About Fr. Barron

From prestigious universities to YouTube to national conferences and private retreats, Fr. Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life. The prominent theologian and podcasting priest is one of the world’s great and most innovative teachers of Catholicism. His media ministry called Word on Fire has a simple but revolutionary mission – to evangelize the culture.

Fr. Barron is a professor of Systematic Theology at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. Ordained an Archdiocesan priest in Chicago in 1986, he also has published numerous books, essays and DVDs.

Fr. Barron lectures extensively in the United States and abroad, including the Pontifical North American College at the Vatican and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He also is a passionate student of art, architecture, music and history. Fr. Barron has been called “one of the Archdiocese’s greatest gifts” (Open Book, Amy Welborn).

Fr. Barron is a Catholic evangelist. He reaches millions of people through Word on Fire by utilizing advanced and emerging technologies.

• wordonfire.org – Fr. Barron’s website launched in 1999 draws over 300,000 visitors a year from every continent. Fr. Barron posts weekly video clips, commentaries and radio sermons and offers an audio archive of over 300 homilies. Podcasts of his sermons are widely used by tens of thousands of visitors each month.

• TV – EWTN (The Eternal Word Television Network) broadcasts Fr. Barron’s DVDs to a worldwide audience of over 44 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 – 820 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 – Video commentaries by Fr. Barron draw thousands of viewers worldwide and are among the most popular of any evangelist on www.YouTube.com. These frequent, high-quality productions include brief and lively theological reviews of contemporary culture: Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto, the Oscar-winning movie The Departed, The Discovery Channel’s The Jesus Tomb, the HBO series “The Sopranos“ , “Rome” and more.

• Missions - MISSION CHICAGO featured a six-month evangelization project by Fr. Barron at the behest of Cardinal George in 2006. This included six special missions and 16 presentations throughout the Archdiocese as well as a series of five luncheon lectures in downtown Chicago. He also wrote a series of ten articles for The Catholic New World. He plans a similar mission for 2007.

Fr. Barron is a prominent theologian. Since 1992, Fr. Barron has taught Systematic Theology at the nation’s largest Catholic seminary, The University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois. He was a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2002. Fr. Barron received a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in 1982. He received a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992. 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.

Fr. Barron is an award-winning author. 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 which he leads around the country.

• 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

Please contact Fr. Barron by email

rbarron@usml.edu