The Narthex

COP30, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, opens today. The meetings will begin in Belém, a Brazilian port city located on the edge of the Amazon, and will end on November 21. Expectations are high among large sectors of the establishment, lobbies, and environmental movements, but there's also a…

Catholics have traditionally dedicated November to prayer for the souls in Purgatory, especially on All Souls' Day. To encourage efficacious prayer for the departed, the Church grants a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, to Catholics who visit a cemetery from November 1-8 and pray for the dead. The indulgence…

Reports, officially unconfirmed, are circulating that some dioceses in the United States have prohibited celebration of the Novus Ordo Missae (NO) with a versus orientem posture. I offer some theological reflections: Since introduction of the NO in 1969, the usual posture for celebration of Mass has been versus populum, “towards…

 For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the children of the light. – Luke 16:8

The Third Synodal Assembly of the Italian Church marked a historic turning point in its pastoral approach to LGBT people. With approval of the Synodal Path's summary document, "Yeast of Peace and Hope," the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) overwhelmingly approved proposals that represent an unprecedented openness toward homosexual and transgender…

Pope Leo has made it official: St. John Henry Newman is a Doctor of the Church. In this I rejoice; Newman has long been a favorite of mine. I often taught his An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), a classic in the epistemology of religion, in…

SNAP Shutdown The continuing shutdown of the federal government has interrupted SNAP payments. SNAP is a federal program to provide food money to the poor. There are currently more than 41 million SNAP recipients. This seems to be one of those areas where the priority of the poor comes into…

In recent days, during a Mass dedicated to children, a parish priest in Italy uttered remarks that left many faithful disconcerted:

Let me say first up: it's not a sin if you have a Halloween party on October 31st. It's not a sin, even if some idiots say…

In a recent essay, I quoted approvingly Oren Cass’s observation that employment, labor, and immigration law form a coherent legal whole that protects both national security and domestic workers. Summarizing Cass, immigration law determines who can work; employment law fixes “baseline” criteria for the employer-employee relationship; and labor law protects…

The Third Synodal Assembly of the Church in Italy marked a historic turning point in the pastoral approach to LGBT people. With the approval of “Yeast of Peace and Hope,” its Synodal Path Summary Document, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) overwhelmingly approved proposals representing unprecedented openness toward homosexual and transgender…

Today is the feast of Ss. Simon and Jude. They are two of the lesser known apostles, although in the American Church in the 20th century, there was a popular devotion to St. Jude Thaddeus. Many parishes conducted novenas to him as patron of impossible causes and things despaired of.…

In his video defending immigrants, Chicago archbishop Blase Cupich begins by talking about migrants without regard to their status. “We stand with the father who labors in silence to build a better future.” Then, speaking expressly to immigrants “without documents,” Cupich adds, “Most of you have been here for years.…

“Migration” features, albeit in limited fashion, in Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te. Of the three paragraphs that mention it, two are historical. I am not a professional historian but I think I know enough to ask some questions about what those two paragraphs really support versus what some…

A few weeks ago, the Missionary of Charity Brothers celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their presence in Los Angeles. First, a bit of history. With the blessing of their foundress Mother Teresa, in 1966 Br. Andrew (originally a Jesuit priest) began his service as co-founder of the Congregation, centered in…

Pneumatology is that branch of theology dealing with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is understood as indwelling in the Church and keeping her from error. The Church’s inerrancy is neither political nor historical; she can and has made mistakes in those areas. The Church’s inerrancy is related to her…