The Narthex
No Great Expectations
Are bleeding wounds, not paying subway fares, and getting stoned before breakfast now normal?
By John M. Grondelski | April 13th 2023 12:10 PMThe Tuesday after Easter, preparing to exit the Washington Metro at my usual stop, I waited for the car doors to open. My eye caught something red on the edge of the door, which extended downwards, even to a blotch on the floor. I’m not a biologist, but I think…
READ FULL BLOG POSTOn Not Hearing Back
A modest proposal on the phenomenon of letters sent but unanswered
By James Hanink | April 4th 2023 3:42 PM“Well, did you ever hear back”? You thought you’d ask her, since two weeks ago your spouse “fired off” a letter to a chap whose head isn’t on straight. Or maybe you ask the same of the secretary of a committee (a group graced by your presence). After all, you’d…
READ FULL BLOG POSTVerbal Violence
The self-reference pronoun 'they' implies lost self-unity & 'it' declares self-objectification
By James Hanink | January 23rd 2023 10:32 PMA Civil Rights activist turned thug named H. Rap Brown was right. “Violence,” he said, “is as American as cherry pie.” Violence is also pluriform, and it includes the violence we do to language when we turn that violence on ourselves. Here’s an example. Last week in Atlanta police shot…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Faith of a Teen, in the 1830s
Friends of Lorenzo B. Shepard raised $3,000 in 1858 to build a monument atop his grave
By James Thunder | October 14th 2022 12:07 PMLorenzo B. (for Brewster) Shepard was a prominent lawyer and politician in his time. He had a meteoric rise before he died suddenly at age 35 in 1856. For example, he was appointed by the president in 1849, at only age 27, to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern…
READ FULL BLOG POSTOn California’s Prop 1
An open letter to a public servant regarding a grave injustice
By James Hanink | October 10th 2022 8:31 PMPeople matter first, and that’s always and everywhere true. So I begin with a thumbnail sketch of my neighbor, Alex Padilla. He’s an affable fellow. Gregarious. Even avuncular. Alex is a family man with three adult children. Padilla also holds a key post as a Special Investigator with the Los…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMini-Synod with Old Friends
Our group was asked 'How has the Church helped you' and 'hurt you?'
By James Hanink | September 12th 2022 9:13 PMA read of the German synod documents reminds me that revisionists are keener on erasing than on building. But no one invited me. I did get invited to a mini-synod session by classmates from the minor seminary that I attended for six years. What led to the mini-synod was an…
READ FULL BLOG POSTChristians, Stay Away
Faithful families can plan on fewer activities at public pools, libraries, and summer camps
By Barbara Rose | May 23rd 2022 4:39 PMOver at The Federalist, author Joy Pullmann's article "The Left Has Effectively Banned Christian Kids From Public Pools, Libraries, And Summer Camps" paints a picture of what beleaguered Christian parents have to look forward to this summer (May 23). Pullmann's description of interactions with formerly benign groups like 4-H leaves…
READ FULL BLOG POSTUnmoored Hermits
Many people choose to live in solitude—but outside of organized religion
By Richard DellOrfano | May 20th 2022 4:15 PMAnthony the Great, known as the father and founder of monasticism, fled to the Egyptian desert in AD 270 at 19 years old. He chose to live as an extreme ascetic, renouncing all pleasure of the senses from rich foods, sex, bathing, and anything tempting his flesh to take its…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGiving the Homeless a Hand
'The future will be different if we make the present different'
By James Hanink | May 17th 2022 3:14 PMLast week I visited a homeless encampment. Ted Hayes, a veteran advocate for the homeless in Los Angeles, gave me a friendly walk-through tour. Located close to Venice Beach, the camp was clean and orderly. Ted had invited candidates in California’s upcoming primary election to speak briefly to the question…
READ FULL BLOG POSTUgliness Is All or Nothing
A hideous building in downtown Tokyo is finally coming down
By Jason Morgan | May 4th 2022 1:39 PMThe Nakagin building in downtown Tokyo is a hideous monstrosity. I have seen it with my own eyes many times. It is one of the most offensive and repulsive structures I have ever known. When the Nakagin was built in the early 1970s, however, it was hailed as an idea…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMiddleton’s Rouseabout
Would we be better off expressing no views at all?
By David Daintree | April 9th 2022 4:10 PMAnybody who writes the odd opinion piece, whether spurred on by momentary outrage at some public or private folly, or just obligated to do so in going about his lawful occasions, runs dry from time to time. Or rather wonders whether there is any point in expressing views at all,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDanse Macabre
Catholic cultures have elaborate rituals for remembering their dead
By Richard DellOrfano | March 18th 2022 3:20 PMOur neighborhood still has mail -- mostly ads -- hand-delivered by a robust man in his sixties with whom I occasionally chat. He’s an intelligent man whose astute and informative perspective makes for lively conversations. For three weeks, someone had replaced him. Yesterday, I was glad to see Joe was…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMy Muddled Mentor
A past convert to Catholicism lost his faith many decades ago
By James Hanink | December 1st 2021 3:33 PM“Karl Meyer On the Road Again” read a recent ad in The Catholic Worker. At 84 he was planning a cross country peace mission. I first met Karl in 1966 when he ran St. Stephen House of Hospitality in Chicago. I was an undergraduate, for a semester, at Loyola University…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Real Talk'
When the common person hears the word ‘synod’ or ‘synodal,’ what comes to mind?
By Barbara Rose | November 3rd 2021 6:45 PMThe first phase of the synod on synodality aims to collect input from the Church's peripheries. It's hard to imagine what kind of feedback Church leaders expect from a global-scale project like this. If bishops and cardinals want perspectives from pew-sitters and Catholics on the margins, then perhaps they should…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDads on Duty
Forty fathers are using their presence to combat violence at the local high school
By Barbara Rose | October 27th 2021 8:54 PMAbout 40 fathers at a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, have done something simple, effective, and mostly untried at school: They are using their presence to combat violence that recently led to 23 students arrested in three days. "Dads on Duty" group founder Michael LaFitte says, "“We decided the best…
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