The Narthex

Once upon a time, 1965 to be exact, a slim volume appeared with the title Everybody Calls Me Father. Its author was the anonymous Father X, a humble priest. (By the way, it’s still available.) Now comes Cardinal John Dew, headlined as “New Zealand’s top Catholic,” who encouraged priests not…

According to news reports, a shocking number of Mt. Everest climbers have been dying -- eleven at the summit and nearly 300 more below, mostly from avalanches. Recently my friend David skyped me from Florida. He is a former whiz kid of Wall Street. We usually chat about the latest…

Pope Francis recently spoke to health care workers and raised a note of caution about conscientious objection. “The decision to object,” Francis warned, “must be taken with respect, so that what should be done with humility does not become a reason for disdain or pride, so as not to generate…

It is that time of the liturgical year when we must face the question: Is Ascension Thursday a Holy Day of Obligation?  The answer is in the affirmative as the Code of Canon Law (1246), in addition to all Sundays of the year, includes the Solemnity of the Ascension among…

Two members of Congress with decidedly socialist leanings announced this week their plans to introduce bills that would cap interest rates on credit cards and consumer loans at 15 percent.  Calling it a “national usury law” the two politicians hope to reduce the amount of interest that consumers pay for…

Henry was in his glory when surrounded by us in soiree discussions. About a dozen of his fans would meet every Tuesday at his theater where we’d discuss religion and politics. His brilliant mind gave us the opportunity to ricochet ideas around, as in a game of racket ball. He…

Every age has its own set of moral contradictions.  Fallen man’s creativity never ceases to find ways to feign moral blindness.  In this regard our age is no different.  Living in an age marked by an exaggerated reliance on the empirical, morality seems to take a back seat to biology. …

Know anyone who’s outspoken, opinionated, who calls a spade a spade? I surely knew my father, to whom I owe more than I can ever repay. When the family was planning his funeral, my mother told the pastor “John was outspoken…too outspoken for most people.” Right. Some of us liked…

I’ve taken time to ponder all the serious consequences of 9/11. Our country’s War on Terror has worsened political instability in a Middle East that in past times demonstrated peaceful co-existence between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Then there’s the human toll, and the economic drain of all the wasted U.S.…

In March 2003 the U.S. and allies invaded Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, supposedly hunting weapons of mass destruction and roundaboutly avenging 9/11. Not long after, I spoke with a co-worker from Iraq, one of the few Muslims working with us. Hatem kept mostly to himself but was a competent and respected…

I arrived as usual at my city engineering field office in San Diego at 7:00 AM on 9/11/2001. I joined about 40 staff and city engineers standing in the conference room viewing the TV wall monitor as it showed a collapsing South World Trade Center Tower. Within half an hour,…

Asking someone “How are you doing?” can get personal. What if someone takes the question literally? Maybe someone like Mr. Pilgrim. He’s no pushover. Suppose he flips the question and asks “How are you doing?” Or he might even ask “How are we doing?” If he raises this question, he…

Over the last few years there have been a number of high-profile cases of patients in a vegetative state dying after they had their feeding and hydration tubes removed. The most recent case was in France, where a brain-damaged and crippled man named Vincent Lambert had his feeding tube removed…

I was a friend of the family for 40 years and was visiting Minola, its matriarch. Minola was dying of cancer, and she lay on a hospital bed in her living room, too nauseated to eat. She’d refused the prescribed radiation and chemical cocktails because she knew her life was…

Funny things happen on the way to political dialogues. Not to mention that the participants say the darnedest things… On the one hand, we believe that our deepest commitments should inform our political practices. These practices, presumably, include political dialogues. On the other hand, we tell each other that true…