Bishop Robert Barron is perhaps the most well known Catholic priest in the United States today—having amassed crowds of admirers through his documentary Catholicism, as well as his Youtube videos and podcast sermons. Yet you would never know his importance sitting across from him at dinner, as a group of us recently had the chance to do.

The Bishop is as well-spoken and highly educated as he is also humble and open hearted. He was willing to sit at a table with strangers, asking about each one in turn, but not from some pastoral height, but as a fellow traveler and human being. We talked about a wide range of topics: movies, sports, Bob Dylan, his loves and challenges, adjusting to the move from Chicago to Santa Barbara, etc. He listened to those around him with an open and apparent curiosity.

One of the highlights of the night came when he described the quirks of being selected as Bishop. The word comes from Rome, a selection already approved by the Pope, but how exactly the choice is made is shrouded in mystery. Suddenly, one receives a polite but brief call, and a month later one's lifetime in Chicago becomes a new adventure in Southern California. Bishop Barron was wryly aware of how strange the practice of obedience in the Church must appear to the surrounding culture. In any other labor sector, six months, or even a year is given to contemplate such a move.

It was in this kind of understated, cheerful intelligence, that we saw what is distinctive and uniquely special about this man.