In my previous post, I attempted to clarify the motivations that animate my recent — and hopefully measured — criticism of Bishop Barron. I tried to make it clear that, while I take issue with his claims and arguments, my concern is not only academic in scope. I am more concerned with the effect his now persistent rhetoric against what he calls “wokeness” has upon Catholics of color in the United States, especially Black Catholics. That post was mainly written as a self-reminder and though I can speak only for myself, I did hope it was roughly representative of the feelings of many people who feel the way I do right now.
In this post, I will again work in a loose and rather informal way to locate some of my perhaps less critical notes about Barron’s message. Or at least I will aim to put my criticism in a more appreciative context. I won’t bury my limited but serious positive note: Barron’s unjust and ill-informed criticism of CRT and what he calls “wokeness” is, mistakes notwithstanding, based on a true and salutary pastoral intuition. Barron seems to detect a real and even deep compatibility between the motivations that bring people to abolitionist and antiracist political movements and the Gospel proclaimed by the Catholic Church, especially within its social teaching of the past nearly 130 years. This is what Barron gets about CRT.
