The Narthex

What is the point of all this technology? What purpose does a Bluetooth refrigerator serve? How many apps can one person possibly need? Can you really taste the difference when burgers are grilled on a WIFI-enabled grill? On a recent trip with my mother to a new office building, I…

Living as I do in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is impossible to keep up with all the neologisms that have been concocted to promote inclusion. Recently I was at a local liquor store browsing the selection of Double IPAs for a friend’s birthday. After grabbing a few,…

I was raised in a household that had few pets: a fish that lasted about a year, a cat that wound up moving in with the neighbors, and another cat that I insisted on adopting and then promptly left when I moved away for college six months later. Ours…

Every year we hear the same readings, the same parables, the same analogies: sheep & shepherds; seeds & sowers; vines, branches, weeds & farmers; coins, talents & those who don’t know what to do with them. As we slowly progress through life each parable takes on new meaning as we…

Archbishop Cordileone’s May 1st letter, "Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You: A Pastoral Letter on the Human Dignity of the Unborn, Holy Communion, and Catholics in Public Life" (https://sfarchdiocese.org/inthewomb), is pastoral in the truest sense of the word: the archbishop is tending his flock,…

I started working at the NEW OXFORD REVIEW in October 2020. Well, that’s not true. I started before I can remember. I read galleys in high school and college. I folded renewals and endorsed checks all throughout middle school. I opened mail in elementary school; granted, early on it…

This has been a long and tumultuous year for the church-going faithful of California, particularly in San Francisco, where church doors have been shut, locked, and all but barricaded. Worshiping on devices, Bay Area Catholics endured months of separation from the true presence of our Lord. Easter and Christmas, the…

Monuments to St. Junípero Serra have been destroyed throughout California. His statues were toppled in Golden Gate Park (San Francisco), Capitol Park (Sacramento), and Serra Park (Los Angeles). Meanwhile, cities and school districts have rebranded buildings named after him and removed his statues from their grounds in an attempt to…

In August San Francisco’s Department of Public Health limited the number of attendees at outdoor religious celebrations to 12 people. No indoor gatherings were permitted. This order stood in stark contrast to the city’s guidelines for indoor retail establishments, which were allowed to operate at 25% capacity, and…