The Narthex
New Oxford Blog

Letter from Australia
On the scale of catastrophes and irresponsible hype
By David Daintree | April 30th 2020 3:20 PMOn April 25 we celebrated ANZAC Day, the annual commemoration of Australia’s and New Zealand’s participation in the Gallipoli campaign of the First World War. The campaign failed in its objectives and our troops withdrew having suffered terrible losses over several bitter months of struggle. There can’t be many countries whose…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDignity, in the Back Row
Are 'basic American values' the foundation of our dignity?
By James Hanink | April 27th 2020 8:07 PMChris Arnade’s Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America recounts his four years of accompanying, and listening to, Americans who have been left behind. The book comes with striking photographs of the people to whom he introduces us. Many he meets at the local McDonald’s or a storefront church. Arnade…
READ FULL BLOG POSTOur Goldilocks Planet
It's reasonable to assume that Earth is universally unique
By Richard DellOrfano | April 24th 2020 8:38 PMAbout 20 years ago, the children of tenants renting my house pasted glow-in-the-dark stars on the master bedroom ceiling for their parents. When I moved in, I noticed the virtual galaxy the children created. Lying on my bed, I turned off the lamp and looked at the ceiling, surprised and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Rival Religion
Socialism does not allow competition from any other god
By Richard DellOrfano | April 20th 2020 3:36 PMIn the mid-1960s, I could be seen on the Boston Common dressed in surplus military fatigues, complete with jacket and boots, sporting a chestnut brown beard. I wasn’t aware at the time that all us hippie rebels were enacting a spectacular resurgence of utopian socialism. Our rebel cause was to…
READ FULL BLOG POSTProposals on the Economy
Let's scrutinize the pursuit of profit in our institutions
By James Hanink | April 15th 2020 3:08 PMWhen the coronavirus pandemic subsides, and if we keep our wits about us, we’ll begin to reboot our economy. Even now, it’s high time to rethink our economy. I’d like to suggest two proposals for this project. One proposal is modest enough. The other, admittedly, is entirely and flagrantly immodest.…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLiving Stones
One galaxy "ate" another galaxy
By Richard DellOrfano | April 13th 2020 9:02 PMRecently I read this news clip: “The Andromeda galaxy ate our sister galaxy, and now it’s coming for us.” An astrophysicist used poetic license to describe that star-studded dinner event but it got me thinking. Maybe I need to expand my narrow definition of living things. My biology textbook made…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLord of History
Christ's entrance into time changed everything
By David Daintree | April 9th 2020 3:18 PMIf you ask people what they think was the most important thing that ever happened in the world, they’ll come up with some fascinating answers. Some will tell you it was the invention of the wheel. Others will plump for the telephone. Others perhaps the discovery of anesthetics. Few will…
READ FULL BLOG POSTToday's Rip van Winkle
Rapid innovation is startling, wondrous, and worrisome
By Richard DellOrfano | April 6th 2020 2:58 PMSometimes I feel like Rip van Winkle waking from a 20-year sleep to find drastic changes, not only social but technological as well. Our standard of living has improved more in the last 100 years than in all recorded history. Such rapid innovation is startling and wondrous. But it’s also…
READ FULL BLOG POSTChurch, State, and the Virus
The local bank branch is open but not the church
By James Hanink | March 30th 2020 7:42 PMCommon sense is often in short supply. Far too many people go about their daily routines paying little attention to the role that social distancing plays in saving lives, including their own. That said, the pandemic also calls for “clarification of thought,” as Peter Maurin liked to say, about three…
READ FULL BLOG POSTCivilization Devolved
Fear of one another is its own disease
By Richard DellOrfano | March 30th 2020 2:43 PMI went alone for a long walk around my neighborhood after California’s self-quarantine advisory. A bit fatigued, I sat to rest on a bus-stop metal bench, the kind with handles between the seats. The traffic at this local intersection was now a tenth of the usual rush hour traffic. A…
READ FULL BLOG POSTResponse to 'The Grindstone'
A priest's view of the burden of too much Church bureaucracy
By Barbara Rose | March 27th 2020 10:32 PMFr. Richard Perozich of Hawaii sent comments on Richard Dell'Orfano's blog post "The Grindstone" (March 24), which touched on boring homilies and overworked priests. Perozich writes:
As a priest I could be insulted that a lay Catholic said the homilies are dull, that he has to go to…
READ FULL BLOG POSTAs We Face a Crisis
A look at comparative numbers on causes of death around the world
By David Daintree | March 24th 2020 3:35 PMOn May 4, 1940, my father embarked on the first voyage of the Queen Mary, since her conversion to a troop ship, to sail to the Middle East to fight the Axis powers. On board were 5,000 other members of the AIF – the Australian Imperial Force. My mother, like…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Grindstone
An analogy for restoring a cutting edge to evangelization
By Richard DellOrfano | March 24th 2020 3:13 PMDuring a homily, the priest lifted our bored faces by boldly declaring, "So not everyone’s going to heaven.” A matronly woman sitting next to me looked up for a moment from thumbing her cell phone. Somehow assured that her Judgment Day was not imminent, she then returned to marking the…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Caveat about Caution
In a pandemic, the principle of uncertainty often takes priority
By James Hanink | March 17th 2020 9:29 PMOf late we’ve heard much about caution—indeed, an abundance of caution, and rightly so. My caveat about caution is this: that we keep it in context. The context is the virtue of prudence. And what is prudence? Above all it is right reason in acting. We shouldn’t confuse it with…
READ FULL BLOG POSTAn Adversity Metaphor
Over-parenting seems selfless on the surface
By Richard DellOrfano | March 16th 2020 4:41 PMA young boy in my neighborhood walked up to me, spotting something in my hand. “What’s that?” he asked. William was a mixed-race child with handsome features. He was fatherless, so I once helped him fix his trainer bike. “It’s a chrysalis, I told him. “Soon the shell will split…
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