The Narthex
New Oxford Blog

What the Immaculate Conception Teaches Us
These holy days -- Dec. 8 and 12 -- possess critical moral content
By John M. Grondelski | December 8th 2023 1:23 PMAs we mark the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I present two thoughts on why Our Lady under the title of the “Immaculate Conception” is the fitting patroness for the United States. First, we Americans continue to fail to reckon with the reality of “conception.” Notwithstanding the reversal of Roe…
READ FULL BLOG POSTChrist’s Leap
Prose hardly conveys the majesty of Christ's 'leap' from his Father's throne to earth
By David Daintree | December 7th 2023 1:23 PM“When all things were in quiet silence and night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne” (Wisdom 18, 14-15). Of all the images of Christmas, this is the one that has always thrilled me the…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Committee of 434
U.S. bishops say life is their "pre-eminent issue." How about a little action?
By John M. Grondelski | December 5th 2023 12:56 PMIn a recent post here, I reminisced about the “Committee of Ten Million,” Gil Durand’s 1973 lay initiative to amass ten million petition signatures to be delivered publicly to Congress demanding a Human Life Amendment. Ten million signatures in 1973 would have been about five percent of the U.S. population,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDefending Fr. Gilligan's Courage
Rebuttal to claims made by Bibiani Yee-Wing Wong -- Part 4
By James Thunder | December 1st 2023 2:52 PMFr. Gilligan was a wily American priest who served in the Vatican Diplomatic Corps and saved many lives during the Communist takeover in China. As mentioned previously in this blog series, I must here reply to claims made by Ms. Bibiani Yee-Wing Wong in a past issue of U.S. Catholic…
READ FULL BLOG POSTSOS for Pregnancy Centers
A proposed HHS rule would effectively ban federal TANF grants to pregnancy centers
By John M. Grondelski | December 1st 2023 1:11 PMIf you are reading this on Friday, December 1, you have until midnight to act on a pro-life matter. On October 2, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a proposed rule to change regulations on what can be funded under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)…
READ FULL BLOG POSTTime to Demand Public Safety
Each of us, including Christians, has a right to be free from bodily harm
By John M. Grondelski | November 30th 2023 3:09 PMI grasped my keys in my coat pocket. Good thing I bought a Honda: their ignition key is nice and long. Among moves that I learned in self-defense was that keys held between one’s index and middle finger can be effectively jabbed into somebody’s eyes, usually long enough to stop…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMercy, Humility, & Hell-Fire
Mercy as concern for the other is prominent in Jesus’ Judgment
By John M. Grondelski | November 29th 2023 2:59 PMLast Sunday’s Gospel for the Solemnity of Christ the King is Matthew’s Last Judgment account. I have to admit I’m partial to that text because, prior to the 1969 Calendar Reform that inserted Christ the King as the last Sunday of the liturgical year, there was a kind of eschatological…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Crack in the Wall
Philosophy is about much more than critical thinking and landing a job
By James Hanink | November 29th 2023 2:52 PMThe L.A. Times, a newspaper that I love to lambaste, seems to have a crack in its “wokeness wall.” A fresh editorial headline announces that “Students lose when colleges trade humanities for STEM” (Nov. 26). But wait! Science, tech, engineering, and math programs (STEM) now rule the academic roost. Is…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMemory of a Thanksgiving Past
A tribute to an early and ambitious pro-life Catholic, Mr. Gil Durand
By John M. Grondelski | November 28th 2023 12:33 PMAs we marked Thanksgiving last week, my memories reached back 50 years to Thanksgiving 1973. I remember the day well: sunny but chilly. The memory is an opportunity for me to salute a man I never met, Gil Durand. (I think it’s Durand. It might be Durant. He doesn’t come…
READ FULL BLOG POSTFr. Gilligan’s Daring
How the priest-diplomat saved Chinese lives -- Part 3
By James Thunder | November 27th 2023 1:27 PMReaders will recall that in Part 1 of this series I quoted from Msgr. Breslin’s funeral eulogy for Father Gilligan, telling two short stories about this wily priest-diplomat. His first story concerned foreign missionaries, as related in Part 2. His second story concerned native Chinese. During the Communist takeover of…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDon't Get Your Christmas Tree This Weekend!
Why would you put up a Christmas tree in Ordinary Time?
By John M. Grondelski | November 21st 2023 12:09 PMThanksgiving is, for most Americans, a long weekend. Almost all children get out of school on Wednesday and don't return until Monday. Most institutions other than stores and commercial enterprises all take the long weekend. At some point Thanksgiving became something of a segue into the "Christmas season" and --…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Dawson Centre at Ten
Promoting the Catholic intellectual tradition
By David Daintree | November 20th 2023 4:47 PMIt all started in mid-2013 when the archbishop-elect of Hobart, Julian Porteous, asked me if I would help him “raise the profile of the Catholic intellectual tradition” in his new diocese. The cynic might say that raising the profile of something that was below the radar of public awareness wasn’t…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Three Stages of Thanksgiving
Giving thanks to God for all His blessings was the holiday's origin
By John M. Grondelski | November 20th 2023 3:23 PMStage One: The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth Colony in 1621. The Pilgrims set out for North America in September 1620. Storms put them off-course during their Atlantic crossing, to land farther north -- off present-day Massachusetts -- than they planned. Finding themselves in a wilderness at the start…
READ FULL BLOG POSTFr. Martin Gilligan Saved Lives
His activity in China, 1949-1951: A Reply to Bibiani Yee-Wing Wong -- Part 2
By James Thunder | November 17th 2023 12:27 PMMs. Wong disparages the credibility of Msgr. Breslin’s accounts in his funeral eulogy for Father Gilligan since Breslin did not hear of these events from Gilligan himself when he was living with him.[1] But Msgr. Breslin stated that, for both stories, he relied on multiple sources, “a stream”…
READ FULL BLOG POSTBefore Weeping, a Pause and a Prayer
Peace in the Middle East will be the work of justice
By James Hanink | November 14th 2023 2:44 PMEven in her nineties Rena Poulos, Inglewood’s restauranteur of renown, would ask paper-reading patrons, “Any good news yet?” These days would she even bother to ask? For my part, as a mid-septuagenarian, I’m attuned to the folly of youth. My own daughter hasn’t registered to vote, even though she could…
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