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Bishop Robert Barron

Join Bishop Robert Barron for a weekly podcast on faith and culture. Find more episodes at http://WordOnFireShow.com and submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.com.

The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. In our last episode, Evangelization & Culture Podcast host Tod Worner began a conversation with Word on Fire's founders about social media, in which they explored the art and means of communication. In this next segment, we'll continue that conversation, now examining Catholic ministry and social media. What, if anything, does social media have to do with Pope St. John Paul II? How does it fit into Word on Fire's own principles? How would one even define social media? Here to discuss these things with Tod Worner and Fr. Steve Grunow is Bishop Robert Barron.
 

 

 Links: 

 
 • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 

 
 
 

 

 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 530: Catholic Ministry & Social Media (pt. 2)

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. Today, we're bringing you a special episode—a conversation from our very own Evangelization & Culture Podcast, hosted by Dr. Tod Worner. Recently, Dr. Tod, as we like to call him, sat down with Word on Fire CEO Fr. Steve Grunow and Bishop Barron to talk about social media. But rather than retread the usual tropes of social media conversations, Dr. Tod hosts a richer and more intimate conversation on the topic through the lenses of evangelization, art, communication, and more. Please enjoy this first segment, in which we'll look specifically at the art and means of communication.
 
 
 
Topics Covered
 
 
 
00:00 | Introduction
 00:55 | The importance—and challenge—of communication
 05:00 | How the gospel spread before the use of mass media
 10:51 | Art as evangelization
 17:54 | Papal communication and early media
 22:05 | Mass media figures and their influence on Word on Fire
 27:51 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
 

 

 Links: 

 
 • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 

 
 
 

 

 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 529: The Art & Means of Communication (pt. 1)

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. As we continue this second half of a conversation from last year's Good News Conference in Orlando with Bishop Barron and Word on Fire CEO Fr. Steve Grunow, we'll discover the ministry's patron saints, as well as some of the lessons that Word on Fire has learned through its years of evangelization. We'll also take a look at Word on Fire's plans for the future. Here to discuss these with Fr. Steve Grunow, in this second half of an hour-long conversation, is Bishop Robert Barron.
 

 

 Links: 

 
 • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 
 
 

 

 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 528: The Early Days w/ Bishop Barron & Fr. Steve (pt. 2)

The Enlightenment believed reason was its own authority. Heteronomous authority was anathema. Autonomy was the ideal. Thus, the Church's hierarchical structure was viewed as enslaving. In light of this critique, Newman offered an insightful defense of freedom and truth in the Catholic Church. 
 
 
 
 
 Topics Covered: 
 
 
 • Consulting the faithful in matter of doctrine 
 • Conscience 
 • Reason and authority 
 • Bishops and theologians 
 
 
 Links: 
 
 
 • Article: 
Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church • Video: 
John Henry Newman on the Laity • Read: 
On Consulting the Laity on Matters of Doctrine • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 527: Reason and Authority (12 of 12)

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. In 2025, Word on Fire Catholic Ministries celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. And in October of that same year, Bishop Barron and Word on Fire CEO Fr. Steve Grunow gave a presentation at the Good News Conference in Orlando in which the two men took a deep dive into Word on Fire's origins. How did it begin? What were its animating principles? What were some of its earliest strategies? Where did the name "Word on Fire" even come from? Why, in short, did Word on Fire develop the way that it did? Here to discuss these roots with Fr. Steve Grunow, in this first half of an hour-long conversation, is Bishop Robert Barron.
 

 

 Links: 

 
 • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 

 
 
 

 

 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 526: The Early Days w/ Bishop Barron & Fr. Steve (pt. 1)

Since the mind can infer truths of which it does not have certainty, what judges the validity of an inference in concrete matters? The Illative Sense. It is the power of judging and concluding when not having apodictic certainty. Bishop Barron explores Newman's analysis of the Illative Sense, explaining why it is an essential element in religious conversion. 
 
 
 
 
 Topics Covered: 
 
 
 • The Illative Sense 
 • The nature of certainty 
 • Formal Inference 
 • Informal Inference
 
 
 Links: 
 
 
 • Read: 
The Illative Sense (from the Grammar of Assent) • Video: 
The Personalist Spirit of Newman's Thought • Video: 
The Freedom of Truth: The Nature of Conscience in Aquinas and Newman • Book: 
Communities of Informed Judgement • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 525: The Illative Sense (11 of 12)

In a recent episode of the Joe Rogan show, evolutionary biologist and public intellectual Bret Weinstein observed that two emerging features of contemporary societies, especially, though not exclusively in the West, are challenging the very meaning and purpose of human life: 1) the decoupling of human sexuality from human reproduction—defining sex primarily as recreational and 2) with the rise of AI and robotics, the real possibility that having a job will become entirely optional in the future. By secular standards, pursuing both of these goals seems entirely rational, if not laudable: raising children and going to work are, indeed, challenging, so why shouldn't we live in a world in which both become increasingly rare? Weinstein, however—who doesn't profess adherence to any religious tradition—suggests that humanity may lose something important, if not essential, if we continue down this path. Is he right to be concerned? Is it, in fact, wise to relegate having children and going to work—which defined how most people spent most of their adult lives throughout history—entirely to the realm of subjective preference? Or, in seeking ever greater freedom from these responsibilities, are we undermining what it means to live a fully human life?
 

 
A listener asks: How can I respond to "God loves me the way I am"?
 

 Topics Covered: 

 

 
00:00 | Introduction
 01:39 | Bishop Barron's Christmas season
 02:48 | Examining Bret Weinstein's grim assessment
 06:36 | Procreation as a sign of the covenant
 09:34 | Why not frame children through the lens of lifestyle choice?
 13:23 | The valorization of personal choice
 16:31 | What about celibate priests?
 17:52 | Work and technology
 23:42 | Can AI or robotics truly replace the human genius?
 25:48 | Limitations for using AI
 28:06 | The necessity of work in giving a gift
 30:02 | Why can't technology help us create heaven on earth now?
 33:01 | The active dimension of rest
 37:03 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
 

 

 Links: 

 
 • Papal Encyclical, 
Humanae Vitae • : 
Vatican website • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 

 
 
 

 

 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 524: The Dangers of Life Becoming Too Easy

An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent was Newman's most difficult work. While not a formal epistemology (theory of knowledge), Newman prompted a movement away from modern epistemology, stressing certainty that is best found in logic and mathematics, to common sense epistemology, affirming truth that is not absolutely certain. Bishop Barron explains why this epistemology is proper to religious knowledge, which includes notional and real assent. 
 
 
 
 
 Topics Covered: 
 
 
 • Why assent is not certitude 
 • Religious Liberalism 
 • Notional and Real Assent 
 • Conscience 
 
 
 Links: 
 
 
 • Article: 
A Meditation on the Grammar of Assent • Video: 
Dr. Reinhard Huetter on Newman • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 523: The Grammar of Assent (10 of 12)

St. Pope John Paul the II memorably observed that the Catholic Church comes from the eucharist and that the eucharist, in turn, comes from priests. As Bishop Barron noted in a recent letter to his diocese, "by an inescapable logic [therefore] no priests, no Church." We should add, however, that priests come from bishops, which expands the ecclesial logic to this: no bishops, no priests; no priests, no eucharist; no eucharist, no church. In other words, bishops not only hold an important administrative position within the Church; tracing their authority back to the apostles and, ultimately, to Jesus Christ himself, they constitute the very sacramental and liturgical foundation of Catholicism itself. That, to say the least, is a weighty responsibility. So what is it like to be a bishop? How does one come to hold this office? What, specifically, do bishops have authority over–and what don't they have authority over? What kind of relationship do they have with each other and with the Holy Father, the pope? What are their day-to-day obligations and activities? And what are some challenges they face that both clergy and laity may not be aware of?
 

 
A listener asks what made Bishop Barron want to be a priest.
 

 Topics Covered: 

 

 
01:38 | Bishop Barron's Thanksgiving in Chicago
 02:45 | The origins of the office of bishop
 04:51 | The theological dimension of the bishop's role
 06:41 | The liturgical symbols of the office
 10:45 | Bishop Barron's coat of arms
 12:12 | How does one become a bishop?
 16:10 | How are dioceses formed?
 17:20 | Relating bishop to archbishop
 18:51 | Understanding the bishop's authority
 20:03 | What is a chancery?
 21:03 | Essential tasks of the bishop
 29:38 | Bishop Barron's approach to his official duties
 33:01 | The meaning and authority of a conference of bishops
 37:19 | Myths about Catholic bishops
 40:06 | Listener question: What made you become a priest?
 41:41 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
 

 
 
 

 Links: 

 
 • United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: 
https://www.usccb.org/ • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 

 
 
 

 

 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 522: What's It Like to Be a Catholic Bishop?

Newman believed that a liberal arts education would instill a philosophical habit of mind in students, helping students reason to the foundational principles of every discipline and see how everything fits together. The philosophical habit of mind distinguishes between significance and triviality, helping society and individuals order everything to the Good. 
 
 
 
 
 Topics Covered: 
 
 
 • Pattern recognition 
 • Sapientia 
 • Useless education is useful
 • Advantages and disadvantages of the philosophical habit of mind
 
 
 Links: 
 
 
 • Article: 
The Philosophical Habit of Mind: Aristotle and Newman on the End of Liberal Education • Video: 
Alasdair MacIntyre on Newman's Idea of a University • Word on Fire Institute: 
https://institute.wordonfire.org/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

WOF 529: The Art & Means of Communication (pt. 1)

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