Bishop Barron pains the Catholic Left. He heartens the rest of us.

By Peter Wolfgang ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 13, 2026

Steven Greydanus, a deacon of the Archdiocese of Newark and former film critic for the National Catholic Register, has penned a “longread” Substack article against Bishop Robert Barron. Here’s the short version: Bishop Barron leans right. This pains Catholics like Greydanus, who lean left.

To which I can only say: So what?

I don’t know if Bishop Barron, or his many fans, would agree with Greydanus’ claim that Barron criticizes the left more than he does the right. But I agree with Greydanus. The difference is that Greydanus thinks it’s a bad thing and I think it’s a good thing.

The political left and political right in the United States in 2026 are not morally equivalent. The left is worse. Far worse. That is what I believe. I suspect it is what Bishop Barron believes too, though I don’t expect him to ever say it as explicitly as I just did.

But that it is implicit in Barron’s recent public statements—what Barron does and does not comment on—is too much for Greydanus. He believes the right is worse, and should be called out more, or at least as much. Greydanus, a man of impeccable Catholic orthodoxy, is well within his rights to believe this.

But here’s the thing. Bishop Barron, also a man of impeccable Catholic orthodoxy, is well within his rights to believe the opposite. So are those of us who agree with Bishop Barron’s judgments—and who have been heartened to see at least one outspoken bishop in the U.S. hierarchy giving voice to what so many of us are experiencing.

That is the part I don’t get about Greydanus’ complaint. Most of the Catholic hierarchy does the opposite of Barron. Their public policy statements this past year have been overwhelmingly critical of the right, not the left. In fact, Greydanus mentions statements by several bishops criticizing Trump Administration policy, some of which were co-signed by Barron.

But this is not good enough for Greydanus. Because one guy out of the 268 Catholic bishops active in the United States is giving Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani the business. Seriously. Just one guy. I don’t know of any other member of the hierarchy who would post a video or commentary on X rightly calling out AOC and Mamdani for their, yes, dangerously Marxist statements. But for the Catholic New Left, even one guy is one guy too many.

And look, I get that Bishop Barron has a higher profile than most priests or bishops. But so does Fr. James Martin. So does the USCCB when it speaks as a whole, as it did when it criticized Trump immigration policy in its first “special statement” in over a decade. So does Pope Leo, for goodness sakes.

Barron is the only one calling out wokeness and for that he gets a two-part “longread” rap on the knuckles from Greydanus. I am reminded of a joke attributed to Greg Gutfeld, who said Obama’s complaints about Fox News reminded him of the star quarterback complaining about the one cheerleader who wouldn’t sleep with him. Almost the whole of the hierarchy sees the world as Greydanus sees it. Only Bishop Barron is calling out what the rest of us see.

As even Greydanus says, “The merits of the complaints in any particular case are not entirely the point.” Greydanus’ beef with Barron is that Barron is not sufficiently evenhanded in his criticism of left and right. And that Barron has changed. That Barron used to be more evenhanded but has gotten Trumpier.

Again, I think Greydanus is right. But he never answers the question in his own title: “What happened to Bishop Barron?” What caused “The MAGAfication of a US bishop?” Permit me to hazard a guess. Again, I can’t imagine Bishop Barron would ever say it as explicitly as me. But I think it can be summed up in three words: Joe Biden happened.

In this, Bishop Barron is not exactly alone. There were also Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, Bill Maher and many others. Cultural influencers representing a wide swath of worldviews were scandalized by the insanity of the Biden years. Barron is one of them and in his case, given the depth of his Catholicity, his repugnance to the previous Administration probably runs much deeper.

The unborn butchered in the womb even more after Roe’s repeal, children being genitally mutilated over the objections of their parents, elderly pro-lifers imprisoned for peaceful protest, middle-aged pro-lifers’ homes invaded by SWAT teams in the early morning hours, churches and pro-life organizations firebombed or vandalized while law enforcement did little, ten(s of) million(s of) illegals let into our country across a de-facto open border, and on and on.

I think Bishop Barron saw Woke 1.0 under Biden and was horrified. I think he sees Woke 2.0 barreling down the runway in the form of Mamdani and AOC and is even more horrified. And he should be. I wish more of the hierarchy shared his horror and would join him in giving voice to it.

The Catholic New Left is not as horrified by these things. They are horrified by other things. By Trump, especially. “Catholic New Left” is my phrase for a group of Catholic commentators who, unlike an earlier generation, are motivated not by theological dissent but by a deep antipathy toward Trump and Catholic support of him.

Greydanus’ article on Barron lists many of the reasons why they are horrified by Trump. I don’t necessarily disagree with it, or at least not with all of it. But in reading Greydanus’ complaints against Bishop Barron, and the Catholic New Left’s complaints against pro-Trump Catholics in general, I am reminded of a Facebook friend’s reaction to my previous column about the Catholic New Left:

I’d say that the Catholic New Left addresses people like me and Peter [and Bishop Barron] thus: “The evils you’re willing to tolerate for the sake of greater goods are eviller than the evils for which we’re willing to do the same.”