The Narthex

In Silicon Valley, death can be treated like a technical problem. Data is collected, biomarkers are measured, protocols are tested, and companies aiming to slow or reverse aging are funded. Some entrepreneurs even undergo experimental interventions. Bryan Johnson, for example, tried plasma exchanges with his teenage son, but later discontinued…

Walking in downtown Washington recently, I came upon one of those “public service” announcements that are plastered or projected on the side of bus stops. It had a one-word question: “Cheating?” If you silently answered yes, its advice: get yourself checked for a venereal disease! My one-word answer to the…

September 30 was the fiftieth anniversary of Congress first approving the “Hyde Amendment,” a budget provision subsequently adopted every year for the past half century limiting federal funds for Medicaid abortions. For those too young to remember its first enactment, it’s worth recalling the Constitutional issues that plagued its adoption…

Pope Leo's trip to France could have been considered just another trip that takes place according to the usual protocols. Instead, it proved disruptive, both spiritually and, perhaps above all, culturally. The trip was to one of the most secularized countries on the continent, where the secularity of the state…

On September 27, Pope Leo XIV addressed pilgrims consisting of the sick and their caregivers at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes on the subject of assisted suicide, speaking of it as false compassion. In the wake of that event, I bring to your attention two women of our…

"Joe Biden is perhaps on par with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as one of the most pro-abortion presidents in U.S. history," writes LifeNews. Biden's radical abortion agenda apparently met with approval from Planned Parenthood, as America's largest abortion organization presented Biden with an award at a luxury gala in…

A recent New York Times article was one of those pieces that make you think -- not necessarily because its conclusions are profound but because its questions are. The author of “The Most Promising Worlds Beyond Our Solar System” writes about research documenting the existence of planets orbiting other stars…

Faced with the escalating public debate on end-of-life care, the Catholic Church in Italy is undergoing one of the most dramatic theological and political reversals in its recent history. This is no longer a silent retreat or passive tolerance in the face of secularization, but a veritable genetic mutation. Led…

Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, discussed the law on assisted suicide approved last Wednesday by the Veneto Regional Council in an interview published in Avvenire on September 6. A native of Padua, Pegoraro follows the matter with particular personal engagement, offering an analysis that intertwines…

Della was in her eighties, couldn’t drive, and rode the city bus every week to a writing group she had facilitated for ten years. Now I sit beside her learning the ropes, smelling the faint scent of peppermint oil she dabbed on her wrists. It is fun but hard work.…

A sociologist named Jason Arday died August 14, 2026, in his London home. It appears that the cause of his death was suicide. But to any event there are circumstances, and those surrounding Dr. Arday’s death seem to shift much of the responsibility for his untimely passing onto those who…

Here in California, where there’s a good bit of dreaming, some dreams are nightmares. They feature earthquakes. The ill-starred San Andreas fault is likely to host the next mega-quake, the “big one.” As it happens, my family lives along the Inglewood-Newport Beach fault. The predictions for folks like us are…

The quest for physical immortality is as old as the human race. Decrepit mummies in Egyptian deserts attest to the same doomed aspiration as ancient Chinese emperors who pickled their insides with cinnabar, hoping to outsmart death. Baseball ace Ted Williams’s head in cryogenic stasis, bobbing in liquified gas waiting…

Trisomy 18, also called Edwards syndrome, is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 18. March 18, or 3-18, has been designated Trisomy 18 Awareness Day. Children with Trisomy 18, Down syndrome, and other chromosomal variants too often have been discussed in public life with the language of burden, cost,…

In Part 1, linked below, I described the shockingly bad news coming out of Notre Dame. I promised that in Part 2 I would describe the shockingly good news. Instead, in this Part 2, I provide an update on the bad news described in Part 1. The good news will…