The Narthex

I begin this installment by stating my love for the Latin language. I studied it in high school and graduate school. I drew on my knowledge of the language to write my master’s thesis, Aquinas on Marriage. I recently taught Latin for five years to grade schoolers on Saturday mornings.…

The Australian Curriculum, Reporting and Assessment Authority (ACARA) issued a Consultation Curriculum for History Years 7-10 early this year. The 84-page document is described as “consultation material only” – which is to say that it has not yet been endorsed by the various state and federal education ministers. Nevertheless, the thrust of the document is clearly…

Appeals to the common good can go wrong. In my last post I argued that Thomas Aquinas was wrong to tolerate legal prostitution on the grounds that without it the commonwealth would suffer worse evils. Earlier I argued that he was wrong to conclude that a judge with personal, but…

According to the meaning of the term woke, I better wake up to my ingrained pride and prejudice. Maybe I’m unaware of my racism and misogyny because I’m a senior and an Italian Catholic. As a thoroughbred descendent of the Roman Empire, I believe there are only two kinds of…

The first Mass in English in the United States was celebrated on August 24, 1964, by Father Frederick R. McManus in St. Louis. A New York Times article, “Catholics Hear Mass in English Today for First Time in the U.S.” (Aug. 24, 1964), describes the translation as “hurried”; I am perplexed…

The mainstream media are overwhelmingly liberal; this is well known. Their all-out effort to portray Joe Biden as simply a good-natured older man -- the nation's Uncle Joe -- is obvious and predictable. Still, there are corners of the liberal media where one can find solid reporting that rejects simple…

On a warm, sunny spring morning, I passed a rose bush blooming in its full glory. Remembering to take time to stop for the roses, I leaned over to smell its sweet, delicious bouquet. I often do this on my walks and have found that only one in ten rose…

This new blog series addresses certain liturgical changes in the Latin Rite Mass, from the vantage point of a half century after Vatican II. These changes notably began with Mass in the vernacular languages rather than solely in Latin. I begin by observing that I know of two instances in…

When the FDA recently paused rollout of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, several articles in the mainstream press compared the risk of blood clots from the J&J shot to the clot risk from taking birth-control pills. The comparison was driven by the fact that all six vaccine clotting cases,…

On my usual walk around the neighborhood park I saw two young guys sitting and chatting on the grass. It was mid-day, sun shining, the first warm day we’ve had in a while. At night I would have shied away, but I headed straight for them. As I passed by,…

In my last post I argued that St. Thomas Aquinas got it wrong when he suggested that a judge who had private knowledge, and only that, of a man’s innocence could find that man guilty based on the evidence properly adduced in a court of law. Thomas rightly notes that…

Typically our statues and paintings portray saints as individuals. And except for martyrs who are often canonized in groups, canonizations are of individual saints. Nonetheless, many non-martyred canonized saints have had deep relationships with their contemporaries who were also saints. A few are: Mary and Joseph; Sarah and Tobias; Ruth…

On the first warm day of spring, some vagrants came out of their nooks and hideaways to congregate in the local park for fellowship. Several men, old and young, sat together at a stone picnic table, chatting, eating, and drinking beer or cheap wine early in the day. During the…

Some years ago a Jesuit, and yet a friend, warned me of “Thomistic howlers.” That is to say, sometimes, though rarely, St. Thomas Aquinas -- I like to refer to him as the Church’s Common Doctor -- made bad mistakes. Right. And who of us has not? Did not Aristotle…

Over twenty blog posts ago I noted that during the 40 years from 1978 to 2018, 1,419 individuals were canonized and 1,249 of these were martyrs. Of the remainder, about 15-20 were laypersons -- some of which are special cases: those to whom Our Lady appeared, two who took vows…