The Narthex

In 1967, 55 years ago, a referendum was held in Australia to allow a change to the Constitution that would remove the last impediment to the recognition of our aboriginal people as full citizens. Australians are slow to accept constitutional changes: we have held 44 referenda since federation, but only…

Before my class of one hundred graduated from grade school -- from Mary, Seat of Wisdom School in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1964 -- we had a Day of Recollection at our church conducted by one of the priests who belonged to the Mission Band of the Archdiocese of Chicago.…

Make way for the memes! How many have you seen today? In an election season, they’re more plentiful than autumn leaves. Just what are they and where are they from? Are they friend or foe? Broadly considered, a meme is an idea or behavior that is widely imitated; it spreads…

Daniel S. Dickinson died suddenly on April 12, 1866. The day before he died he was quite well and trying a case in court with his close friend Daniel Webster. Five days before his death, he had composed a poem to his wife in which he referred to their deceased…

I recently watched the 1997 Bruce Beresford film Paradise Road at home on DVD. As the standard of free-to-air TV continues to plummet gutterwards, I find the urge to fossick through our old disc collections grows all the stronger! Paradise Road is a triumph of the Australian film industry. It…

In June of this year I had the pleasure of addressing the annual reunion of the Dickinson Family Association held at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts. The Association is devoted to learning more about its members’ ancestors, such as the poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). My richly illustrated talk was…

Disappointing election results may prompt Catholics to retreat to the Church for reminders that the world hasn't gone completely mad. But, then again, certain worldly attempts to solve spiritual problems within the Church -- the global Synod, for example -- give the impression that the world's worst excesses have invaded…

My nominee for the greatest songwriter of all time is King David of Israel (c. 1000 B.C.). There are 150 psalms in the Bible’s Book of Psalms. The psalms are songs; the title of the book refers to “instrumental music” or to the words accompanying music. Furthermore, there are inscriptions…

How would we answer the question “Who’s the greatest songwriter of all time?” For a moment let us revisit our musical past. What about Andrew Lloyd Weber (b. 1948) with his Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968; Broadway 1982), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), Evita (1978), Cats (1981), and Phantom…

Roberto Dell’Oro, a Californian bioethicist at Loyola Marymount University, recently proposed a compromise on abortion law. Since he is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, his proposal is attracting wide interest in Catholic circles. Dell’Oro is no friend of the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs decision. He chiefly objects…

Previously I addressed teaching Latin to Catholic grade school students. Now I'll address teaching Latin to high school students who are Catholic. As previously described, I used the Bible, Latin hymns, Latin prayers, and the Latin Mass to help teach Latin to Catholic grade-schoolers. But what about Catholic high school…

I taught Latin to Catholic grade school students from 2010 through 2018. Admittedly, the course was not demanding since we met for only 40 minutes once weekly (on Saturday mornings). But from the outset I never intended to concentrate, as is typical of Latin instruction, on grammar or, shall I…

One retired colonel who does not march in lockstep with the bipartisan warmongers in D.C. is Douglas Macgregor. Macgregor's recent article, "War and Regrets in Ukraine," at The American Conservative website (Oct. 19) offers a sober view of the Russia-Ukraine war as Europe heads into winter. He suggests that Americans…

Lorenzo B. (for Brewster) Shepard was a prominent lawyer and politician in his time. He had a meteoric rise before he died suddenly at age 35 in 1856. For example, he was appointed by the president in 1849, at only age 27, to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern…

Highlights of Ulf and Birgitta Ekman's conversion story were described in Part 1 (linked below). In telling their story they identified this long list of books as among the many they read: Peter Hocken’s The Glory and the Shame, on the historical churches and new movements. Ulf arranged for Word…