Robert Emmet Barron (born November 19, 1959) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester since 2022.

[23] After serving as an associate pastor of St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Parish in Park Ridge, Illinois, from 1986 to 1989, he was sent to France and earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology at the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992.

His dissertation was titled "Creation as Discipleship: A Study of the De potentia of Thomas Aquinas in Light of the Dogmatik of Paul Tillich".

In 2000, Barron launched Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, a non-profit organization, that supports his evangelistic endeavors.

Barron's Word on Fire website offers daily blogs, articles, commentaries and over ten years of weekly sermon podcasts.

[1] Archbishop José Horacio Gómez noted that Barron's media talent and rapport with young people, as well as his outreach to other faiths would be good for the archdiocese.

On June 2, 2022, Pope Francis appointed Barron as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, in southern Minnesota.

Barron lectures extensively in the United States and internationally and he has published numerous books, essays, and DVD programs.

Barron's website hosts daily blog posts, weekly articles and video commentaries, and an audio archive of over 500 homilies.

[38] Barron is the first priest since Archbishop Fulton Sheen in the 1950s to have a regular national program on a commercial television network.

Barron produces a weekly podcast on faith and culture titled The Word on Fire Show, which has been downloaded over 10 million times.