I’m out with the people a lot, ” he says. “What strikes me is it’s a very pastoral job. Since he has spent much of his ministry in academics, he has had to shift his focus as a bishop. Barron admits that he relishes teasing his friends and family in Chicago about the beautiful weather in Santa BarbaraÑespecially during this past winter.īefore being named a bishop, Barron served as rector and president of Mundelein Seminary and the University of St. It’s certainly a different climate than what he was used to in Chicago. He lives in Santa Barbara, which he calls the “American Riviera. Los Angeles Archbishop Jos Gomez assigned Barron to be the episcopal vicar for the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region, which has a population of one million Catholics and is larger than many dioceses in the country. The weather and location have helped the transition. None of these are earth-shattering problems, he says, just things to adjust to. I’m just now kind of getting used to it, but that was difficult, too. “When you’re a bishop, they tell you don’t take it off. “I never wore a ring in my life, ” he says. I’m not used to having a hat in that position. “It does feel like it’s falling off of your head all of the time. “I’m kind of used to it now, but when you first put it on it’s weird, ” he recalls. When delivering the opening keynote address at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September 2015, he asked the crowd to forgive him for always adjusting his zucchetto.
Some of the little things were an adjustment, tooÑlike wearing a zucchetto. I’m very comfortable here now and have gotten to know a lot of folks. The first couple of months here were difficult just because every day was such a huge adjustment, ” he says. But the geography, the people, the priests, the roadsÑI knew nothing about it.
I had been to LA to give talks and that sort of thing. With one phone call from the US papal nuncio, all of that was taken away, and he says he experienced a type of desolation. I travel around the world a lot, but Chicago has always been home. “I’ll admit candidly, it was a difficult transition because I was totally ensconced in ChicagoÑfriends, family, ministry, connections, everything. He’s a native of Chicago and was a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago before being ordained a bishop in the fall of 2015. Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, which produced the award-winning Catholicism series used in thousands of parishes and that aired on PBS stations around the country. Robert Barron is settling into his new role as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Los AngelesÑbut it was an adjustment at first.
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