![\"pivotal-players-patheos\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/524\/2016\/11\/pivotal-players-patheos.jpg\")
<\/a>Starting tonight, Sunday, November 13, and continuing through December, PBS stations across the country (check local listings for time and channel in your area \u2014 or click here<\/a> for an air schedule) are airing \u201cCatholicism: The Pivotal Players,\u201d the follow-up to Bishop Robert Barron\u2019s \u201cCatholicism.\u201d<\/p>\nViewers who enjoy watching the profiles of Michelangelo and St. Francis of Assisi on PBS are able to buy the first six episodes on DVD<\/a> \u2014 which also includes Saint Catherine of Siena, Blessed John Henry Newman, G.K. Chesterton and Saint Thomas Aquinas \u2014 with more to come in the future.<\/p>\n Recently I did an interview with Father Steve Grunow, the CEO of Bishop Barron\u2019s media aposolate Word on Fire, and executive producer of both \u201cCatholicism\u201d and \u201cThe Pivotal Players.\u201d<\/p>\n The full interview is here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 with additional comments on the Saint Catherine of Siena and G.K. Chesterton episodes, and several video clips) \u2014 at Family Theater Productions\u2019 Faith & Family Media Blog<\/a><\/em>, but here are some excerpts:<\/p>\n Do people realize that Michelangelo was Catholic?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s what we uncovered in our research in planning for this, the idea that Michelangelo was a radical secularist or simply a humanist. That\u2019s the trope of modernity. It\u2019s used for its own purposes, but he was a man of intense Catholic spirituality.<\/p>\n Some people picture Francis as a tree-hugging vegetarian who spent all day playing with birds and bunnies\u00a0\u2014 but none of this is true. What do you want people to learn about him?<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s much more to Francis than any of those types of things. We wanted to show that he was a radical Christian, that he was a disciple of Jesus, embedded in these particular circumstances, in this particular period of time. It was the display of himself as a disciple of Jesus that made him so attractive and strange.<\/p>\n He\u2019s like the grain of salt that gets into the life story, and we\u2019re the oysters. He\u2019s hard for us to take, so we clothe him over time with this mythology to turn him into a pearl that\u2019s easier for us to keep in our gullet.<\/p>\n If you break open that pearl, there\u2019s that grain of sand, and that\u2019s Francis of Assisi. He was a frightening figure when you really look into it, somewhat of a cave dweller. He was very off-putting to most modern sensibilities.<\/p>\n He set out with this personal call from Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel in this extraordinary way. That was his mission, and people found that mission to be so foretelling that a movement arose that was associated with the charism of this person, but it wasn\u2019t his role to necessarily give structure to that movement.<\/p>\n What should be the place of the Church in producing modern media?<\/strong><\/p>\n We should hold ourselves to standards that are as high, if not higher, than the culture, than modern media has. We shouldn\u2019t be shooting low, just so we can create something. You have to keep your production values high. That entails a lot of sacrifices and costs, but if you create bad media, don\u2019t expect people to watch it. You create good media, and then you get a chance.<\/p>\n You tell the Christian story in a compelling way. We don\u2019t necessarily use marble and frescoes to do that in our time, but we use the tools of film. Television and digital expense is going up. What we place on that should be as high quality as what Michelangelo produced \u2014 at least we should be trying.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got a particular take on this thing called Christianity that [non-Catholic Christians] don\u2019t have. We can\u2019t rely on someone else to do the work for us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Tune in, and don\u2019t forget, the DVDs are perfect for Christmas giving (and there is also a\u00a0study guide and other resources<\/a>).<\/p>\n