Bishop Barron calls for Catholics to show charity online

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I saw that video from Bishop Barron yesterday, and I appreciate his making it, even though sadly I am not so hopeful his critics will listen. Even if we could cool down the anger, disrespect and vitriol a little, it would be a good thing.

 
Especially the World News category, which in my opinion seldom if ever links news to
Church teaching.
 
We should just keep posting the above article in the World News forum threads when they get out of hand.
 
puer.dei said:
provide well structured and charitable arguments
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I love Bishop Barron, but I think this is asking too much. With CAF existing, and everything. And comments sections on news sites. And comment sections on blogs. And YouTube videos.
 
While his message is a good one, as someone who follows Bishop Barron’s online activities pretty closely I remember a couple of his Reddit AMAs that were not exactly as charitable as I would have expected from someone making this kind of a plea. Granted, you get a lot of people who are blatantly trolling in those kinds of environments, but I think he should have probably anticipated this, for someone who claims to be familiar with how the Internet works compared to most other bishops.

While I agreed with some parts of the recent article that he wrote about the bishops/laity and strongly disagreed with other parts, there is no need for insults towards him for what he wrote. I think he deserved some of the backlash he got but any criticism should remain respectful and stick to the facts.
I did see several Catholic commentators write very respectful pieces refuting some of Bishop Barron’s arguments and for the most part mainstream Catholic media has been very respectful even if they disagreed with his latest writings. If you’re looking to get a well-reasoned, respectful discussion on Twitter, however…then you’d better start praying to your favorite saint for a miracle.
 
You are right, but I find people here are not anywhere near as charitable as they should be, especially towards newcomers, and those asking sincere questions. There is a slight air of inhospitability and suspicion as well as passive-aggression and other unseemly dispositions.
I fall into myself sometimes, but I try to be conscious of not doing so.
I think the reason is simple: You aren’t faced with a real person, in real life. Although there is another soul at the other end of the internet, when your brain is faced with an anonymous source and words on a screen, it’s all too easy to be uncharitable and speak in a way that you wouldn’t in real life to another human being.

🤷‍♂️
 
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To be fair to him, and I’m not his biggest fan but neither do I have anything against him, I think he said the thing about it being okay for Catholics to hope that Hell was empty like one time, and it didn’t seem like he’d given it loads of thought. I disagree with the idea that Hell could be empty based on the scriptures and the likes of Fatima but I don’t think what he said was that serious.
 
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Yeah, we can always have hope. It doesn’t mean our hope is correct.
I too hope that Hell is empty. However, I feel like the odds (and scripture, private revelation etc) are against me there.
I certainly wouldn’t bet the rent on Hell being empty.
 
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But it still follows that mortal sin leads to Hell. While we should avoid sin because we love the Lord and want to keep His commandments to show that we love him the fear of Hell is also a motivator for not sinning. Both reasons for not sinning are mentioned in the Act of Contrition.
 
I do agree with that. I always want our priests and Bishops to be more courageous though!
 
The question was whether Bishop Barron can talk about mortal sin if he hopes that Hell is empty. The response is yes, as one must love God, and sin is contrary to God, so if we love God we shouldn’t want to sin.

Really, I don’t think what the Bishop said about Hell was so important (in the sense that he didn’t put it much thought and Traditionalist exaggerated it with their lobby), but, even if Bishop Barron were a hard line universalist, the rest of his Theology would work just fine, as with this topic of sin.
 
It’s sad that a call for peace among Catholics is met with hostility over on Twitter.

I know Bishop Barron has said some questionable things, but that doesn’t change that he is right about the disunity among Catholics.
 
I noticed that the guy Tim Gordon who got fired from his teaching job for the unnecessary divisive/ uncivil stuff he was posting on Twitter is now complaining about Bishop Barron. Perfect example of what Bishop Barron is talking about. I’ll side with the Bishop on this one.
 
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