The Narthex

Let's take a look at individuals who have risked death for the sake of another. Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, wrote a long essay that recounted the history of the development of the Apostolic Letter On Offer of Life, a document quoted…

It is written: He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. Donald Trump has spent the last four years running his presidential administration as an extension of his wrestling career. He has blustered and play-acted his way through the duties of the office, and trafficked in late-night…

In Part XVII, I brought up the issue of prominence and clarified that by identifying prominent people, I do not mean to imply that prominence is a criterion for canonization. Prominence is why a larger public knows about them. This allows us to have a conversation about whether they, and…

Groucho Marx famously commented, “I wouldn’t join any club that would let me in.” I share this sentiment. But then there’s Miss Elayne’s “Simply for Laughs” online group. Count me in! The talent is top-notch. Here’s Miss Sheila’s latest: Seems there are a couple of factory workers. One tells the…

In December, a U.S. abortion clinic employee tweeted a photo of his Christmas tree, topped not with a Christmas star but with a pair of forceps used to extract dismembered babies from the womb during abortion procedures. A week or so later, The Satanic Temple revealed its billboards in Texas…

Valuable stashes from antiquity, like the Frome Hoard comprised of 52,503 ancient Roman coins found in Somerset, England, in 2010, have one common feature. All were buried with obvious intent to retrieve them at some future date. Maybe the threat of a wartime invasion, a revolution, or an economic collapse…

We expect holy laywomen and laymen to be living the Beatitudes. Let us continue our discussion of examples of this. Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake Under this heading, I want to address the gift of long-suffering and the witness of “martyr-confessors.” One of the 12 Fruits…

We would expect holy laywomen and laymen to be living the Beatitudes, as Pope Francis wrote in his March 19, 2018, Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (“On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World”). Living the Beatitudes, he wrote, “is holiness.” Within the "framework of holiness offered by the Beatitudes…

Some billionaires have asked to be taxed more, and that is about to happen. Golden State legislators are pushing a first-in-the-nation net wealth tax bill, called AB-2088, that would affect some 300 Californians with a net worth of $30 million or more. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, has $118 billion…

The celebrated Dorothy Parker, on hearing the phone ring, liked to ask, “What fresh hell is this?” Of late we might say the same on reading the morning paper or catching the evening news. But not on this blog post, not today. Let’s consider, instead, the promise and peril of…

What’s the right “build” or “profile” for a non-martyred lay saint? It’s fair to say that we don't live our lives aspiring to be canonized saints. But we do aspire to be saints. French novelist Léon Bloy wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy…

When you strive to defend the achievements of Christian civilization you encounter an awful lot of kickback, a lot of angry hostility towards Christian culture. It can be dispiriting. But Christmas is a time for absolute and entirely positive joyfulness. It is not the chief Christian festival, for that honor is reserved to Easter, the…

One prominent member of the hierarchy who readily recognized holiness in the laypeople whom he knew personally was Pope St. John Paul II. Part X of this blog series mentioned one layman whose holiness he recognized: Jan Tyranowski. John Paul II declared him a Servant of God on April 28,…

Let’s recap: During the 40 years from 1978 to October 2018, fifteen to twenty laypersons were canonized, including a few to whom Our Lady appeared, two who took vows of chastity, and a stigmatist, leaving only a handful of men and women who married and had children. Pope Francis has…

The dilemma we Catholics face in every election is having to decide which flawed candidate to vote for. Few Catholics in politics have the courage to buck their party’s platform and speak up for traditional moral tenets. The Catholic Voter Guide says one may not vote for an enemy of…