The Narthex

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…

President Trump issued an Executive Order declaring the U.S. Government should conduct its business in English. That order elicited the usual complaints from the secular accompaniment chorus, who thought it exclusionary and impeding peoples’ access to services. As we’ve seen in pictures from a deportation, it’s not infrequent that family…

Leftists are the progressive people. They have moved on from hateful Biblical morality and old-fashioned notions of sin and redemption. They believe in liberation, more and more of it. People are basically good, just insufficiently liberated. Fallen creatures may need weapons to defend themselves from those who would do evil,…

Hannah Dugan, the Wisconsin circuit court judge who last April berated ICE agents in the Milwaukee courthouse and smuggled a wanted illegal alien out a back door, learned this week that wearing a black robe does not place one above the law. A federal judge ruled that her judicial status…

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 “jurisprudence” of Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, was the subject of an extended essay by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. It’s worth reading (link below). Brown Jackson has repeatedly denounced her colleagues -- including fellow liberals Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor…

Rod Dreher, of Benedict Option fame, opined on X that countries where “basic patriotism is demonized” are “on the brink of civil conflict.” He made his observation in response to a post by a British man in Devonshire whose display of the Union Jack in his garden elicited a note…

On August 22, 2025, FBI agents raided the home of John Bolton, national security advisor during the first Trump administration and, later, trenchant critic of his former boss. The feds were apparently on a mission to protect classified documents, the same mission the FBI claimed to be carrying out when…

A recent TikTok video posted to X is ostensibly the work of a white mother explaining to her 10-year-old the difference between a Democrat and a Republican. The woman claims that her child asked what differentiated the two and that she explained it by using an analogy involving the homeless.…

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…

Two days ago, alongside President Trump’s announcement to federalize law enforcement in Washington, D.C., which could include dismantling homeless encampments, I tweeted “streets are thoroughfares, not beds.” In my follow-up on this site, I also identified the local Catholic Church as a possible critic, especially if “law enforcement includes cleaning…

President Trump’s announcement to enhance federal control of policing in Washington DC to fight crime in the nation’s capital is welcome. Talking heads insist that “crime is down” in DC, that Trump’s move is “cover” for not wanting to discuss the Epstein case, that it usurps “home rule,” and augurs…

As part of their settlements with the Trump Administration, Columbia and Brown Universities have agreed to provide applicants' grade point averages and standardized test scores. The New York Times is appalled (link below). I am not. Large swaths of American higher education refuse to let DEI -- diversity, equity, and…

John Michael Osbourne died in England a few days ago. According to a family statement as reported by Fox News, Osbourne died with his family by his side, “surrounded by love.” The world knew Osbourne not as John Michael but as Ozzy. For decades Ozzy Osbourne was the frontman of…

News sites and gossip boards are spilling over with talk about Jeffrey Epstein. The American government, one of the most morally debased institutions to ever exist, is busy denying what is obvious to almost everyone else. Epstein (1953-2019) was a human trafficker, sex abuser, blackmailer, and probably double or triple…