The Narthex

With Lafayette, Jefferson, and Madison in a single carriage, the large entourage -- the Committee of Arrangements, cavalry, and “a numerous body of citizens” -- left Monticello at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 5, 1824, for Charlottesville, about five miles distant. The population of Albemarle County (which did not include…

The principal source for what occurred on Lafayette's November 1824 visit to Jefferson is the November 10 issue of Charlottesville’s Central Gazette, later credited to Charles Downing.[1] While it has not survived, it was reprinted in whole or in part in papers of Richmond, Alexandria, Lynchburg and Fredericksburg. READ FULL BLOG POST

I now turn to Lafayette’s extended stay with Thomas Jefferson at his home in Monticello. In November 1824, Lafayette spent ten full days with Jefferson and visiting the University of Virginia and Charlottesville (where yours truly now lives), and four days with James and Dolley Madison in their home at…

A young Frenchman, Julien Icher, founder of the Lafayette Trail, has been working with the American Friends of Lafayette to erect historical markers at each of Lafayette’s stops.[1] Also during this bicentennial, there will be a number of reenactments. For example, one woman planned reenactments of his visit…

The waving of a 24-star flag, red-white-blue bunting, banners, and fireworks throughout the country to celebrate Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette during his up-close and in-person visit in 1824-25 contrasts sharply with the anxiety and unease many Americans today feel when they see Old Glory flying.[1] For me…

The District of Columbia and other jurisdictions have passed laws to re-name Columbus Day Indigenous Peoples’ Day or Native Americans Day. In 2021, President Biden proclaimed Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be celebrated on the same day as Columbus Day. (Given my surname, you might suppose that I favor this development.…

In Part 1, linked below, I looked at the Catholic Church’s criteria for just war and just conduct of war. Here I turn to the loss of civilian lives and physical destruction, and address the issue of Israel’s conduct of the war. Hamas alleges a large number of deaths among…

The number of killed, injured, and displaced people among two million Gazans has been large and is growing. I hope my words here will contribute to a conversation on assessing the morality of Israel’s actions. The social teaching of the Catholic Church appeals to human reason, not only to the…

Jerome R. Daly was the most decorated helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. After retiring from the Army in 1982, he became a Catholic priest. Vietnam was a war in which combat helicopters played a pre-eminent role. According to a 2018 report by Gary Roush of the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots…

On April 16, the Wall Street Journal reported that five large book publishers have joined the case filed by a sixth large publisher to prevent the State of Iowa from restricting the purchase or use of certain books for school libraries and classrooms (Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, “Major Publishers Join Iowa…

You may remember having an adult read to you, or you reading to a child, The Giving Tree (1964), written and illustrated by the late Shel Silverstein (1930-1999). This book was the subject of a sophisticated symposium in the January 1995 issue of First Things, a magazine edited by the…

Some time ago, my wife and I were visiting my elderly, widowed father in his home in suburban Chicago. We remarked to him that, in his 25 years in this home, his gardening had achieved outstanding results, due not only to his efforts but to superbly fecund loam. Since all…

The term “shock and awe” entered our lexicon during the 1990-91 Gulf War when the American-led coalition sought to eject Iraq after the latter’s invasion of Kuwait. “Shock and awe” referred to the coalition’s aerial bombardment prior to a tank and infantry assault. It was meant to demoralize the Iraqi…

I was sitting in church waiting for Sunday Mass to begin. My church has a large crucifix with a corpus above and behind the altar. With the image of the crucified Christ in my eyes, I spoke to Him about all the troubles of our current times. Then I implored…

A big lie is that Catholics oppress women by, for example, not allowing them to be ordained priests or deacons, by not giving them (enough) positions of power in the Vatican, by keeping them “barefoot and pregnant” by opposing contraception and abortion, and by holding marriage up as a realizable…