The Narthex

Professors Heather Erb and Steve Bertucci, tutors at Angelicum Academy, are engaging and persuasive exponents of “Great Books Education.” And just what is a Great Book? It is one of enduring significance and a lever, as it were, for the human enterprise. It is a tool that helps take us…

After a prolonged campaign against smoking, the culture at large mostly agrees that cigarette smoking is evil.  Setting aside whether that is true or not, at no time during the debate did anyone accuse other people of being tobaccophobic or call them haters.  That was because it was quite clear…

As an electrical engineer for the City of San Diego, one day my job took me to Mission Bay Senior High School in Pacific Beach, California. A traffic signal there had to be modified, so I met with one of my technical assistants, Joe, a graying African-American.

We had been working into the…

Here’s a snappy reality check: “You’re entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.” But reality isn’t always easy to check. For a start, if my opinion is ill-formed, I’m not really entitled to it. There’s a duty to think carefully about our opinions. Of course, today’s political slugfest…

There is only one Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of the World. This is what the Catholic Church has always taught, since the first century AD, and still teaches -- you can look it up. Being God, He does not NEED anything. He does not NEED His…

The Devil is a terrible copycat.  Mind you, that doesn’t stop him from trying at every turn to ape God.  His greatest impersonation to do before his final curtain call, as the anti-Christ, is still in the future but he hardly ceases to have dress rehearsals.  Although it may not…

I was the weekend guest of a lady friend who, I discovered during my brief stay, had a fetish for cleaning her apartment. In the years I’ve known her, never have I seen her happier than when cleaning her surroundings. With the vacuum hose draped around her neck like a…

Sure, some professors are boring. Blimey, some of us remember Harvard’s eminent Professor Boring, Edwin Boring, a leading psychologist of the 20th century. Some blogs, maybe, are also boring. Not to mention a weekly podcast I host. A good friend, reviewing this humble effort, said that he found some of…

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. …