I have just completed one of the most extraordinary weeks of my life.
For the past eight days, I participated in World Youth Day in Madrid, a gathering of some 1.5 million Catholic young people with Pope Benedict XVI. I met enthusiastic teen and 20-something Catholics from the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden, Nigeria, England, Australia, New Zealand, China, the Philippines, India, Denmark and many other countries.
The universality of the Church has never been, for me anyway, on fuller and more thrilling display. My Word on Fire team and I were especially encouraged to see so concretely the outreach that the Internet and the new media provide. To hear, over and again, and in dozens of different accents, that our videos and podcasts have made a difference in people’s lives was deeply gratifying.
Some images that will be forever burned in my memory: a 20,000-seat arena, absolutely filled with young Catholics rocking, stomping and singing; Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, striding the stage like a pro, delivering one-liners worthy of David Letterman, and sharing the unvarnished Gospel with his youthful audience; giving a talk in a very hot room, jammed to the rafters with kids eager to hear about the process of discerning a vocation; hordes of young Catholics, wearing their distinctive yellow World Youth Day T-shirts, carrying overloaded backpacks, and marching through the streets of Madrid like a non-violent army; hundreds of fresh-faced religious in their distinctive habits, joyfully making their way through the various venues; tens of thousands of people kneeling in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; the Successor of Peter presiding over a crowd of 1.5 million at an airfield southwest of Madrid; a steady stream of kids asking where they could find the adoration chapel or how they could arrange for confession; Benedict XVI himself, drenched with rain, but willing to stick it out with the giant crowd that was enduring a downpour in order to hear him.
All of it rich, splendid, unforgettable.
But I would like to focus my reflections on a phenomenon that would actually be funny if it weren’t so tragic. I’m talking about the mainstream media’s extraordinary capacity to miss the point. Every night that I was in Madrid, I would return to my room after an incomparably rich day moving among the throngs of pilgrims, and I would watch the news on CNN and the BBC. World Youth Day was, invariably, among the top stories, but the coverage was, not to put too fine a point on it, just bizarre. (Editor’s note: Also see Kathryn Jean Lopez’s commentary “Mercy at World Youth Day” and Tim Drake’s “The Press Doesn’t Get WYD.”)
“Protesters descend on Madrid as the Pope arrives,” the BBC announcer would gravely intone. “The Pope was met today with strong opposition from secularists, gay-rights activists and Spaniards angry over World Youth Day’s cost to taxpayers,” the CNN anchorwoman would say, frowning into the camera. By the admission of the news reporters themselves, the number of protesters never reached beyond a few thousand, and not one event of World Youth Day was interrupted in the least by their demonstrations. There were, at most, a few scuffles between pilgrims and the protesters.
But judging from the tone of the coverage, the average listener in the U.K. or the United States would have concluded that the Chicago riots of 1968 had broken out in the streets of Madrid. I actually laughed out loud when I focused in on some video of a “confrontation” between protesters and World Youth Day participants and noticed that at least half of the people in the picture were camera crews and reporters!
A million and a half young Catholics from all over the world come to celebrate their faith and to declare their solidarity with the Pope — and the networks obsess over a handful of protesters! I know that controversy sells papers and pleases sponsors, but anyone who was on the ground for World Youth Day couldn’t help but conclude there was something more at work in the gross discrepancy between reality and reportage.
The dirty little secret is that the actual World Youth Day doesn’t fit the standard secularist narrative, according to which Catholicism is a corrupt, backward-looking, moribund ideology, destined to fade away as science advances and subjectivist moral relativism becomes normative. A small percentage of priests engage in sexually deviant behavior? Blanket coverage. An international army of young people marches through the hot sun and then sits patiently through a rainstorm to see the Pope? Ho-hum. That’s called reporting the news according to a set of fairly rigid ideological assumptions and imperatives.
The Catholic Church — at least in the West — is passing through a dark period, largely of its own making. But has the Catholic Church lost the future? The mainstream media wants you to think so. But any of those who experienced World Youth Day firsthand would say, “Don’t you believe it.”
This column is courtesy of Catholic News Agency.
Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire and the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill. He is the creator and host of a new 10-episode documentary series called Catholicism and also hosts programs on Relevant Radio, EWTN and at WordOnFire.org.
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I didn’t hear any news about world youth day by the secular media. The news I watched never mentioned world youthday or Mardid Spain.
Thank you for confirming this, Fr. Barron. I hear all the time about how the Church is in decline, and how the Vatican’s “outdated”, “prejudicial”, “backwards”, “sexist”, etc. “policies” are going to cost the Church all the Catholics it has left. I personally don’t believe it, and clearly WYD proves it. People who don’t agree with the Church want to see it fail, but it’s just not happening, and they refuse to believe it. Frankly, it’s a wonder anyone believes those things at all.
What do you expect with the mainstream media to cover such a wonderful event as this? These young people are the hope of the nation that we live because they are the future leaders. We have to nurture and groom these young people so that they could have strong family ties.
If parents have poor foundation in building a family then we have a big problem. The function of the church educators is to educate the parents.
We can do this if we put our time, treasure, and talent in order to push our good agenda to the youth. If we no treasure then we could share our time and talent to teach them how to LIVE WELL and be independent.
Dear Father barron,
I hundred per cent agree with you you definitely get the point I noticed myself watching the coverage of WYD.
Let me introduce myself, I am 24, live since september 2010 in London, obviously am Catholic, am French and black.
I could watch the WYD thanks to your fabulous channel, I am a fan of KTO the French catholic channel but since I discover EWTN am totally amazed, how God can develop such a great mean of evangelisation,it’s an another level. I like especially the chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Holy Mass, the benedictions and my dearly Father Mitch Pacwa.
So I could say to you there was no mention of WYD in written press, in France the only good coverage in the mainstream media was from Jean Marie Guénois from Le Figaro http://blog.lefigaro.fr/religioblog/.
It’s sad they want to keep the eyes shut of the people and feed a christophobia worse a theophobia. But Let me tell you from what I’ve seen we are at a capital moment of the History, the teachings of pope Benedict were tremendous and will not remain without effect, we will see a rising for instance of the frequentation of the sacraments Eucharist and confession. Can you believe it to the French speakers and especially to us French he said “Don’t be afraid to be Catholic” not to be Christian it’s strong powerful and the liturgy was absolutely fantastic we will see a great change. Trust not me Trust God!!!!
My son attended world youth day as a college Knight and I watched as much of it as I could on EWTN and followed web sites that showed what was happening in the Love and Life Center. My one thought and comment to him when he came home was, how come not one major channel,(2,4,7) even mentioned WYD. They did not show the million or so people (youth) there attending without incedent and staying silent for about 10minutes. It is sad that good behavior is not news worthy.
It was a great and moving thing that happened in Madrid.I watched it on EWTN. I was so happy that all the million or more youth who attened will go back to all corners of the world and spread the Good News to more people.The closing Mass so wonderful.I saw many youths following the Word of God being read in Magnificat in their hands.The singing at the mass and the fervour of our youth convinced me that the Catholic Church will grow.That is the only way for peace in the world and eternal salvation.The media’s position is pathetic.Let us pray for them.
Thank you for this article
1.5 million says it all. The Catholic Church has not lost it’s future and never will. The gates of hell shall not stand against the Catholic Church and Father Barron says it all wonderfully. World Youth Day is just the best testiment to our Catholic Church and it’s young people. Thank God for our Catholic Church.
Fr. Robert, I was there at your vocations talk and it was extraordinary. Your article is completely what I experienced at WYD as well. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and knowledge with the youth group from the Diocese of Raleigh. We are showing your Catholicism Project movies at our parish-STM-Chapel Hill, NC. Thanks for your article and your honesty.
This wicked generation shall pass, but the Church, as in every era, shall lead the way to salvation for humanity, incensed with the love of Christ of these young disciples whom Peter has confirmed in the Faith in Madrid.
So what else is new? When WYD was in Denver, the media mainly asked questions about the handling of sex abuse cases and they kept comparing it to Woodstock which was a major disservice. Those in darkness have great difficulty with the Light of Christ. They don’t want to see how dark their darkness is and the Light hurts their eyes. Thank God for EWTN and NCR!
The coverage here in Spain was obviously extensive, but mostly negative. The talk on the street from non-pilgrims at first mirrored what was being said on TV. At the end of the week, most people were amazed at how many people came to hear the Pope Benedict and at how just polite, clean and joyful the pilgrims were. I think that this WYD will bear fruit for many years to come here in Spain and I hope the rest of the world.
Pax Christi
I am not surprised at the Main street Media. I only watched EWTN in fact so I too could participate with the Universal Gathering. A few more world Youth Days and maybe WE will be the Main Street Media. Keep them in the dark until then.
It is indeed encouraging that so many gathered together for World Youth Day, and that those present were rejuvenated in the faith and filled with hope for the future. When you talk about the secular media’s skewed coverage and completely missing the point, I can’t help but think of that being precisely the same treatment given every year to the March for Life in Washington D.C. It’s a huge event, hundreds of thousands of people come from around the country and around the world, to stand up for life and denounce abortion. The media coverage is normally non-existent or completely off-the-wall, much like you describe.
What’s truly inspiring, though, is that the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Lord to open people’s hearts and minds, touches so many people in a way that could never be contained or explained in a recording. Thanks to technology, those who want to can see what World Youth Day and Catholicism are really about.
May God continue to bless you and all who are intent on bringing the Truth to the world.
I heard nothing on the network news or cnn about this event—-no surprise. I think it does point out the need for the pilgrims to bring the message back home and LOUDLY share it with those unable to attend. The diocesan newpapers NEED to cover this event extensively and the parishes that have a group that attended need to talk about the event and get the next group of young adults excited about Rio.
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