An ‘Expression of the Catholic Mind’: Cathedrals Come to Cinema in the US

Word on Fire is continuing its mission to evangelize, but this September, that evangelization will take place on the silver screen.

The Catholic media apostolate has a film set to release in theaters on Sept. 20 called “Heaven in Stone and Glass.” The film takes viewers through Europe’s Gothic cathedrals alongside Bishop Robert Barron, who provides meditations on how the Catholic Church’s teachings can be found in the art and architecture of medieval cathedrals. Tickets went on sale July 31.

“Materialism, atheism, ideological naturalism have all crushed the human spirit,” Barron told the Daily Signal. “As St. Augustine said long ago, we are all wired for God, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. The Cathedrals address that longing in a very powerful way.”

“I love monasteries, statues, all forms of Catholic art, but the Cathedrals seem to be the richest and [most] complex expression of the Catholic mind in artistic form,” Barron said.

The film opens with clips of the 800-year-old cathedral of Notre Dame engulfed in flames when its wooden spire burned down in 2019. Barron walks through the cathedrals of Notre Dame, Amiens, Chartres, Reims, and Saint Denis, while the film flicks through their gargoyles, stained-glass windows, and murals.

Barron is well acquainted with these buildings from the years he spent in Paris completing his doctoral studies and giving tours at Notre Dame. Tour guide is precisely the role Barron plays throughout “Heaven in Stone and Glass.” It’s a theology, history, and art course all rolled into one.

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“The Cathedrals were meant to ‘Christify’ those who walk through them and worship within their confines,” Barron said. “Every window, statue, symbolic device, etc. is designed to draw a person into the field of force established by Christ. If one enters a Cathedral in a spiritually receptive way, he will exit as a transformed person.”

Spirit Juice Studios, a Catholic production and visual media company, was tasked with bringing the experience of Europe’s cathedrals to life in American theaters. Its focus was sparking a renewed appreciation of beauty within the church.

“We become desensitized to beauty, and in doing so, we can forget just how powerfully it speaks,” Spirit Juice told the Daily Signal. “I think we saw a glimpse of that when Notre Dame burned. Across cultures, countries, and even religious beliefs, people felt a profound sense of loss watching that cathedral burn. There was something almost visceral about it.”

“September was the chosen release month because it’s the returning of most of our country to an attitude of ‘learning,’” Spirit Juice said. “Back to school is upon us, and as we culturally gear up to reawaken our minds, ‘Heaven in Stone and Glass’ asks us all to go deeper.”

Although hundreds of years have passed since these cathedrals were constructed, they have not lost their value. Not only do they signify the importance of creating things that can stand the test of time, but they serve as representations of the church herself by encapsulating the Catholic understanding of reality that is both physical and spiritual.

“We live in a culture that moves incredibly quickly. So much of what we make is designed to be consumed, replaced, or forgotten,” Spirit Juice said. “Cathedrals represent almost the exact opposite impulse. Generations of people devoted their lives to building something they knew they might never see completed. They built for their children, their grandchildren, and ultimately for God.”

“These Cathedrals have survived wars, revolutions, fires, and enormous cultural change, and yet they continue to draw millions of people through their doors,” Spirit Juice said. “I think that’s because they speak to something permanent in us.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky famously wrote, “Beauty will save the world.” In “Heaven in Stone and Glass,” Barron suggests that the beauty of a Catholic cathedral will save something more permanent than the world: our eternal souls.