"Evil cannot be fought on its own terms," Fr. Barron said, riffing on Jack Nicholson's character. "You fight fire with fire, the world becomes hotter. You meet violence with violence, you just get more violence. Go back to Goodfellas, go back to Mean Streets, his really great movies, you'll see that motif played out over and over again."

It was the first of many video commentaries from Fr. Barron's Word on Fire, a nonprofit global ministry that has quickly become the new face of Catholicism in the culture.

Armed with social media, highly produced documentaries, and a steady torrent of article and video commentary, Fr. Barron and his team are marrying philosophical depth with what's trending, excavating truth, goodness, and beauty everywhere they turn.

The approach has caught on: Darren Aronofsky praised Fr. Barron's review of his film Noah over Twitter; his YouTube channel has raked in over 12 million views; and a series of videos on the music of Bob Dylan so impressed one young nineteen year old that it brought him to the doorstep of the Church.

"Up came one of your videos," the teenager wrote to him. "It came up, and I saw the Roman collar, and I just wanted to close the window. But I watched it, and I liked it and so I watched another one of your Bob Dylan commentaries, and then a third one. That led me to lots of your other videos and that led me back to your website, and then I got drawn into it…now I am in the RCIA program." Continue reading

Sources

• aleteia
• Image: Word on Fire

This year, his Word on Fire ministry plans to complete the first six episodes of a follow-up series to his acclaimed 2011 documentary "Catholicism," which aired on 250 PBS stations nationwide.

He has also posted 416 cultural commentaries onYouTube, and this past fall, he surpassed 10 million online viewers.

The seven- to 13-minute clips range in subject matter from disquisitions on original sin and hell to commentaries on the Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything" and Martin Scorsese's "The Departed."

And in September, Barron, 55, will be the opening speaker at the World Meeting of Families, a Philadelphia mega-event that will culminate with Pope Francis celebrating Mass to conclude his first visit to the United States.

For Catholics tired of the highly politicized public image of their faith, Barron provides easily digestible, no-nonsense eloquence.

Skirting hot-button issues such as gay marriage, women's ordination, the sexual abuse scandal, and abortion, he takes a broad view of the Church as many Catholics experience it and still toes a traditional line.

The Church, he said in an interview, "is extreme in its demands. At the same time, it's extreme in its mercy. We shouldn't dial down the expectations. Love has to dominate every aspect of your life."

Beauty — be it of artwork, literature, music, architecture, or ideas — dominates Barron's. His mandate, he said, is to preach "the good, the true, and the beautiful," and he believes that if people first encounter what's beautiful in the Church, they will later discover what's good and true. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux
• Image: Facebook

When he posted his "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" video on YouTube,he made a bet with his roommates about how many views the video would get by morning. The lowest bet was 1,000 and the highest bet was 6,000,

By the time Bethke woke up the next day, the video had more than 100,000 views. Eight days after the video posted, it has been watched more than 14 million times.

Bethke said the video was not an attempt to bash all religion, but rather "to write a poem against legalism, self righteousness, self-justification and hypocrisy" — the definition of bad religion that is preached at Mars Hill, the church he attends in Washington state.

Read Elizabeth Tenety's Blog in the Washington Post

Well know catholic commentator Father Robert Barron in responding to the video fields some questions the viral clip raised, including why the video was so popular, how religion is defined, and how Catholics are to respond.

• Watch Robert Barron's 1st video
• Watch Robert Barron's 2nd Video

Image: YouTube