In the fall of 1972, a group of us, philosophy majors all, approached our dean of studies, Father Bob Evers, with a request: Under the supervision of a faculty member, could we build a two-credit senior seminar in our last college semester around Kenneth Clark’s BBC series, “Civilization,” which had been shown on American public television. Father Evers agreed, and we had a ball. “Civilization” was the perfect way to finish a serious undergraduate liberal arts education; it brought together ideas, art, architecture and history in a visually compelling synthesis of the history of western culture that respected Catholicism’s role in shaping the West.
Over the next four decades, I wondered whether someone, somewhere, at some point, would do a “Civilization”-like series on Catholicism itself: a Grand Tour of the Catholic world that explored the Church as a culture through its teaching, its art, its music, its architecture—and above all, through the lives it shaped. That has now happened. The result is the most important media initiative in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.
The man responsible for this feat is Father Robert Barron, a priest of the archdiocese of Chicago and a faculty member at Mundelein Seminary. Father Barron is an old friend (and a colleague on NBC’s Vatican coverage), but I’ll risk the charge of special pleading by stating unequivocally that Father Barron’s “Catholicism”, a 10-part series premiering on public television stations around the country this fall, is a master work by a master teacher. In 10 episodes that take the viewer around the Catholic world, from Chartres to the slums of Calcutta and dozens of points in-between, Father Barron lays out the Catholic proposal in a visually stunning and engaging series of presentations that invites everyone into the heart of the faith, which is friendship with Jesus Christ.
Having talked with Father Barron and his colleagues at Word on Fire, his media ministry, throughout the production of “Catholicism,” I can testify that this was a great labor of love: love for the Lord, love for the Church, and love for the truths the Church teaches. Yet there is nothing saccharine here, nothing cheesy, nothing pop-trendy. It’s Catholic Classic, not Catholic Lite, but John Cummings’ cinematography is so beautiful, Steve Mullen’s original score is so fetching (drawing on ancient chants in a thoroughly contemporary way), and Father Barron’s narration is so deft—the man has a genius for the telling example or analogy—that even the most difficult facets of Catholic belief and practice come alive in a completely accessible way.
At the center of it all is Jesus of Nazareth, posing that unavoidable and disturbing question: “Who do you say that I am?” Viewers of “Catholicism” will get to know many of the great minds and spirits who wrestled with that question over two millennia—Peter and Paul; Augustine and Thomas Aquinas and Dante; Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross; Edith Stein and Katherine Drexel. But throughout the series, the focus keeps coming back to the Lord Jesus. “Catholicism” is built on the firm convictions that it is his Church and that it is his truth that measures all truth. Father Barron understands that post-modern culture poses special challenges for the proclamation of the Gospel. That’s why this committed believer, who is also a fine theologian, can sympathetically but forcefully invite his viewers into a thorough exploration of the Creed (an exploration deepened in the series’ companion book, Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith [Doubleday]).
There is no dithering about the bad news, either: Father Barron knows that the Catholic Church is a community of sinners whose infidelities have often marred the face of the Lord. At the same time, Father Barron’s series displays the innumerable ways that the Catholic Church has been and remains a force for truth, decency, compassion, and sanity in an often-cruel world.
Watch it. Politely lobby your local public television station to show the series in its entirety. Spread the word.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
RESOURCES
The “Catholicism” series
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Comments:
In C S Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters", the devil Screwtape, in a letter to his nephew Wormwood, a particular tempter, reminds him that the "human vermin" do not see the Church as they do. Humans see only the present manifestation, a 2-dimensional snapshot as it were--and are therefore not very impressed.
But the Church the devils see is the glorious Church marching down through all ages and fulfilling its mission in all circumstances and despite all adversity. And the fiends find this terrifying.
These plays would, of course, deal with those unusual and so very sad secular beliefs of these unhappy times, oh, we all know; Abortion (working title; "The Baby's Scream"), same sex marriage ("How do you know what you know"). Deviant behavoir ( "The Narcissist Complex"). I just starting to think here....
They'd have to be performed on stage in New York to call attention to them. Lots of thought would come out of the effort, like the billboard calling attention to the 'most unsafe place for a black child' in New York...remember.
Don't you know some powerful playwrites who could do the job. Great and powerfully helpful scandel mightresult.
I wish I could buy this, but I don't have $150 to spare and likely won't for a looooong time. But it looks amazing.
Although this looming fact goes largely unnoticed, I am sure it would cause some major cognitive dissonance for those Catholics who've signed up to the Republican bill of goods as though they were the fifth Gospel.
I was surprised to see the presentation is more topical or thematic than narrative or story-telling. At times this is great. But other times it makes it less compelling than it could be. One weakness is that the images and the music often do not reinforce what is actually being simultaneously said. I found the documentary was at its strongest when the images are actually helping tell the story or make the point. Likewise I found it was at its weakest when it becomes a series of loosely connected (albeit beautiful) images.
The irony is that some of the material Fr. Barron's covered before in his sermons and talks (e.g. the beatitudes) are more effectively conveyed when its just him solo at an altar or podium. This is a credit to Fr. B as a speaker. But I think it also points to a weakness in the structure of the documentary. Namely, the three main threads (words, music, images) don't always cooperate and every once in a while exist in their own separate spaces.
At moments the entire thing comes together beautifully and these are very powerful times. The episode on the "ineffability" of God is especially good. But I think you can tell that Fr. Barron and the WOF team are new to documentary film making. Fr.'s greatest strength is in preaching/teaching/commentary. Film is a tricky medium.
