I like people reaching out and being kind and forming friendships I don't know that that should necessarily be the main emphasis of like the LA archdiocese right now I think it should be more what do these people need to live and make it through this this earthly pilgrimage yeah right maybe a little corollary to that because that's pretty much the point I wanted to make but not only is it a question about what's attractive to people you know bringing them into the faith but there's another reality for me which is that I feel like most of the time I'm fighting harder in the church than I am outside of the church I feel like getting to sacrament like the sacraments and to confession is like a constant battle I consistently have to argue about like I feel like I've dar you about basic catechism in my confessions and it just seems like I see as a young person kind of like this widespread it's almost like a crisis of faith and understanding of the sacraments yeah and for me I mean I take I take it very seriously you know this is about Christ my whole life and I just so frequently feel like it's so hard in the church to be taken seriously for that even from priests oftentimes and I guess I guess that's the point I wanted to make and maybe a question in the spirit of like staying in the church and fighting how do we how do we deal with that I mean how yeah I mean what what do we where do we go who do we talk to or you know it's one thing to evangelize and talk to other people but when when I have such a hard time staying close to the sacraments myself because of this struggle that's within the church what do I do with that yeah what's the big issue or raizy I mean [Applause] okay yeah it's a big issue you're raising and I regret that I regret to hear that that there'd be that kind of struggle even as you're seeking confession or maybe in the confessional feeling like I'm at odds with my confessor over basic doctrine I guess my first response is is seek out a better confessor you know find someone I know that you shouldn't have to be in that position I understand that you shouldn't have to be looking all around but find it a good confessor you know and if I think it's okay to raise a concern with a priest if you feel that a priest is not you know legitimately teaching what the Church teaches to first raise it with him if no progress is made there to raise it with his superior I think that's okay but for you personally to find a good confessor you know that is is with the program I think that's okay now you know again I don't know the particulars of your situation is I don't know what the priest is saying is is there a legitimate challenge and there somewhere is he legitimately maybe cautioning something I don't know I don't know what's going on personally but I think do the best you can to find a good confessor but it's too bad that you have to face that challenge bishop go ahead we're talking we're so thankful I don't know if there's any final words that you would like to say to people clearly and I hope that all of us make a promise that we're gonna be praying like crazy for you as you go to Rome we'll be praying for the Holy Spirit to enlighten you and all the people there do it do I have that promise to do we do we have it [Music] yeah thank you for that I really mean that means the world to me I don't know what it's gonna be like it's my obviously my first Synod other people who've been ascended say they're kind of boring I think it's about 300 people in this room and you listen to speeches for much of it so it's a little but I think when you're in the small groups there's a chance to do what we just did and believe me that's what bishops do I mean we'll be around the table trust me raising these very same issues and trying to think him through and I'm delighted to be able to bring what you raised today really happy a that you came be the energy in the in the room I didn't want it to be just you know I'm responding bla bla bla to questions and it wasn't that I was delighted to hear from you guys so thank you gosh for that and and I promised that you promised prayers for me I promise to bring what you've said today around those tables and we'll see what happens you know I mean finally it's um the Pope's call but I think we we do present this document at the end of the Synod and and I'll I'll make sure that at least as much as I can I don't have any great clout but that that your perspective is is heard so really really grateful for that so who be energized to then go out and bring in the people to that beautiful sacrament so not changing the sacrament if anything actually making it more the same throughout the parishes I myself I'm talking to my wife while maybe going to another parish that's not mine because I'm not getting that fulfillment of grace through the mass because of its a concert behind the sacrament or because the Eucharistic ministers don't really realize what they have in their hands you know there's people that just walk to their church like it was a hall there's two different things and I think you know the way to bring people in is not through judgment I get it but also by showing them the truth and the truth lies in the Eucharist and at the end of the at the end of the day Christ says it's it's not an easy way to heaven and it's our job to show what that narrow path is so that the most people can go through it but if we try to make that path way too wide and not really focus it on what the truth is the Eucharist then that path will lead you to nowhere and so I kind of would like I don't know if people agree I was just you know listening on people feeling like they feel judged when they go into the church well others say that they don't get enough out of it it I feel like we don't within the Catholic Church will need to realize that the Eucharist is what we used to to get our grace and then after that that's the starting point kind of like confirmation is not your the goodbye sacrament the mass is not the goodbye sacrament till the following Sunday it should be the the what makes us go out and bring people into the church and then those clubs the youth ministries could have sorry father Luke second those those clubs could have different approaches someone could be more on on music and bands the other ones could be in apologetics the other ones could be in in in whatever but the mass and the Eucharist is what you bring all those different opinions together and focused in Christ I'll just say one quick thing I would say say one quick thing in response to that is the focus on those who come to Mass and get it understand it then being sent out as missionaries because think of the army of nuns now who they're not going to come anywhere near the mass I mean the masses just gave up on that or I don't know what it is but those like you who do come to Mass and do get it now the minute you exit the church you're in mission territory Frank you don't have to go across the ocean to get the mission territory you're in it right now when you exit the church so everyone that's received the Eucharist now you go as an evangelizer as a missionary what if every single person that came to Mass said this coming year I'm bringing three new people in it's my responsibility there's Vatican two you know so I am with the Avera I think the Eucharist it's not like the the the be-all and end-all answer because the the nuns aren't going to come to the Eucharist we got to go get them and bring them but those like you that get it you're the missionary go you know I think on that note it's a good we have mass right now yeah so we can live it ourselves good thank you so much you're welcome very much all you guys so stay for mass Thanks good being with you thanks

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 20,958

Rating: 4.7549405 out of 5

Keywords: Bishop Barron, 2018 Synod, Listening Session

Id: 4PM0urV2gas

Length: 57min 11sec (3431 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 02 2018