Don't Dumb Down Catholicism: On Beauty, Bishop Barron, and Cathedrals

Bishop Barron's Word on Fire Podcast from two weeks highlighted his talk at the religious ed conference here in Los Angeles several weeks ago.

Bishop Barron gave a keynote address on one of his favorite topics which is reaching the "nones." Or those - in today's culture - that have fallen away from religion. One of his ideas is ensuring that we "don't dumb down Catholicism."

I think this goes one of two ways:

1. When we teach religion, we need to ensure that we are teaching knowledge of the faith with the same drive that we teach math, reading, writing, social studies, science, etc. I believe our new religion standards in Los Angeles are a step in the right direction. Sharing and understanding our Faith is key to ensuring our students remain committed Catholics (remember millennial adults that attended Catholic school are 7 times more likely to go to Mass than those that did not).

There is still a lot of room for growth in this area. The textbooks and resources of the post-Vatican II Church focused on the loving and prayerful nature of God; but neglected the tradition of Augustine, Aquinas, Avila, and Lisieux. We can do better. We must do better.

2. We need to ensure that our academics are of a high quality. We are the children of a 2,000 year old intellectual history. Our faith deeply believes that Faith and Reason go together and grow together. Most Catholics understand this. All Catholics should know this.

We should acknowledge, celebrate, recognize, and share the many contributions our faith has made to science and the world today. From the Big Bang Theory and the first female PhD in computer science.

Which brings me to Notre Dame Cathedral. The Cathedral is as old as the language used to type this blog. In the 1100s; without complex machinery, advanced math, or even slave labor; the citizens of Paris built a structure to glorify God. We have lost part of a structure built by genius; can we ever rebuild it?

My two favorite stories from the fire are that a firefighter who was priest rushed in to save the Crown of Thorns and that a grove of oak trees was planted following the French Revolution for use in the roof if it needed to be repaired.

So let us celebrate the engineers and masons that constructed such a magnificent structure. Let us honor the faith and courage of the workers who labored on a building they would not see completed. And let us teach - to the best of our abilities - the math, science, reading, and writing that enabled the Cathedral to be built. Let us not dumb down Catholicism, but raise it up.