The Narthex

Pope Leo XIV’s premier apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te, on the poor, is due for release Thursday, though it was signed October 4. I have no insight into what it may contain and look forward to reading the Pope’s document. I do not prejudge what it might say. That said, I…

Recently I wrote about what I call “food gentrification,” the displacement by grocers of staples for “foodie” treats, and its adverse impact on prices. My comments centered on a New York Times story lauding the “comeback” of bakeries offering niche (and premium-priced) novelties, one baker touting the fact that he…

I recently wrote about how what were once considered food waste products have increasingly hit the grocery market. My inspiration was last Sunday’s First Reading, in which the prophet Amos excoriated the commercial cheats of ancient Israel, specifically, his comment about selling “the refuse of the wheat” as food. But…

Governors Kathy Hochul of New York and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania have announced they are providing free breakfasts to all kids in schools of those states because kids should not be in school with “empty bellies.” Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is introducing legislation to declare public transit free because…

A tweet got me thinking about manufacturing jobs. The poster asked, “Do we really want manufacturing jobs back?” He seemed incredulous and saw an attempt to re-shore manufacturing as “turning back the clock.” My answer: Yes. As the post-COVID “recovery” showed us, America and many Western countries are extremely vulnerable…

Writing in the National Catholic Reporter, Michael Sean Winters criticizes the economic thinking of the Trump Administration, particularly the priorities of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought (the article is linked below). This paragraph particularly caught me:

The marriage of fiscal austerity with Christian values strikes…

April 1 … is more than “April Fool’s Day.” It’s the end of the first quarter of the year. Ninety days of 2025 down. Last year I made a point of marking each quarter of the year to invite readers to consider what they’d done (or not done) with New…

Two pundits from opposite ends of the political spectrum manage to reach the same conclusion: being a “poor Church” really stinks for the really poor. Writing in the left-leaning La Croix, Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University bemoans the many harms he imagines Trump 2.0 poses for the Church (see READ FULL BLOG POST

The Pillar ran a piece March 14 asking, “Does the Church Need a ‘Dallas Charter’ on Money?” (linked below). The gist of the piece was that, as the original Dallas Charter of December 2002 was supposed to protect against clerical sexual abuse, so today a similar document may be needed to…

Oren Cass, formerly of the Manhattan Institute and now of American Compass, is a public policy thinker I respect. I may not agree with everything he says -- for example, he’s willing to make peace with a “secular conservatism” to attract today’s young and religiously disaffiliated -- but I especially…