Bishop Barron covered Pope Francis’ recent visit to America for NBC. In this episode, he and Brandon Vogt reflect on four Americans the Pope mentioned in his speech to Congress: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton.
Topics Discussed
- 0:58 – Pope Francis’ historic visit to America
- 2:05 – What is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy today?
- 4:49 – The importance of King’s non-violence
- 6:23 – The best example of non-violence in the last half-century
- 8:06 – Why did Pope Francis lift up Abraham Lincoln as a model?
- 12:09 – Dorothy Day’s “both/and” Catholicism
- 16:54 – The key to making peace and justice concrete
- 19:32 – Is it significant that Pope Francis chose fairly flawed figures to lift up?
- 22:02 – Who was Thomas Merton and how did he influence Bishop Barron?
- 25:19 – Why Thomas Merton remains important today
- 28:39 – How Pope Francis pushed Catholic books onto the Amazon bestseller list
- 28:58 – What was Merton’s best book?
- 29:40 – How can Merton help evangelize secular people today?
- 32:37 – Bishop Barron’s recommended books on each of the four heroes
Bonus Links
- Article – “The Pope, the Congress, and a Trappist Monk” (Bishop Barron)
- Article – “Brian Williams, Chris Matthews, and Letting the Fly Out of the Fly Bottle” (Bishop Barron)
- Recommended Books
- The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist by Dorothy Day
- All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day by Dorothy Day
- The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day by Dorothy Day
- Abraham Lincoln: Great Speeches by Abraham Lincoln
- Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years by Carl Sandburg
- Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King, Jr.
- The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton
