By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – The top priority of the church is to "proclaim the word of God," said Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron of Los Angeles in a June 10 keynote address during the Catholic Media Conference.
"This prioritization is important today," Bishop Barron said, over some "false dichotomy, pitting one against the other."
He spoke on the last day of the Catholic Media Association's annual conference. Held June 8-10, it took place virtually for the second year in a row due to concerns about COVID-19.
Having read recently that the Archdiocese of Quebec's continuing consolidation process has now shrunk the number of parishes in the Canadian see to just 25, "I wonder if it's a sign of the times we're supposed to read," Bishop Barron said.
"What are our parishes? Ought they to become, perhaps, centers of evangelization?" he asked. "Are they being shaped to evangelize the culture? I wonder what a reprioritization would look like."
The church's role is to bring light to the people, he added. "What does that have to do with Catholic media?" Bishop Barron queried. "Pretty much everything. ... Our primary purpose is to declare the resurrection of Jesus from the dead."
He added, "We who are involved in Catholic media do a lot of things, say a lot of things, but are we about the 'primum officium'" – the church's primary responsibility? "What do we cover? What do we pay attention to? ... We look at those areas of the world where Jesus' lordship of the world is being maintained. Where do we see the lordship of Jesus on display so that we might see it in the wider world?"
Evangelization was just one theme Bishop Barron touched on during his remarks. Two others were social media and synodality.
In his youth, finding a Catholic bookstore – even in a big city like Chicago – was a tough chore, he recalled. And, if someone read something they didn't like in a periodical, they had to find a piece of paper, a typewriter, an envelope, a stamp and the publication's mailing address to write a letter to the editor – which might not ever see print.
That was then. "Now, someone – everyone in his mom's basement – can fire off the most vituperative, obscene, irreverent thing, and there's no filter," Bishop Barron said. "There's nothing to stop you. ... It's there 24/7 all over the world." As a result, there is a "fetid quality" to the online discourse, including what he called a "fake-backbone phenomenon: 'No, I got backbone because I told that guy off.'”
Bishop Barron also said would-be posters should ask themselves before they hit "send": "Is it loving? ... I'm not saying we have to write nothing but Hallmark cards," but "is it loving? Is it willing the good of the other?"
On the topic of synodality, Bishop Barron told of being at the 2018 Vatican Synod of Bishops on young people. It was his first synod; he was ordained a Los Angeles auxiliary in September 2015.
At the synod's end, Pope Francis spoke to the delegates to thank them for their participation and for the document that arose from their deliberations.
"I want you all to know something," he remembers the pope saying. "This synod is not a parliament, and we have not produced a piece of legislation. What we have done is we have listened to each other, and together we have listened to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has given us this document."
"That gave me a terrific impression of what synodality is, and what it isn't," Bishop Barron said. "Not a local parliament that has binding authority over itself but listens to each other, and, together, listening to the Holy Spirit."