The Narthex

Our welcome of Pope Leo XIV is sparking fresh interest in the heritage of Leo XIII (1878-1903), and for a range of reasons! So here, gentle reader, are a few of them to consider. First is a remarkable meeting. May 17 marked the 100th anniversary of the canonization of St.…

Yesterday Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass to formally inaugurate his Petrine ministry, which began May 8. Cardinals of various theological and ideological preferences in many ways seem to have coalesced around the election of Robert Prevost at least in part because his "record" is more his priestly and episcopal service…

Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of Pope St. John Paul II. I miss him. John Paul was foundational in my life as a Catholic theologian. I was a college sophomore studying at St. Mary's College in Orchard Lake, Michigan, when he was elected. In those early college…

A colleague claims that time spent playing chess is time wasted. Nay, sir, I respond, “Chess is an art disguised as a game.” Golly, I’ve been playing chess since middle school. Game or art, it can be a source of delight and dismay. In recent days, I’ve been following the…

From October 19, 2020, to April 14, 2021, this blog featured my essay -- split into a 35-part series -- on the recognition of holiness in laypeople (Part I is linked below). At the end of Part V, I made three recommendations that would aid "all of us -- bishops,…

Some of my best friends are grumpy old men. So the question arises: Can they be saints? Let’s hope so. Keep in mind, gentle reader, that not so long ago a concerned lady, a scholar of note, asked me whether the NOR itself had fallen into the hands of grumpy…

August 14 is the feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, martyr. Kolbe, a 47-year old Polish Franciscan, gave his life in substitution for another man in Auschwitz’s starvation bunker. To recap: Kolbe was arrested by the German occupiers of Poland in February 1941 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In…

Vatican II talked about the Church in dialogue with the modern world. Some of us have wondered whether that dialogue has been largely one-sided, i.e., modernity talking and the Church listening. One hopes the dialogue also would proceed in the other direction, to a world largely convinced of its rightness…