The Narthex

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…

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…

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…

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…”…

Another Example of Inverted Pneumatology I’ve criticized a distorted theology of the Holy Spirit I’ve called “inverted pneumatology,” which pretends that today the Holy Spirit primarily speaks not to the world from the Church but rather teaches the Church from a secularized world. Writing in the National Catholic Reporter (I…

Timothy Reichert’s “Christian Ownership Maximalism” is an original article (linked below) in the December 2025 issue of First Things. It deserves wide readership, thorough debate, and I’d argue adoption in Catholic circles. Christendom as we have known it -- whether the religiously suffused culture of medieval Europe or the ethnic…

Fresh off last week’s discovery that "People, Look East" might be coded propaganda for a clandestine versus orientem revival, I approached this Sunday’s liturgy with heightened vigilance. Imagine my dismay when the next hymn announced itself: the venerable "On Jordan’s Bank" -- that paragon of Advent piety which, upon scrutiny,…

Recent years have seen a “war on Christmas.” It takes the form of turning Christmas into a holiday in the closet, daring not to speak its name. Instead, we say “happy holidays,” while kids get “winter break” from school. Those who contend there’s a war on Christmas argue that its…

Advent comes with a repertoire of hymnody unique to the season, such as “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Among traditional Advent hymns now sung in English-speaking Catholic churches is Englishwoman Eleanor Farjeon’s “People, Look East,” which was sung in my parish last Sunday. I had to wonder whether some dioceses…

“Textualism” and “originalism” emerged as approaches to interpreting the Constitution in order to reconnect American judicial decisions with the document they were supposedly applying. The “living Constitution,” so in vogue from roughly the 1950s through 2000 (though not really firmly buried until Anthony Kennedy finally left the Supreme Court), unfettered…

In vitro fertilization (IVF) has always benefitted from certain strange coincidences redounding to its benefit. The first IVF baby was born in 1978, five years after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion-on-demand in the U.S. People who fought abortion because they said it took the life of an unborn baby vacillated…

Some Western European clerics are again singing the praises of secularization. The latest, according to Stefano Fontana, is Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Italy. (His November 17 opening address to the bishops’ meeting in Assisi is linked below.) That song, however, is hardly…

Catholics have traditionally dedicated November to prayer for the souls in Purgatory, especially on All Souls' Day. To encourage efficacious prayer for the departed, the Church grants a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, to Catholics who visit a cemetery from November 1-8 and pray for the dead. The indulgence…