The Narthex

"Listen to Him" In both last Sunday's Second Reading (from II Peter) and Gospel, we are exhorted (in the Gospel by no less than God the Father) to "listen to" Jesus. Peter, James, and John "listen" to that message from the bright cloud that overshines Mount Tabor; it would be…

California is a mixed bag, and here’s an example of just how mixed. We have a new Employee Ownership office, a government hub to help companies explore worker-owned models. The American Solidarity Party would applaud this effort. Indeed, its new party platform says: “We support regulatory and tax support to…

"Les extremes se touchent" means the extremes touch each other, they overlap. People say the Church’s teachings about sex and life are extreme, but the truly extreme, truly contradictory response comes from its opponents. That sex can give life and foster a unique spousal relationship is not some esoteric Catholic…

There's a trope out there that orthodox Catholics write out of anger. That's unfair. I offer a short apologia for what usually motivates me to write. Take a piece I just published, on the murder of a 20-something Kentucky school teacher in Washington. The killing took place in broad daylight…

Arizona Governor Undermines Law Enforcement  The New York Times reports that Arizona Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs apparently doesn’t feel any obligation to abide by her constitutional oath faithfully to execute Arizona’s laws. In the wake of Dobbs, Arizona’s legislature enacted protective pro-life legislation that mirrors the Mississippi law upheld in…

Every nation cherishes an image of itself. We are often told that Australia’s was formed on the beaches of Gallipoli, but it’s older and more complex than that. Long before the Australian union, the people of the Australian colonies developed self-images of their own, in great variety. Few directly referred…

On Thursday, May 25, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an important decision in the case of Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota et al. Bottom line up front: a unanimous Supreme Court swatted down Hennepin County’s property tax collecting policy. I’m commenting on it because there are aspects of the…

Words from Ecclesiastes -- “Be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (xii.12) -- must occasionally spring to the mind of those who inflict “opinion pieces” upon innocent readers! But we are engaged in a mostly cold war against those who…

Does democracy need prophets? Yes, especially in a democracy like ours, because ours is in crisis. Distorted by a duopoly lusting for power, our political discourse has become a concatenation of cliches. And most of us seem to sleep through the affairs of state. The prophets we need, to be…

With Mother’s Day in the rear view mirror and fresh events crowding the daily “news” cycle, the controversy some retailers generated this year by offering women an “opt out” of Mother’s Day mailings and specials will likely soon be forgotten -- until it returns next year. I’ve tried to showcase…

Australia faces a possible constitutional change later this year when we shall be asked to approve The Voice, a modification to our foundational document that will not only formally recognize the first occupiers of our continent but establish a special body to represent their interests. Regardless of what position one…

The Tuesday after Easter, preparing to exit the Washington Metro at my usual stop, I waited for the car doors to open. My eye caught something red on the edge of the door, which extended downwards, even to a blotch on the floor. I’m not a biologist, but I think…

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a document in the last days before Easter, “On the Proper Disposition of Bodily Remains.” Its topic was what a Catholic should do with the postmortem remains of a human being. It's timely in this Easter period. The document was…

The Dawson Centre’s call for Colloquium papers includes the following statement: “School children are taught to believe that girls can be boys, that boys can be girls, and that grown-ups should be punished for denying it.” Someone subsequently asked me for evidence that any “grown-up” is ever actually penalized for…

One-time NOR blogger Dominick Sansone makes an apt and educative historical comparison in a recent article ("Weak Interventionism," The American Conservative, March 28) about America's proxy war in Ukraine. He first dispenses with the oft-repeated “appeasement” comparison between interwar Germany and present-day Russia, which has been the kneejerk reaction of…