The Narthex

Here we wrap up my four-part series on suggestions for improving the pastoral letter on immigration by the Archbishop of San Antonio, the Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS. The Archbishop cites St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (2:19) in support of his statement that “by Baptism we are incorporated into…

I continue with my suggestions for improving the pastoral letter on immigration by the Archbishop of San Antonio, the Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS. The Archbishop paints another picture, namely, that of the desperation of the undocumented/illegal immigrant. He writes, “Our immigration system has failed the people it was meant…

In a recent Gospel, Our Lord tells St. Peter, “You will be catching men” (Luke 5:10). The homilist told us we must all be catchers of men. It’s the start of a new school year and I praise teachers and parents of young children who pass on the Faith, who…

I continue with my suggestions for improving the recent pastoral letter on immigration by the Archbishop of San Antonio, the Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS. Racism of Enforcement? The Archbishop maintains that there are “patterns of racial disparity in [immigration] enforcement against Hispanics, Latinos, and other people of color” (Para.…

On August 3, the archbishop of San Antonio, the Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS (Missionaries of the Holy Spirit), marked the centennial of the elevation of San Antonio to a metropolitan archdiocese by publishing a pastoral letter on immigration. I thank the archbishop for his thoughtful, prayerful, and emotionally powerful…

Here’s what I propose: Let’s no longer take the name of John the Baptist in vain. Please, hear me out. We English-speaking Christians must refrain from using the word john for toilet or, worse, for a customer of a prostitute. Why? Because God gave the name John to St. John…

In Part 3 we looked at Pugin’s St. John the Baptist “Hospital,” Alton Castle, and Lodging for Stonemasons, all in Alton, as the first of Pugin’s built works that evidenced the social vision in his Contrasts. We continue. Pugin’s Home (“The Grange”) and St. Augustine’s Abbey Church, Ramsgate (1843-44) Pugin…

Having concluded my discussion of Pugin’s Contrasts in Part 2, we turn to a group of Pugin sketches labeled “topographical drawings.” They are “topographical” in the dictionary meaning of “the study or description of the configuration of any object.” They are neither products of Pugin’s imagination nor his plans for…

I continue my discussion of Pugin’s Contrasts. The operative word in the full title of Contrasts is noble. Pugin showed his readers illustrations of medieval buildings designed to comport with the nobility, the dignity, of the human beings who resided in them and worked in them. But he did not…

In Part 1, I described the evidence of the importance of the Sacred Heart to the University of Notre Dame from its founding in 1842. Turning to recent times: What was the situation on campus in 2021 and what was the situation this year regarding the commemoration of the Solemnity…

In February and March I wrote at length about the University of Notre Dame and the shockingly bad and shockingly good news from that campus on the subject of its Catholic identity (see the link below). This essay continues in this vein with a narrow focus: the university’s treatment of…

This essay is the latest of several I have written on what I call “faith-based land use planning,”[i] planning that integrates love of God and love of neighbor by including places of worship and places of service. My focus here is on the Victorian Gothic Revivalist Augustus Welby…

Previously I described pairs or groups of people who experienced simultaneous mystical flights to God. Here I look at some saintly people about whom I hoped there might be evidence of simultaneous flight. Although the evidence does not support that, there's no doubt these holy men and women were devoted to…

The St. Augustine reading club to which I belong is reading the Confessions and we noted the mystical event he had with his mother, St. Monica. Perhaps you have seen the 1854 (or the 1845 original) painting held by the National Gallery, London, by Ary Scheffer of Saint Augustine and…

On August 9, 1943, Franz Jaegerstaetter was beheaded for refusing to serve in the German army. The March 2009 edition of New Oxford Review contains my article “Pope Benedict’s Surprise” -- the surprise being that Franz had been declared a martyr (on June 1, 2007) when the Nazis were not…