The Narthex

I write this short biographical essay for folks who haven’t seen biographical films such as Patrick: The Patron Saint of Ireland (2020), St. Patrick: Apostle of Ireland (2004), and St. Patrick: The Irish Legend (2000), or haven't read books such as Roy Flechner's Saint Patrick Retold (2019) and Thomas O’Loughlin's…

Part 3 provided one piece of shockingly good news coming out of Notre Dame. The second piece of shockingly good news is the number of Notre Dame students studying theology. When I was researching the state of the Catholic Faith at Notre Dame, I ran across the following article stating…

In Parts 1 and 2, I promised to describe the shockingly good news coming out of Notre Dame. Before I get to the shockingly good news, let me describe the simply good news for those readers not familiar with the campus or with its history (aside from football). For those…

In Part 1, linked below, I described the shockingly bad news coming out of Notre Dame. I promised that in Part 2 I would describe the shockingly good news. Instead, in this Part 2, I provide an update on the bad news described in Part 1. The good news will…

Folks, the good news out of the University of Notre Dame is shockingly good. The bad news out of Notre Dame is shockingly bad. I’ll start with the bad. On January 8, 2026, Notre Dame announced that a professor, Susan Ostermann, is being appointed, effective July 1, as director of…

I concluded Part 2 with a description of the nine languages in which Pope St. John Paul II was fluent. Here, I begin with a description of the languages in which he communicated although he was not fluent in them. I will conclude this series with lessons for priests and…

In Part 1, I noted the languages Our Lord spoke and detailed how Pope St. John Paul II communicated in styles other than the usual discourse. In this Part, I detail how John Paul communicated in a manner appropriate to his audiences and in the native tongues of the people.…

Vatican II’s document on Divine Revelation teaches us that “the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them…

In Part 1 (linked below) I discussed Pope Leo's plans to continue to live in community as pope, St. Augustine's description of friendship, short biographies of two friends with whom he did not live in community, and the communities of Cassiciacum, where he prepared for baptism, and Thagaste, his hometown…

Pope Leo XIV is the first member of the Order of St. Augustine (OSA) to serve as pope. This Order follows the short “Rule of St. Augustine” written by St. Augustine about 400 A.D.[i] Augustinian friars live in community. Upon his election, Pope Leo announced that he would…

Given that St. John Henry Newman was made a Doctor of the Church on November 1, I am sharing with you the materials I provided students in grades 6 through 9 whom I tutored on 50 great speeches of the Western world in 2020-21. Newman’s “Second Spring” sermon is an…

I recently read a profile of Duncan Stroik, professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame. What caught my eye was the description the professor gave of one of two key moments in his path to becoming an architect who would design sacred architecture. When he was in graduate…

On this Feast of the Assumption, we need to continue to deliver news to the world about how we should treat women -- both as subjects of articles and as readers. Fox News Digital (foxnews.com), most unfortunately, has been running almost daily columns with pictures of women in bikinis and…

When we celebrate a Catholic wedding, we do so for more than the couple marrying. We do so for all those present. The same is true for baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. How many of the people present to witness a Catholic marriage are not Christian, are Christian…

Thomas J. Burns reported the number of Catholic marriages -- in which Catholics administer the Sacrament of Matrimony to each other -- in the United States in five-year intervals in a July 5, 2023, report. His numbers were obtained from annual statistics gathered by the Center for Applied Research in…