The new 10-hour series Catholicism travels around the world to show the richness of the Church
By Alistair Burns
The B.C. Catholic

VANCOUVER--Father Robert Barron is the host and narrator of Catholicism, a new series about the history and culture of the Catholic Church. Currently airing on EWTN, Salt and Light, and some PBS stations, the series is taking the Catholic world by storm. Recently Father Barron spoke to The B.C. Catholic from his parish in Chicago.

Alistair Burns: How did you become interested in being involved in the media?

Father Barron: I started here in the Archdiocese of Chicago by asking the local major television channel, WGN Chicago, how much it cost for air time. They came back with an offer for a show at 5:15 a.m. for $50,000. I was able to get the funds, and now I also host a radio show, as well as my own media organization, Word on Fire, which produced Catholicism (www.wordonfire.org).

AB: What inspired you to film a 10-hour series on the Church?

FB: I wanted to show off the faith. The Catholic Church has an amazing past, both in a historic sense and a cultural sense. So many people, Catholics, ex-Catholics, Protestants, etc., simply do not know how many wonderful things the Church has done. Unfortunately negative coverage has increased over the past couple of years, with atheism attacking the Church. We set out to show the beauty.

AB: How long did the series take to shoot?

FB: It took two years of filming all over the world. We went to the Vatican, Ireland, Uganda, South America, Calcutta, and the Holy Land.

AB: Best and worst moments of shooting?

FB: I’d have to say Uganda was the best. I hadn’t been there before and seeing 500,000 people come together for a single liturgy was fantastic.

The worst was Calcutta. We went to film a segment on Mother Teresa; the constant poverty, the slums, were the worst I’ve ever seen. It was distressing for the crew.

Also the Holy Land was a challenge; it’s an area of great tension. We had to reschedule a shoot at the Temple of the Mount because of a bomb scare. And we regularly worked next to Israeli soldiers with rifles.

AB: Catholicism looks as good as any Ken Burns documentary. How much money did it take to shoot?

FB: You’re right, it was expensive. Our fundraising efforts were directly from the pews. I didn’t want to ask the Church for money. We were able to raise $3 million. I used people from NBC who work with Word on Fire.

AB: Impressive. I noticed one constant in your narration. You take a page out of Jesus’s playbook by using parables and stories. How did you write for the audience?

FB: I did write for Catholics but, more important, I wrote for ex-Catholics. It’s been said the second-largest religion in the United States consists of ex-Catholics. A lot of them have simply drifted away. I wanted to reinvigorate them, to provide them with something to come back to.

AB: Did you dumb down the faith, or try to make the series preachy or strident?

FB: Absolutely not. I was raised in a family with that sort of simple Catholic faith. And no, I didn’t want to preach, but I did add the important steps of the arguments of St. Thomas Aquinas for the existence of God and other things because Catholics need to know the basics of their faith.

AB: Apologetics seems to be a theme in Catholicism.

FB: Absolutely, there has always been a strong apologetic tradition in the Church. But that’s been lost over the past couple of decades. Catholicism is a powerful reality; we need to bring the defence back.

AB: I’m curious why you picked only female saints in the episode dealing with sainthood.

FB: I really wanted to show, instead of the controversy over women and ordination, that the key to power in the Church is holiness. That’s it, holiness, and to show the sanctity of women. That’s why I picked four women saints.

AB: Any comment on the series from the Vatican?

FB: We sent a copy to Archbishop Harvey of the Papal Household. I’m not sure if the Pope has seen it.

AB: If you could say one thing to our readers, regardless of their religion, on why they should watch this series, what would it be?

FB: The episodes on Jesus and the early apostles are interesting to any Christian, period. Everyone, including Christopher Hitchens, is wired for God.