Bishop Barron comes to Washington, speaks with EWTN ahead of Trump’s address to Congress

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 7, 2025 / 06:00 am

Bishop Robert Barron during his visit to the nation’s capital this week to attend President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress called on Catholic politicians to bring their faith into the public square.

“EWTN News Nightly” Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales sat down with Barron for an interview before the bishop celebrated Mass in the Capitol for lawmakers on March 4 ahead of the address. 

Barron, the founder of the nonprofit global media apostolate Word on Fire, shared with EWTN his message to Catholics serving in Congress: “Don’t leave your faith at the door.”

“We don’t impose the faith. [Pope] John Paul [II] always said, ‘We don’t impose, we propose.’ But they should bring their faith into the public square,” Barron continued.

“It’s not the case that we’re to sequester faith simply into the privacy of our conscience. No, it’s a public reality, and it should inform the decisions that they make here,” he said.

Barron is one of the most well-known American bishops with more than 1.8 million followers on his YouTube channel, where he discusses faith and culture, often touching on politics.

The bishop from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who serves as chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, was invited to the joint session of Congress by Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia. 

During the interview, Barron said he hoped to “just take in the beauty of the event.” 

“I was graciously invited here by Rep. Moore from West Virginia. I’m a student of American history, and I’ve been watching these addresses for many years,” he said.

“Just the chance to be in the chamber and to hear the president, see the whole government assemble. All that was attractive to me, so I accepted the invitation,” Barron added.

Earlier this year, the media apostolate announced plans to establish a new order of Word on Fire priests. During the “EWTN News Nightly” interview, Rosales asked Barron what he hopes this order will bring to the Church. 

“I just think the needful thing today in the Church is this outreach to the unaffiliated,” Barron responded. “I think it’s the central problem we have, is the number, especially of young people, who are disaffiliating from the Church.”

“A lot of my ministry has been focused on that — to appeal through truth and beauty, to bring the great tradition forward, and to try to draw people back to the Church,” he said.

“What I didn’t want was this ministry simply to end with me. I thought, I want it to go on after I’m gone. Could there be an order, I wondered, that would carry on this charism of using the media in an intelligent way, in a beautiful way, reaching out to the unaffiliated?” he said.

The interview wrapped up with a brief discussion of Pope Francis and the bishop’s thoughts on the Holy Father’s health battle.

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“We’ve been praying for him for the last now almost three weeks he’s been in the hospital. So it’s been a pretty dicey time, and we’ve been following the news and accompanying him with our prayers,” he said.

“Just praying for him and hoping that he can recover and get back to his mission,” Barron concluded.