Despite what Barron called a "smart tradition" of Catholicism, he said it has not been properly articulated to young people through catechesis. He stressed the need for Catholic schools to better prepare their students so they are fully equipped to enter the next stage of life being able to properly defend the faith and answer those tough questions.
Next, Barron detailed his belief that it would be beneficial to "turn every parish into a missionary society," to seek to better evangelize with young people and the religiously unaffiliated.
Barron said there must be "a dialogue with our priests and our people" regarding evangelization. He called for a change in mindset, and said that all parishes should be reaching out to the community with evangelization and mission work in mind. Parishes should "knock down the walls," said Barron, and interact with the surrounding area.
"The young people aren't going to come to us," said Barron. "We have to go out to them."
To properly execute these various techniques and strategies, Barron said priests, bishops, and parishes must embrace a "creative use of new media," namely, social media platforms such as Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Social media is the "prime tool" to reach the young people, said Barron. He noted that young people are easily reached through social media, which are platforms that did not exist even a decade ago. The Church needs to embrace social media, which are platforms that can easily and simply reach large amounts of people, in order to reach into the world of young people, said Barron.
"It's a tool that we can and should use to reach out to this world," said Barron. He said that social media has a "sticky" quality about it that can draw in a user to continue to consume content. He cited an example of someone who came to embrace Catholicism after finding Barron's videos regarding Bob Dylan and religion, which led to the person watching more and more videos on the Church.
The Church, said Barron, must invest in this, as well as hire "really good people" to work on social media.
After all, said the bishop, "young people live" online, and they must be reached where they can be found.
"Now we want to get them to parishes," he said, "but as a first step, I think that's one way to do it."
Christine Rousselle is a former DC Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. Prior to working at CNA, she was the managing web editor of Townhall.com; she has a BA in political science from Providence College.