1. In this video, Bishop Barron, who's far and away the most popular Catholic apologist of his generation, is tearing his hair out over the fact that 75% of American Catholics don't believe in transubstantiation:
In addition, the figure rises to 80% for the younger generation–and that's the future of his sect.
2. He quotes Flannery O'Connor's exclamation that if the eucharist is only a symbol, then "I say: to hell with it"–adding (in his own words), "why bother?".
That's a revealing reaction. Imagine an OT Jew exclaiming, "If Passover is just a symbol, then I say: to hell with it! Why bother?"
3. It's especially ironic because a large part of his apologetic for Catholicism trades heavily on aesthetic symbolism. Catholic art and architecture. The rose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris are a favorite theme of his. Why doesn't he exclaim: "If the rose windows are only symbolic, to hell with them!"
4. He goes on to say the eucharist is "tied to divinity of Jesus, the Incarnation, the sacraments, the church, and everything else".
i) In part, that's an allusion to his view that the real presence is a prolongation of the Incarnation.
ii) In addition, the real presence is a presupposition of the priesthood. It takes a priest to change the communion elements into the "true body and blood of Christ". If you deny the real presence, that eliminates a key rationale for the priesthood.
To be sure, priests have other sacramental functions like the rite of penance. Yet a major reason for penance is to prepare communicants to receive the eucharist.
If you deny the real presence, it tugs a thread that unravels the entire tapestry of Catholic theology. That's because Catholic theology is a package deal. Not only are some dogmas logically and internally linked to other dogmas, but all the dogmas rely on the authority of the Magisterium.
5. The Catholic church is in a state of crisis, on multiple fronts, in multiple countries. And we should be thankful for that.
The problem with his wakeup call is that many Catholic priests, bishops, and cardinals have a highly secularized outlook. They no longer believe in Catholic dogmas. They no longer believe in Catholic supernaturalism. So they don't share his sense of alarm.
Mind you, evangelicalism has its own challenges. Its own attrition rate. Nominal piety.
Thanks steve. This is really interesting. This morning I listened to Michael Voris tear into Barron over fatima. At the very end of the video Voris says:
ReplyDeleteAs for us and our house, we worship our Queen."
At least Voris is a straight shooter. Barron would rather be a philosopher than a Catholic.
Saw the video just now as Bishop Barron was on the Drew Mariaini show on Relevant Radio today.
ReplyDeleteI notice that Barron doesn't spend alot of time making the argument that the Real Presence is in fact true apart from the fact that RCC defines it as such. He's simply lamenting the fact that most of laity doesn't believe what the RCC teaches on the matter. He admits that this is a failure of catechesis, but other than telling the laity that they need to believe this what else does he have? Nothing. It seems that a majority of Catholics don't believe this because the "explanation" of "because I said so" is insufficient for a majority of adults.
Please, no one tell him that a sizable portion of his congregation is probably contracepting. I'm not sure the old boy can handle that piece of news.