The Narthex
Columbus Day & America's Catholic Roots
Catholics have little reason to suffer an inferiority complex about their place in American history
By John M. Grondelski | October 9th 2026 8:28 PMThis coming Monday is Columbus Day. It also happens to be the date traditionally associated with Christopher Columbus’s landfall in the Americas: October 12, 1492. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 moved the federal observance away from the historical anniversary and onto the second Monday in October. Columbus Day…
READ FULL BLOG POSTLessons from Mrs. Tkac
Death is a part of life, and pondering it should not be something alien to us
By John M. Grondelski | October 15th 2024 11:47 AMEach year as Columbus Day rolls around, I recall Mrs. Tkac. Mrs. Tkac was a childhood neighbor whose funeral I attended on Columbus Day 1968. They say that childhood impressions last longest and, I have to say, in this case, it’s true. I didn’t know Mrs. Tkac personally; I was…
READ FULL BLOG POSTColumbus, Christianity, and Culture
On the current effort to de-Christianize and secularize American history
By John M. Grondelski | October 9th 2023 11:41 AMColumbus Day is one of the next focal points in the revisionist effort to rewrite American history to highlight what "woke" activists consider its irredeemably evil roots. Far from “discovering” America, they'll say, Christopher Columbus was a “conqueror” who brought colonization, exploitation, disease, death, and a trail of tears to…
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