The Narthex

On October 13th John Henry Newman will be canonized, the first English person in modern times to be raised to the altar. Newman comes to us as an eminent Victorian and a convert. Some say his canonization has been long in coming because he was prolific and polemical. Whether or…

The Earth is flat.  Not actually flat, but flat in the sense that man no longer sees a horizon.  Do you want proof of that?  Look no further than Labor Day.  Invented to “celebrate” American workers and their achievements, it is now little more than a bookend marking the end…

A recent Pew Research Center survey shows that nearly seven out of 10 Catholics don't believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  They see the Eucharist as "a symbol."  Alarming numbers, perhaps, but not at all surprising.  Anyone who attends Mass even semi-regularly would likely come to…

One is tempted to view feast days of the Church with a certain abstract detachment.  The events they mark seem relegated to the past and thus lack a certain realness to them.  But the Solemnity of the Assumption keeps us from succumbing to this temptation.  Among the many Marian feast…

Domestic terrorism. Religious persecution, both secular and professedly religious. The posturing of pro-abortion extremists. Assaults on democracy. Economic wars. Some weeks it’s crushingly obvious: we live in a valley of tears. Psalm 84:6-8 speaks of such a valley. So does the Marian anthem, “Hail, Holy Queen,” which so many recite…

The philosopher Simone Weil’s Waiting on God (1950) is a haunting reflection on the distance between “the everyday” and the transcendent. A year earlier the playwright Samuel Beckett finished his Waiting for Godot. Beckett’s “Godot” is a fantasist’s inkblot: interpret him as you please. Not so the God to whom…

Earlier this month, under pressure from LGBT groups, Amazon stopped selling books by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi.  Dr. Nicolosi was well known for reparative therapy that helped many people overcome the temptation to same-sex attraction.  Of course, the fact that Dr. Nicolosi wanted to free people from both disordered inclinations and…

A faithful member of my writing critique group was moving out of state, so we threw her a goodbye party. I sat at the end of a foldout table on a spacious patio, talking with a newer member, a man in his eighties writing a novel based on his experiences…

When Christ gave to His followers freedom from the law, He was, in essence, promising them freedom from reliance on loopholes.  No longer bound toes to a line, our feet were unshackled to roam the fields of freedom.  The problem is that reliance on loopholes has…

The last decade has seen incredible growth in the number of people who regularly practice yoga. Despite its popularity, most practitioners are woefully ignorant of its roots and meaning.  Many Catholics can be counted among this group.  In fact, some parishes even going so far as to host “Mommy’s Morning…

A cousin emailed me a news clip about the latest research on reviving dead pig brains. Yale’s BrainEx experiments offer the possibility of keeping much of the brain alive separate from the body. That drastic procedure performed on humans ― which no scientific review board would currently approve ― is…

There is only one Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of the World. This is what the Catholic Church has always taught, since the first century AD, and still teaches -- you can look it up. Being God, He does not NEED anything. He does not NEED His…

The Devil is a terrible copycat.  Mind you, that doesn’t stop him from trying at every turn to ape God.  His greatest impersonation to do before his final curtain call, as the anti-Christ, is still in the future but he hardly ceases to have dress rehearsals.  Although it may not…

I was the weekend guest of a lady friend who, I discovered during my brief stay, had a fetish for cleaning her apartment. In the years I’ve known her, never have I seen her happier than when cleaning her surroundings. With the vacuum hose draped around her neck like a…

Once upon a time, 1965 to be exact, a slim volume appeared with the title Everybody Calls Me Father. Its author was the anonymous Father X, a humble priest. (By the way, it’s still available.) Now comes Cardinal John Dew, headlined as “New Zealand’s top Catholic,” who encouraged priests not…