The Narthex

If I were to run the Big City Standard Zoo, it would become a whole lot smaller. Snakes and turtles, birds and bugs would stay. But there’d be no mammals except for “rescues,” and they’d be temporary guests only. Pleased with my zoological reform, I’m emboldened to think big. What…

We need to change the subject in discussions about retirement from the economic (in)solvency of Social Security to the meaning and significance of retirement. My thoughts on this were sparked by a new book by Teresa Ghilarducci titled Work, Retire, Repeat. Her argument is that many people are working past…

An almost perpetual cultural cringe is a feature of what passes as intellectual life in the West nowadays. If we are “white” we have much to be ashamed of; if we're elderly males as well we are almost beyond the pale. So in commenting on any current events that touch…

In Part 1, linked below, I looked at the Catholic Church’s criteria for just war and just conduct of war. Here I turn to the loss of civilian lives and physical destruction, and address the issue of Israel’s conduct of the war. Hamas alleges a large number of deaths among…

Freedom Versus Self-Will Continuing my way through Roman Brandstaetter's superb literary corpus, I ran into a collection of short meditations he penned, inspired by his positive encounter with Franciscanism. He spoke of a writer, sitting at his desk, who noticed a bee walking along his window pane. Caringly, he opened…

The number of killed, injured, and displaced people among two million Gazans has been large and is growing. I hope my words here will contribute to a conversation on assessing the morality of Israel’s actions. The social teaching of the Catholic Church appeals to human reason, not only to the…

Minouche Shafik has quit as President of Columbia. After some posturing before a House committee on how Columbia “protects” its Jewish students from the pro-Hamas mob -- which, like a virus, occasionally manifests a more virulent outbreak -- Shafik showed herself incapable of handling vandals who interfered with student access…

Last week I had an epistolary exchange with Thomas Aquinas College. It was instructive. It was not, however, inspiring. First came a phone call. I chatted with Mary Block, the Executive Assistant to the Dean, John Goyette. I explained that Peter Sonski, the American Solidarity Party’s presidential candidate, would like…

July 21-27 is Captive Nations Week. Congress designated in 1959 the third week of July as Captive Nations Week and asked the President to proclaim it annually. (Congress initially designated Captive Nations Week by itself in 1953). Joe Biden issued an executive proclamation on July 19. Captive Nations Week commemorates…

Just war theory remains vital because -- naïve thinking aside -- war is not going away as long as men are sinners. As long as men are sinners, some will try to do injustice to others by force. As long as some are victims of injustice, they have a right…

Michael Novak’s The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics (1972) generated an ethnic pride movement in the 1970s. Americans of Eastern and Southern European ancestry, Latinos, and others came out of the WASP shadows to acknowledge that their heritage remained -- and legitimately remained -- part of their American identity. I…

I’ve been watching the Republican National Convention. Political conventions are not new to me. I got into this stuff as a 16-year-old when I became involved in Ronald Reagan’s 1976 insurgent campaign. So, I’ve seen my share of conventions. There’s a palpable difference this year. You could hear that in…

Stress The New York Times recently reported (July 10) about workplace “stress” and the emergence of a new job: “burnout coach.” Apparently, so many employed people are so stressed and burned out in their jobs that they need the therapeutic voice of a “burnout coach” to help them cope. The…

Speaking in Trieste at a recent event exploring Catholic Social Teaching, Pope Francis remarked, “It is evident that democracy is not in good health in today's world.” He’s right, of course. But it’s not even clear what “democracy” means. As a matter of etymology, democracy is the rule of the…

Most Supreme Court cases go by their official names. Some get nicknames. The nickname for Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation is the “Seven Dirty Words Case.” It upheld the right of the FCC to regulate indecent language on the public airwaves. (Yes, in theory the FCC can turn off…