The Narthex

Not too long ago, Republicans were the party of free speech. Tired of being shut out of debates and shut up about everything, they styled themselves as free speech champions while trying to claw back some traction in the groves of academe and the halls of political power. But then…

There’s no shortage of true crime, and there hasn’t been since Cain murdered Abel. Fast forward and, turning from fratricide to parricide, we have the murders of Rob and Michelle Reiner, allegedly at the hands of their son. Nor is there any shortfall of state violence. The protests in response…

Almost fifty years out from the 1969 Roman Calendar reform seems a fitting distance to assess what works and what hasn’t. By and large, I think the Calendar reform has been correct and pastorally successful, but I would offer three changes. First, I would jettison the periods of “Ordinary Time”…

The recent swearing in of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani on the Quran has reignited a conversation that America prefers to keep comfortably superficial. Thus, public debate has circled symbols, optics, and inclusivity language while missing the heavier matter that involves history, Scripture, and moral philosophy. In recent years the…

The title of a recent New York Times op-ed (“The Trouble with My Father’s Resting Place,” Jan. 2) caught my eye because it seemed, for once, that maybe somebody else had recognized the point I’ve long made: cremation deprives people of a final resting place. (Ultimately, that recognition didn't happen.) The…

January 6 is the traditional date for the Solemnity of the Epiphany. In the United States, it has been transferred for decades to the first Sunday after January 1. It fell on January 4 this year. Some liturgists would argue that Epiphany was, indeed, the original “Christmas” feast and that…

The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, celebrated on January 1, the Octave of Christmas, is a holyday of obligation. There’s an argument to be made that its status is progressively being eroded. Looking at some parish bulletins, I noticed a cutback in the number of Masses offered. That anecdotal…

Here in California there’s a debate about licensing cosmetologists. For my part, I wish there weren’t any to license. Plato would understand. In his Gorgias he compared politicians with cosmeticians. Both are busy about disguising reality. Cosmologists are another matter altogether. They’re the folks keen to answer the big questions…

On Christmas Day, holy and radiant, we stand at the turning point of all human longing, a longing that began at the gates of Eden and echoed through every generation that followed. From the first moment of rupture between God and man, the world has carried a deep ache for…

How Politicians Coopt the Christian Message – with Christian Complicity Earlier I voiced objection to the Massachusetts nativity scene that replaced Baby Jesus with an “ICE was here” sign because it diverts from the purpose of a Nativity scene. A manger on public view is a proclamation of faith in…

Truth being under siege, the university -- once the Church’s cathedral of the intellect -- has become a temple to relativism, technocracy, and soulless pragmatism. The modern university no longer forms souls; it programs consumers. Once the glory of Christendom, our institutions of higher learning now echo with the nihilistic…

A vicious controversy has just erupted in Poland over the “Round Table.” The “Round Table” refers both to the literal circular table and the historic discussions held around it in early 1989, when some parts of the Polish opposition met with the ruling Communists to discuss the country’s future. Out…

December 15, 1791, stands as a quiet hinge of history, since on that day the ratification of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution achieved final assent through Virginia’s approval, thereby giving formal civic expression to an idea whose roots run far deeper than Philadelphia, deeper than Enlightenment…

Why are Prisoners in Prison? On December 14, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the “Jubilee of Prisoners.” His homily is replete with “hope.” Sometimes it almost suggests the Parousia is about to arrive, immanently. Leo says we must build a “society established on new criteria, and ultimately on charity…”…

"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun." So Ecclesiastes tells us. There’s a truth here, and the lament finds an echo in the voices of those who discover how deeply weary this world…