Bishop Robert Barron taped This Past Weekend with Theo Von
A Catholic bishop and a comedian talked faith, purpose and love, and neither one played it as a bit.
Bishop Robert Barron says he taped an episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von. He announced it himself, calling it a delight to sit down with Theo, and said the conversation covered the Catholic faith in today's culture, finding purpose in an increasingly artificial world, and the connection between faith and love. He invited people to watch it.
Theo replied publicly with a short note of thanks. "thank you for your time and thoughts Bishop! Amen!" he wrote. That is the whole exchange, and it is worth noting what is not in it. No wink, no setup, no punchline hanging off the end.
thank you for your time and thoughts Bishop! Amen!
Played straight
That is the part that stands out. Theo's guest list is the kind of thing people screenshot, and a bishop showing up on a comedy podcast is the sort of booking that usually arrives wrapped in irony from at least one side. Here neither side is doing that. Barron describes it as a wide-ranging discussion. Theo says thank you and Amen. Both posts read like two people who meant it.
The topics Barron listed are the giveaway. Faith in today's culture is a talk show topic. Finding purpose in an increasingly artificial world is a Theo Von topic, the kind of thing that ends up in a clip with a million views and a comment section arguing about something other than jokes. Pair that with a bishop and the clips travel a long way past the people who follow stand up.
What to watch for
Barron pointed his followers to the conversation, so the episode is out there to be watched rather than teased. If you only know This Past Weekend for the loose, meandering interviews, this is the version of that where the meandering has a subject.
Neither post says how long they talked or what specifically got said in the room. That is the limit of what we know right now. What we do know is that a bishop went on a comedian's podcast, the comedian said Amen, and nobody involved treated it as a stunt. The episode itself will decide whether that holds.
Friends, it was a delight to sit down with @TheoVon for an episode of “This Past Weekend.