The Narthex

“What? Curiosity is a sin”? I waited quietly. “Nonsense,” says my dear wife. “I won’t bother reading any more of this blather.” My response: “Well, don’t you wonder why the op-ed guy claims it is?” Privately, I lamented her reigned-in curiosity. But my curiosity was piqued, so I decided to…

“Everyone has their own religion.” So said my mother, a thoroughly Irish Catholic. What was I to make of it? (My father, whose piety was more wintry, kept his own counsel.) Looking back, I suspect what my mother had in mind was that different people have different spiritualities. Nonetheless, given…

What to do with a pet peeve? “Own” it. It’s a peeve, and no more. Take care not to become peevish. On rare occasion, however, a peeve merits pursuit and, once pinned down, even theological examination. Here’s a candidate: the weaselly abuse of “appropriate” and “inappropriate” and “appropriately” and “inappropriately.”…

Here in Inglewood, and in many areas of greater Los Angeles, we deal with a perplexing urban phenomenon: coyotes, sometimes in packs, prowl about at night and in the early morning. They’re hunting small animals, often rodents and cats. Nobody knows why the coyotes are on the increase, though there’s…

It’s hard to miss the buzz about the Administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Not so long ago, we heard about financial institutions that were too big to fail. Now, it seems, we’re looking at a bill that’s too big to succeed. If only there were a line-item veto process! For…

Our welcome of Pope Leo XIV is sparking fresh interest in the heritage of Leo XIII (1878-1903), and for a range of reasons! So here, gentle reader, are a few of them to consider. First is a remarkable meeting. May 17 marked the 100th anniversary of the canonization of St.…

In the leadup to the recent conclave, certain voices, amplified by the New York Times, advised us to beware of those seeking “unity.” Even though the goal seemed legitimate, it was a rhetorical device of those who wanted to roll back the initiatives of Pope Francis. Now comes Pope Leo…

“Awesome!” So say the young, and so often that the adults in the room join in. I like to add, “Totally,” which sometimes elicits a smile. Rarely if ever, though, are we really in awe of the supposedly awesome. But, truth be told, we rarely take to be a wonder…

About a year ago a new Planned Parenthood of America (PPA) clinic moved into the neighborhood. We first noticed it on the way to Mass at our Inglewood, California, parish, St. John Chrysostom. The clinic, fairly large and with bold signage, is in a busy strip mall. Why not? The…

“What a difference a day makes,” sang Dinah Washington. And why? Because “24 little hours / Brought the sun and the flowers / Where there used to be rain.” But sometimes, we know, it just keeps raining. So, it depends on the day, doesn’t it? What about a word? What…

“If memory serves,” I sometimes say, which puts my wife on alert. Is my selective amnesia (from the Greek ἀ-  "without" and μνήσις "memory") about to kick in? Maybe, but even so I’m the family archivist. Blimey! Who gets assigned to foraging in our archives, fittingly located in the shed…

Last week a gang of thieves shot and killed a fellow parishioner. The thugs were stripping the catalytic converter from a car, and he’d tried to stop them. At Sunday’s liturgy, our pastor spoke about the terrible loss and grief of the victim’s family. Many people in the congregation had…

Does charity begin at home? The short answer to the question is yes, it surely does. But the answer is controversial. In part, that’s because a short answer often calls for a careful explanation and we don’t provide it. Sometimes we’ve filed it where we can’t find it. That’s alright,…

Wittgenstein, in his early Tractatus, concludes his remarks with the proposition "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Many took him to mean that we can only speak of that for which there is empirical evidence or that which is simply tautological. If that were so, could we…

The more we know, the more we don’t know. It takes a lot of living to recognize our peculiar predicament. Even so, there are dissenters. Skeptics say that we don’t know what we think we do. Ideologues insist that they know what they don’t know. But why is it that…