The Narthex

“Oh, well, that’s life.” So judged, and often, a colleague of mine. Was he voicing a resigned stoicism? Or plain pessimism? Perhaps he himself was unsure. Still, I’d like to contest any incipient pessimism, even if cloaked in optimism. In doing so, I’ll limit myself to exposing a single wrongheaded…

I continue with my suggestions for improving the recent pastoral letter on immigration by the Archbishop of San Antonio, the Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS. Racism of Enforcement? The Archbishop maintains that there are “patterns of racial disparity in [immigration] enforcement against Hispanics, Latinos, and other people of color” (Para.…

On August 3, the archbishop of San Antonio, the Most Rev. Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS (Missionaries of the Holy Spirit), marked the centennial of the elevation of San Antonio to a metropolitan archdiocese by publishing a pastoral letter on immigration. I thank the archbishop for his thoughtful, prayerful, and emotionally powerful…

Here’s what I propose: Let’s no longer take the name of John the Baptist in vain. Please, hear me out. We English-speaking Christians must refrain from using the word john for toilet or, worse, for a customer of a prostitute. Why? Because God gave the name John to St. John…

South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham was laid to rest with a funeral July 28 at the Washington National Cathedral. Recently, some Catholic bishops have issued new regulations for funerals in their dioceses. This post isn’t a critique of Graham's funeral. Rather, it affords some interesting insights into the theology of…

When I was a boy, I sometimes had to fight for the privilege of carrying a grown man’s golf clubs. That was before caddy carts. Caddy jobs were scarce enough that fists could settle who got one. Once hired, bloody-nosed, I shouldered a heavy leather bag and followed grown men…

“The world is so full of a number of things, / I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” So wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in his poem “Happy Thought.” It’s a little gem in his A Child’s Garden of Verses, written in 1885 and never out of print.…

Della was in her eighties, couldn’t drive, and rode the city bus every week to a writing group she had facilitated for ten years. Now I sit beside her learning the ropes, smelling the faint scent of peppermint oil she dabbed on her wrists. It is fun but hard work.…

On June 29, 2026, Pope Leo XIV addressed a letter to Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on the occasion of a liturgical conference held at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon. The text, as reported by AdVaticanum, recalls Pope Francis's Desiderio…

A sociologist named Jason Arday died August 14, 2026, in his London home. It appears that the cause of his death was suicide. But to any event there are circumstances, and those surrounding Dr. Arday’s death seem to shift much of the responsibility for his untimely passing onto those who…

It is a principle of Catholic liturgical theology that Mass is always offered in communion with the Pope and the local bishop. It’s why both are mentioned in the liturgy. It’s also why public celebration of the Mass is regulated by the bishop, who can restrict faculties. It’s why the…

It would be great if women who wanted to play basketball had a league of their own. They don’t, though. Instead, they have the WNBA, which is a political action committee doing layups and free throws. The difference between a women’s basketball league and the WNBA is, well, difference. A…

My paternal aunt is nearing 102 and I’m 84. We both have witnessed a staggering exponential advancement in technology and a depreciation of what it means to be human. We lived in the same three-story tenement in East Boston, not far from what was to become Logan International Airport. Before…

Hear ye, hear ye! President Trump opines that he is the most powerful person to ever live (“The YOLO Presidency,” The Atlantic, April 29, 2026). There are compelling reasons to dispute his claim. Even so, many of our politicians insist that the United States is the greatest country on earth.…

The Opening Prayer for the Eighteenth Sunday (A) in Ordinary Time asks that the Lord “may restore what you have created and keep safe what you have restored.” Let’s focus on the verb “restore.” "Restore” suggests something has lost some original characteristic, whose restoration recovers something valuable about that thing.…