Father Robert Barron
Father Robert Barron is an acclaimed author, speaker, and theologian. He is the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago and also is the founder of Word On Fire (www.WordOnFire.org).
Fr. Barron is the creator and host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking ten-part documentary series and study program about the Catholic faith. He is a passionate student of art, architecture, music and history, which he calls upon throughout his global travels in the making of the documentary.
Word On Fire programs are broadcast regularly on WGN America, Relevant Radio, CatholicTV, EWTN, the popular Word on Fire YouTube Channel, and the Word on Fire website, which offers daily blogs, articles, commentaries, and over ten years of weekly sermon podcasts. In 2010, Father Barron was the first priest to have a national show on a secular television network since the 1950s.
Father Barron received his Masters Degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC in 1982 and his doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Catholique in 1992. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1986 and has been a professor of systematic theology at the nation's largest Catholic seminary, the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary since 1992. He was visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2002 and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2007. He was also twice scholar in residence at the Pontifical North American College at the Vatican.
In addition, Fr. Barron lectures extensively in the United States and abroad. Cardinal George calls Fr. Barron “one of the Church’s best messengers.
Fr. Barron was baptized at Queen of All Saints Basilica in Chicago and grew up at St. John of the Cross parish in Western Springs, Illinois.
- WordOnFire.org - Fr. Barron's website launched in 1999 and currently draws over 1 million visitors a year from every continent. Fr. Barron posts weekly video clips, commentaries and radio sermons and offers an audio archive of over 500 homilies. Podcasts of his sermons are widely used by tens of thousands of visitors each month.
- TV - EWTN (The Eternal Word Television Network) and CatholicTV broadcasts Fr. Barron's DVDs to a worldwide audience of over 150 million people.
- Radio - Since 1999, Fr. Barron's weekly Word on Fire program has been broadcast in Chicago (WGN) and throughout the country (Relevant Radio - 950 AM Chicago) to 28 million listeners in 17 states. Fr. Barron also is a regular commentator on the "Busted Halo Show" on the Sirius satellite radio network based in New York.
- DVDs - Fr. Barron's DVDs are used as powerful faith formation tools in universities, schools, churches and homes around the country. The series includes Seven Deadly Sins, Seven Lively Virtues; Faith Clips; Conversion: Following the Call of Christ; and Untold Blessing: Three Paths to Holiness.
- YouTube - With over 180 online video commentaries by Fr. Barron, over 1 million viewers worldwide have made him the most popular of any evangelist on YouTube. These frequent, high-quality productions include brief and lively theological reviews of contemporary culture, including movies such as No Country for Old Men, Apocalypto, and The Departed, a three-part critical review of Christopher Hitchen's book God is Not Great, The Discovery Channel's The Jesus Tomb, the HBO series "The Sopranos", "Rome" and more.
- Missions - MISSION CHICAGO features evangelization lectures by Fr. Barron at the behest of Cardinal George. These special missions and presentations throughout the Archdiocese are centered in downtown Chicago and attract business, civic, and cultural leaders.
- Books - His numerous books and essays serve as critical educational and inspirational tools for seminarians, priests, parishioners and young people worldwide. His published works are also central to the numerous retreats, workshop and talks that he leads around the country.
- Catholicism; 2011
- Eucharist; 2008
- Word On Fire: Proclaiming the Power of Christ; 2008
- The Priority of Christ: Toward a Post-Liberal Catholicism; June 2007
- Bridging the Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative, Evangelical Catholic; 2004
- The Strangest Way: Walking the Christian Path; 2002
- Heaven in Stone and Glass; 2000
- And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation; 1998
- Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master; 1996
- A Study of the De potentia of Thomas Aquinas in Light of the Dogmatik of Paul Tillich; 1993