The Narthex
We Need a Modern Cleansing of the Temple
The conclave of 2013 expected a pontiff who would clean up the Church
By John M. Grondelski | March 1st 2024 1:27 PMMost Sundays, the Church prescribes one Gospel to be read. This Sunday, the priest has a choice of two. That’s because, while the Sunday Gospels normally rotate over three years, there is an exception on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. Lent is the season during which catechumens…
READ FULL BLOG POSTFive Years after McCarrick
The Church’s moral witness is muted because of the failure of bishops to clean house
By John M. Grondelski | June 21st 2023 1:58 PMFive years have passed since The New York Times broke the story that former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick had been found credibly guilty of sexual assault on a teenage altar boy in the sacristy of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, in connection with Christmas Midnight Mass. Read that sentence again. …
READ FULL BLOG POST‘Murder of the Soul’
A man can hang himself with his own words
By Barbara Rose | September 11th 2019 5:33 PMVos estis lux mundi (or Vos estis for short) is Pope Francis’s recent motu proprio establishing bishop accountability. Two U.S. bishops are feeling the heat of Vos estis. One is Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston, Minnesota, who will be investigated by Minneapolis archbishop Bernard Hebda, on charges of abuse cover-up.…
READ FULL BLOG POSTReligious Masquerade
McCarrick, among others, wore the persona of charismatic spiritual father
By Richard DellOrfano | August 9th 2019 4:10 PM“During a carnival, men put masks over their masks.” -- Xavier Forneret Masks have been in use all over the world since before recorded history. In Central Africa, masks developed with a wide diversity and conveyed spiritual and religious meaning to ritual dances and ceremonies. In ancient Egypt, they…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Devils of Loudun
Displaying the virtue of chastity contra vice
By Richard DellOrfano | May 23rd 2019 3:12 PMHenry was in his glory when surrounded by us in soiree discussions. About a dozen of his fans would meet every Tuesday at his theater where we’d discuss religion and politics. His brilliant mind gave us the opportunity to ricochet ideas around, as in a game of racket ball. He…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Inconsequential'
An Australian priest presents his merely transactional view of sex
By Barbara Rose | March 7th 2019 6:24 PMIn the March 1 installment of our “Daily News” feed, we linked to an article on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (which is Australia's state-owned and funded national public radio and TV-broadcaster) by Fr. James Alison called “Welcome to my world: Notes on the reception of Frédéric Martel's…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Catholics Have Lost Patience'
Ponder the optics of expedited retirements for compromised bishops
By Barbara Rose | February 14th 2019 6:37 PMNOR readers who follow our daily news links are no doubt up-to-the-minute on the clerical sex abuse crisis. But for anyone who needs a one-article summary of said crisis, I recommend Emma Green’s “Why Does the Catholic Church Keep Failing on Sexual Abuse?” in The Atlantic (Feb. 14). Besides a…
READ FULL BLOG POSTListen to the Woman
Marie Collins provides a concrete agenda for the upcoming abuse summit
By Barbara Rose | February 1st 2019 7:24 PMPope Francis has repeatedly voiced support for hearing more from women in the Church. According to Crux (Jan. 31) this week he and the Vatican were offered advice from prominent survivor of clerical sexual abuse Marie Collins. In fact the sturdy Irishwoman, who was appointed by Pope Francis to the…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPapal Pollution
The Pope has power over only one global problem
By Richard DellOrfano | November 12th 2018 3:51 PMPope Francis is humanely concerned with over a dozen man-made problems that even school kids would wonder why the world doesn’t do something about: plastics littering the oceans, deadly drug gangs in Mexico, insane wars sparked by the pride of men, murderous Christian persecutions in Muslim nations, materialistic culture and…
READ FULL BLOG POST‘Hate Speech’ at Another Catholic College
Will this Jesuit college alter its actions and its character?
By Barbara Rose | November 7th 2018 7:23 PMYou may recall New Oxford Review’s story of a Providence College student named Michael Smalanskas, who bravely confronted politically-correct college administrators over his display about traditional Church teaching on marriage (see “The New Hate Speech: Catholic Teaching at a Catholic College,” May 2018; link here: https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/the-new-hate-speech-catholic-teaching-at-a-catholic-college/). Now it’s another…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Next Reformation?
Healthy clericalism recognizes the dignity of the sacerdotal office
By Rob Agnelli (Archive) | October 12th 2018 6:39 PMHistorical caricatures to the contrary, Martin Luther did not, at least initially, intend for the Protestant Revolution to happen. Even a cursory glance at his 95 Theses shows them to be far from revolutionary (assuming papal authority, validity of indulgences, etc.) and more like propositions for debate. The debate however…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPriest Holes
A Chicago priest must hide from Cardinal Cupich?
By Richard DellOrfano | October 10th 2018 9:07 PMDuring the persecution of Catholics in Elizabethan England, Jesuit priests pretending to be family relatives or tutors hid in specially constructed ‘priest holes’ to avoid royal prosecutors. Surprise inspections and raids of family homes were not uncommon and if a priest was found, he would face torture and execution. Today,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLaity Rising
Group will help cardinals learn transparency
By Barbara Rose | October 4th 2018 5:55 PMMany a cardinal and bishop has praised lay involvement in the Church. One wonders if involvement by ex-FBI agents is what some didn't have in mind? A group of American laymen called Better Church Governance (BCG) is launching a new initiative to assess cardinals’ records on combatting abuse and corruption,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTBishops, Done at Age 75
Adjusting to a decadent milieu
By Barbara Rose | September 28th 2018 3:52 PMThe de facto split in the Church's hierarchy -- between orthodox and heterodox bishops, or traditional and liberal bishops -- manifests itself even in administrative details such as the bishops' retirement. The current Church-wide system of bishops automatically tendering their resignations at age 75 but not actually retiring until the…
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