The "Catholicism" Series

EWTN is running Fr. Barron's "Catholicism" series.

Neat stuff; even Lefties will be pleased, as he included a segment on Peter Maurin's Catholic Worker Movement (which has been the subject of lotsa 'socialist' noises from inside and outside of the Church).

The series, being video, uses awesome photography, including the now-Muslimized Hagia Sophia and Sant' Chapell (?spelling) in France; but it also includes lots, and I mean LOTS, of people.  Pilgrims at Lourdes, Rome, and Warsaw.  Kids in Africa.

And the music score is interesting, largely drawing on Gregorian Chant:  the Kyrie theme from Mass VIII, the 'Attende, Domine' Lenten hymn, the sequences 'Veni, Sancte Spiritus' and 'Victimae Paschali' --all, significantly, very lightly orchestrated (noble simplicity, anyone?) to good effect.  The incipit of "Christus Vincit" is used at the beginning of every program-segment.  He also uses Vivaldi's "Gloria" and a bit of Mozart's "Requiem" Mass.  The music, of course, controls the 'mood' of the series, as music always does.

Halfway through, Fr. Barron does a lengthy piece on the Beatitudes, reminding us that Thomas Aquinas listed the four "opposites" of them as the desire(s) for Power, Pleasure, Honor, and Riches.

He includes a strange musical interlude from a Chicago church and darn near wears out the term 'social justice,' --which as others point out, is something of a contradiction in terms.

Regardless, it's worth seeing, because the series does a good job of capturing the 2,000 years in sight and sound--precisely what it intended to do.