Matthew digs into the fascism-enabling political theology of Bishop Robert Barron and the rightward slide of Big Catholic media. From his early admiration of Thomas Merton—carefully stripped of his antiwar and anti-capitalist passion—to his praise for Jordan Peterson, Marco Rubio, and Charlie Kirk, Barron repackages Red Scare tropes in the language of beauty, civility, and “religious liberty.”
And what about his virtual silence on ICE operations in Minnesota and the suffering of immigrants within his own diocese? What does “religious freedom” mean when it defends American exceptionalism more than human beings?
Show Notes and Interview:
https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-bishop-bootlicker-barron
