The Narthex

Back-to-School Guide for Parents Family Policy Alliance (FPA) is the brainchild of the recently deceased James Dobson. It monitors legislative and regulatory developments with a direct impact on parental rights which, in many ways, is ground zero in the contemporary assault on the family. Make no mistake about it: When…

The Sunday homily usually reflects on the readings for that day. Typically, that means the Gospel and maybe the First Reading, which often is linked to the Gospel. The Second Reading is usually odd man out since in their wisdom the designers of the new Lectionary decided on a continual…

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Pope Leo XIV took advantage of his August 28 audience with a delegation of politicians from the Diocese of Créteil, France, to reaffirm the principles of the Church's sound doctrine, unchanged over time. Pope Leo XIV's speech, extraordinarily beautiful, is disarmingly clear. He…

A controversy roiling in northern Virginia (NoVA) illustrates the dirty, clandestine alliance between abortionists, the political jurisdictions they’ve bought, and the use of societal infrastructure to advance pre-natal killing. Fairfax County, Virginia, is adjacent to Washington, DC. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) operates all schools in the county. All members…

The danger with a status quo is that it “normalizes” the prevailing situation. It makes one think the abnormal is somehow "normal." That’s particularly problematic when the status quo is the result of decades of “defining deviancy down,” as the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed over 30 years ago…

Italy once had so-called “adult Catholics,” a term coined to describe a more liberal approach by some Catholics to ethical and social issues like abortion, aimed at distinguishing themselves from the "rigid" line of the Catholic Church. The expression "adult Catholics" was used by then-Prime Minister Romano Prodi in 2006,…

A little over a year ago, I walked up Capitol Hill one morning behind two female staffers. Most staffers are very young -- generally twenty-somethings -- because they're either college/grad school interns or just graduated. The two young women were sharing one's excitement about moving into an apartment in DC.…

Parishes & Commandments of the Church Archbishop Edward Weisenberger of Detroit has supposedly told priests to remind Catholics attending Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at one of the four non-parish venues in the Archdiocese where the TLM will at least occasionally be available that those attendees are nevertheless members of some…

The latest self-important politician’s tempest in a teacup comes from the land of tea time: England. Over the weekend, an unknown British Parliamentary back-bencher decided to make a name for himself. Chris Coghlan represents Dorking and Horley, a constituency just southwest of London. He’s a member of the Liberal Democrats,…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 18 in United States v. Skrmetti that Tennessee’s ban on gender mutilation for minors is constitutional. In 2023, Tennessee adopted SB1, a law prohibiting gender surgery and use of puberty blockers/hormones on “gender dysphoric” minors. The usual suspects sought to block the law, and…

The House Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday, June 10, to clear a bill (HR 589; linked below) repealing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The FACE Act is a 1994 law (PL 103-259), introduced by then-Senator Ted Kennedy and then-Rep. Chuck Schumer and signed by President Bill Clinton, that…

Can we have a discussion that prescinds from party identifications, a discussion that involves normal people talking to each other? TikTok showed a 32-year-old teacher sharing with the world her previous evening’s pillow talk with her “fiancé” -- they “won’t be having kids” if Donald Trump’s in the White House.…

The U.S. Supreme Court May 20 granted emergency relief to Laurel Libby. Who? Laurel Libby is a member of Maine’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Pine Tree State’s Legislature, a Republican representing the 90th district around Auburn. She’s an opponent of gender ideology who got into trouble…

Mother’s Day should be one of those celebrations that elicits only happy feelings: you know, “motherhood, baseball, and apple pie.” But the reality is we need to think a little more deeply about the state of motherhood in the developed world. I’ve regularly written about the parcelization of motherhood. Modern…

Historical Amnesia May 8, 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. Four score years ago, Allied troops entered Berlin and the Thousand Year Reich ended after 13 years. Last month marked the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord, the battles that began the American Revolution (after the "midnight ride…