The Narthex

This blog, NOR’s “Narthex,” has just featured its one thousandth post. As we celebrate this milestone -- 1,000 posts in only six and a half years! -- we remind readers that blog posts treat topics currently in the news and offer explainers of unexplored ideas behind the news. So, what’s…

The new Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum is a follow-up document to Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si’. Michael Dominic Taylor, in "Consider the lilies and CO2" (at Catholic World Report, Oct. 8), explains how Laudate Deum fails to build on the solid teaching in Laudato Si’ and instead runs in a mistaken…

Last week Ukrainian President Zelensky visited the U.S. and Canada seeking more money and weapons. As reported by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos at Responsible Statecraft (Sept. 22), the Biden administration agreed to give Ukraine long-range missiles in the “upcoming weeks.” The warheads in question, called ATACMs, were previously considered to be…

One-time NOR blogger Dominick Sansone makes an apt and educative historical comparison in a recent article ("Weak Interventionism," The American Conservative, March 28) about America's proxy war in Ukraine. He first dispenses with the oft-repeated “appeasement” comparison between interwar Germany and present-day Russia, which has been the kneejerk reaction of…

The top three questions New Oxford Review gets from our subscribers are 1) "Why can't I access online articles?"; 2) "How can I add online access to my print subscription?"; and 3) "Why does the website say my subscription is 'inactive'?" If you've ever asked yourself one of these, read…

U.S. conservatives are now able to openly voice criticism of Washington's continued pro-war stance in Ukraine -- able to openly voice meaning they can do so without being accused of being pro-Putin. The Overton window on discussing the Ukraine war has moved, making room for intelligent discussion and views that…

The demise of a nation at the hand of its enemy is comprehensible. The demise of a nation by the aggregated poor choices of its own prosperous people is strange indeed. Christ warns of the pitfalls of wealth, of hearts set on money and not God. He says, in the…

The cost of an uncomplicated birth, even for parents with employer-provided health insurance, has gotten way out of hand. The situation screams for proposed solutions, and so the leaders of two pro-life organizations have offered one. Catherine Glenn Foster, President & CEO of Americans United for Life, and Kristen Day,…

The well-used tactic of transgender activists -- to threaten that confused people will kill themselves if society doesn't indulge their whims -- has mutated and jumped into the rhetorical arsenal of pro-abortion activists. Last month JAMA Psychiatry online (Dec. 28) released a study claiming abortion restrictions probably cause suicide. Thomas…

Esteemed statesman Henry Kissinger makes an important point in his essay "How to avoid another world war" (The Spectator, Dec. 17). He describes how Europe's leaders "sleepwalked" into the first world war. With hindsight we see the effect of the "new" technology of the early 20th century, but men of…

Disappointing election results may prompt Catholics to retreat to the Church for reminders that the world hasn't gone completely mad. But, then again, certain worldly attempts to solve spiritual problems within the Church -- the global Synod, for example -- give the impression that the world's worst excesses have invaded…

One retired colonel who does not march in lockstep with the bipartisan warmongers in D.C. is Douglas Macgregor. Macgregor's recent article, "War and Regrets in Ukraine," at The American Conservative website (Oct. 19) offers a sober view of the Russia-Ukraine war as Europe heads into winter. He suggests that Americans…

An excellent article on U.S. involvement in Ukraine -- one that provides more background and analysis than a hundred mainstream pieces -- is offered by Christopher Caldwell at the Claremont Review website. A link to "Why Are We in Ukraine?" (Summer 2022) can be found below. To sample Caldwell's valuable…

Today Arizona governor Doug Ducey is signing a universal school-choice law that gives parents $7,000 per child per year to spend at any educational institution of their choice, including private schools and religious schools. Catholic schools in Arizona will be among the many beneficiaries of this innovation. In City Journal…

The City of New York recently released a 90-second public service announcement (PSA) on "Nuclear Preparedness." The Emergency Management department's video is so odd, it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry at the thought that people may put their trust in it. Imagine, the video's narrator says, that…