The Narthex

My 15-year-old Royal Apricot tree died last year. It had borne the nectar of the gods. Taking an axe to its roots, I mourned as if a beloved monarch had passed on. I closed my eyes in memoriam to savor once again the rich harmonics of its flavorful, exotic fruits.…

"Evangelization is to the person of Jesus Christ, not to a church." Haven't we all heard this? With all due respect to people's good intentions in saying this, I would caution against setting up a false dichotomy. The Church is identified in Scripture as Christ's Body, and -- to use…

A suburban New York county has banned all unvaccinated minors from public places in hopes of staving off a recent measles outbreak in the area. This comes on the heels of a Northern Kentucky Health Department decision to ban unvaccinated students from school after a chickenpox outbreak there. Parents cite…

As I stood in the entry of an Assisted Living dining hall, hoping to join my friend after lunch, I overheard this comment: “She’s no angel. I heard she shacked up with George last night.” The speaker nodded toward another woman two tables over with coiffed hair and Fifth Avenue…

This year my parish re-themed Lent to address the Climate CO2 Crisis. It's apparently a "wholesale" international push (by Global Catholic Climate Movement, a "collective" of diocesan offices and international NGOs inspired by Laudato Si and Catholic Climate Covenant, the USCCB-related entity) with local "retail" distributors, embodied in miniature in our…

A group of fearless movie-makers is about to release Unplanned, a film based on Abby Johnson's story of going from being manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic to becoming a highly effective pro-life activist. You can bet that the entertainment industry is dead-set against this film. Check out these quotes…

It is the Ides of March. I’m at the San Marcos Cemetery. Its flat headstones, aligned between scraggly trees on acres of fresh-cut green grass, can’t compete with cemeteries back east. Richmond, Virginia, has historic statues 20 feet tall and Romanesque tombs inscribed with inspirational poetry and sculpted battle scenes.…

The Vatican News website recently printed an interview with a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life discussing the current standard of care for pubescent age children suffering from gender dysphoria.  During the course of the questioning, the member, Dr. Laura Palazzani, said that in order to “accompany” children battling…

I’ve lived in my lower class neighborhood since 1973 when I bought a four-bedroom house and rented rooms to other youths hoping to start a commune. California’s Prop 13 keeps my property tax low, whereas new buyers nowadays pay eight times as much. Sometimes it pays to be old. But…

What are we doing? When philosophers ask that question, they’re looking for an act-description. An act-description involves an agent, an act, and (implicitly) the intention in so acting. We can take some act-descriptions at face value. Others we can't. Consider two presidential examples. Harry S Truman, pressed to declare a…

Remember the U.S. Army’s old advertising slogan, “Freedom Isn’t Free”? Now we know that sexual freedom isn’t free either. According to a USA Today report (Feb. 27), since July 1, 2016, when President Obama lifted the transgender ban in the armed forces, the Pentagon has spent nearly $8 million treating…

With presidential candidates bragging about it and state after state legalizing it, the use of recreational marijuana is fast becoming a cultural norm in our country.  The Church, with only a few notable exceptions, has remained strangely silent on the issue, tacitly implying consent to the drug's “responsible use.”  If…

My vegetable garden is a 4 x 10 planter box with gopher-proof screening and a weed-banning cloth. Its soil is enriched with root enzymes and minerals, wriggly worms, and rich humus. I nearly broke my back constructing it, but it was worth the anguish. I’ve got international participation from healthy,…

In the March 1 installment of our “Daily News” feed, we linked to an article on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (which is Australia's state-owned and funded national public radio and TV-broadcaster) by Fr. James Alison called “Welcome to my world: Notes on the reception of Frédéric Martel's…

My dad used to say whenever motives got confusing, "Follow the money trail." The contemporary Church hierarchy now has one thing on its mind and one only: money. If prejudice is the essence of evil, then this hierarchy is evil in its prejudice for cushy retirements, luxury lifestyles, glorious cathedrals,…