The Narthex

Is the road to hell paved with good intentions? Yes and no. Yes, if we think that it’s enough to intend a “greater good” and overlook the means to achieve it. Why so? Because evil means distort the supposedly greater good. There’s a commonsense point at issue. To intend the…

“No more war, never again war.” So said Pope Paul VI at the United Nations, so says Pope Francis today. Yet there continue to be wars and rumors of war. Often political leaders encourage us to add to the patriotic gore. Just a few weeks ago, I joined an international…

Ready for a trip down memory lane? Even if you aren’t, a birthday can send you on your way! If it’s a septuagenarian birthday, count on it. Still, regardless of your generation, you can do some  philosophical packing before you head out—or get pushed. For a start, it’s worth noting…

Ah, the things we ask! When we’re running late, as often we are, we ask what time it is. When something goes missing, as it often does, we ask where it is. Or suppose we have a tough decision to make. Then we ask how to weigh the contending pros…

Last week I went picketing, again. I say “again” because my picketing and protesting began, no fooling, at the Alamo during the Vietnam War. Last week the venue had shifted. The protest, in a duly authorized “Free Speech Zone,” was at Loyola Marymount University. The Democratic candidates for the presidency…

Ever run out of time to answer your children’s questions? (It’s not that we don’t have the answers, right?) Well, there’s always the handy reply “Just because!” But suppose it’s we who have the questions, and we don’t have the answers? What then? We could always ask someone, maybe a…

Most speeches, happily, are over when they are over. Once over, they get ignored. Not so Senator Marco Rubio’s recent “Common Good Capitalism.” The Senator chose The Catholic University of America as his venue, and he makes a decent effort to draw on Catholic Social Teaching. At its center, as…

A few days ago the Democratic National Committee announced that Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) will be the venue for the sixth Democratic candidates’ debate. Get ready, it’s set for Dec. 19. Before I say more, it’s time for full disclosure: I practiced my trade, philosophy, at LMU for 40…

Are we made for fun or folly? I’d vote for fun over folly, and it would be folly to so sharply limit our options. Why not allow for both? Let me begin with fun. Penning a clerihew is fun. What’s a clerihew, you ask? Its inventor, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, a…

We’ve some sorting and distinguishing to do when it comes to the debate about nations and nationalism. If we shy away from the job, we’ll find ourselves dealing with nonsense and, to borrow from Bentham, nonsense on stilts. A first distinction is between nation and state. For over a hundred…

I’ve just reconnoitered a website that lays out seventeen well-argued essays on whether capital punishment is inherently wrong. Their authors don’t reach a consensus, nor is one likely to emerge any time soon. So what are we to do? As always with controverted questions, we should pray for clarity and…

Hugo Rahner, SJ, is the author of a classic work Man at Play. The central and staggering insight of Man at Play is that God is at play! How so? Proverbs 8:27-31 gives us a starting point. From the beginning, Rahner points out, Divine Wisdom (Hochmah) has been “playing before…

On October 13th John Henry Newman will be canonized, the first English person in modern times to be raised to the altar. Newman comes to us as an eminent Victorian and a convert. Some say his canonization has been long in coming because he was prolific and polemical. Whether or…

The devil is in the details -- and in definitions. For such details we might reflect on the new Vatican-Beijing accords, already in jeopardy, and the not-so-new nuclear weapons treaties now publicly flaunted. How about definitions? Let’s consider, as a trial run, humanism. As always, context counts. The French Revolution,…

Domestic terrorism. Religious persecution, both secular and professedly religious. The posturing of pro-abortion extremists. Assaults on democracy. Economic wars. Some weeks it’s crushingly obvious: we live in a valley of tears. Psalm 84:6-8 speaks of such a valley. So does the Marian anthem, “Hail, Holy Queen,” which so many recite…