The Narthex

The Swedish government's approach to coronavirus has been criticized all along by the media of other Western nations hell-bent on justifying their own economy- and job-killing overreactions. Although we need to wait and see what winter brings in the northern hemisphere, we can at least give an update on Sweden's…

Do you have friends who claim to be against abortion but vote for pro-abortion politicians because abortion is “just one issue among many”? Perhaps solid teaching from our shepherds can help convince them otherwise. John Gerard Lewis, author of Catholic Voting and Mortal Sin: How You Vote Can Endanger Your…

Many Catholics have pondered whether the Church benefits from the work of public intellectual and author Jordan B. Peterson (who has recently been quieted by a prolonged health crisis). Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life, which counsels the young on living a meaningful life, had sold three million copies by…

Negative portrayals of the Church by the mainstream media are a given, but lately the Associated Press and The New York Times have dealt a few dirty blows. New York’s Cardinal Dolan recently responded to a story in the Associated Press about Catholic organizations and entities receiving relief funds from…

Various analyses suggest that around 40% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths have taken place at nursing homes. While the data will be refined over time, it’s clear that nursing home residents are an extremely vulnerable population in a pandemic. An article at The American Conservative (June 5) called “Continued Isolation Will…

Fr. Richard Perozich of Hawaii sent comments on Richard Dell'Orfano's blog post "The Grindstone" (March 24), which touched on boring homilies and overworked priests. Perozich writes:

As a priest I could be insulted that a lay Catholic said the homilies are dull, that he has to go to…

New data from Italy’s national statistics agency (ISTAT) show the country’s population continued to shrink in 2019. ISTAT reports 435,000 births in 2019, down 5,000 from 2018 and the lowest level ever recorded in Italy. Deaths there totaled 647,000 last year. Reuters quotes the reaction of Italian president Sergio Mattarella.…

Mount Mary University, a small Catholic women’s college in Milwaukee, recently announced plans to build housing for both single mothers and retired nuns as a residential community. The project is a collaboration between the college, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and Milwaukee Catholic Home. Three buildings will contain 90…

A new article in The Atlantic, "The War Machine Is Run on Contracts" by Kathy Gilsinan, describes the largely unacknowledged thousands of people who make possible U.S. military activity in the Middle East. As U.S. interventions have become more complex ("nation building") and drawn-out over decades, our military has relied…

Slow-release pills are nothing new, but within a few years a once-a-month birth control pill will hit the market. An article at Wired magazine (Dec. 4) explains how it works. Birth control developers, pushers, and users have long recognized that user error is the Achilles heel of the reigning daily-pill…

Berea College, in rural Kentucky, was founded in 1855 by a Christian minister. The private liberal arts work college is known, at least regionally, for providing free education to students and for having been the first college in the South to be co-ed and racially integrated. Since its beginning, Berea…

Ten years ago the excellent teacher Pope Benedict XVI preached on Advent. At the homily's outset he explains that the meaning of the Latin adventus, from which the term Advent derives, can be rendered with presence, arrival, or coming. He continues, "In the language of the ancient world it was a…

Daniel Larison, over at The American Conservative, writes on the last 20 years of America’s wars of choice. In “The Costs Of Forever War: 335,000 Dead Civilians And $6.4 Trillion” he cites a recent study on post-9/11 wars and military action in the Middle East and Asia, published by the…

Portions of the U.S. have become like the “wild west,” and in many ways even worse than that. A CNN headline from earlier this year reads, “More US school-age children die from guns than on-duty US police or global military fatalities, study finds.” This blog post is not about being…

Societies in wealthier nations for several decades have been discussing the replacement of workers by robots and machines. It now seems quaint to recall, from perhaps 15 years ago, the shock expressed at those grocery chains who first adopted use of "self-checkouts." My local supermarket has recently installed another cluster…