The Narthex

Sarah Mullally’s New Role King Charles III through UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (or maybe vice versa) has appointed Sarah Mullally to be the next “Archbishop of Canterbury.” Thoughts? Well, in one sense the question is moot. There hasn’t been a real Archbishop of Canterbury for over 400 years. Changes…

Much attention has been given this year to a push by the late Pope Francis (with Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew) to find a date for a “common Easter.” Francis had resurrected a dormant appendix of Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy as his warrant for the push which, one senses,…

Romanian Rain on Francis’s Common Easter Parade Pope Francis’s idea of launching a “common Easter” hit a road block when the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania voiced objections. His primary objection was exactly the condition Vatican II set 61 years ago in the long-dormant appendix to Sacronsanctum Concilium that Francis wants…

Recently Pope Francis repeated an idea he has been floating for some time: setting a common date for Easter. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox mark Easter on different dates because the Orthodox use a different calendar (the Julian, which is 13 days out-of-sync from the sun) and formula to fix Easter.…

Imagine a scenario where Jesus and his modern disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi. Along the way he asks his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" They say in reply, "Allah, others Brahma or Buddha, still others Confucius or one of the ethical teachers." And…

Your Catholic SAT Although many colleges have moved away from standardized tests like the SAT, in the name of “equity” and abandonment of academic standards, I believe they have value. One of the components of the SAT used to be a reading comprehension test. It tests for how closely one…

The significance of the outcome of the Fourth Global Anglican Future Convention (GAFCON IV) held last April in Kigali, Rwanda, is coming into ever sharper relief. That an overwhelming portion of Anglicanism, especially in the “Global South,” has been pushed to the point that it no longer recognizes its communion…

Pope Francis has on several occasions voiced support for an idea, percolating among the Vatican’s professional ecumenical and liturgical classes, to establish a “common” date for Easter between Catholics and Orthodox. The current driver seems to be wanting to “do something” to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council…