The Narthex

I’ve explained in the past that I keep a subscription to The New York Times primarily because it is a source par excellence for the insane musings of the Left. But even I could not believe the number of such inanities the Old Gray Lady managed to publish in just…

I sometimes wonder if the problem with liberals is that they have extraordinarily guilty consciences but lack a confessional to unburden themselves in. Well, that is not wholly true; they have the op-ed pages of liberal newspapers, which alternate among confessional, psychotherapy couch, and street corner (where one signals one's…

Last Sunday’s Gospel focused on fraternal correction and the steps required for the gradual acceleration of a process to correct an errant brother. From informal conversation to discussion in front of witnesses to Church adjudication to excommunication, fraternal correction makes clear that the integrity of ecclesial teaching trumps “welcome” and,…

Critics sometimes argue that among the deficiencies of contemporary homiletics there is a prominent lack of moral content and instruction. That should not have been the case with last Sunday’s Gospel and readings. I will spell out why. Last Sunday’s Gospel can be misread if it is reduced to a…

I’ve been writing a lot about the upcoming Synod on Synodality and the obsession of some prelates with the Church’s “welcoming” attitude. The gist of my argument is that these folks are pushing a notion of “welcome” that is alien to Scripture and the Church’s Tradition, though it may resonate…

It’s the beginning of September, which means schools have either already started or will soon start new academic years. Most colleges and universities are back in session. So, like most Labor Day weekends with absolutely no immediately biting crises on the news cycle, editors filled space with “school stories.” The…

“Sex Work,” Trafficking, and Trucks Pamela Paul reports in the New York Times (Aug. 17) that some New York feminists are fighting to get editors to drop the euphemism “sex worker” from their style books. She explains that many have adopted this linguistic stand-in because they don’t want to appear…

Several writers have already addressed the question of how the Eucharist was treated during the just-concluded World Youth Day in Lisbon. I want to focus on a particular attempt to justify the use of “Tuppernacles” and the way the Blessed Sacrament was mass-packaged in plastic containers (“Tuppernacles” is Peter Kwasniewski’s…

I recently applauded Worcester Bishop Robert McManus’s newly promulgated policy requiring Catholic schools in the diocese to use a child’s legal name, not a gender-ideology driven substitute, when addressing a child (and not just in official documents). The policy even goes further in establishing one’s given name identity: if, after…

Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, has mandated that Catholic schools in his diocese use a child’s legal name, not substitutes a student, driven by gender ideology, might want. Congratulations to him for providing episcopal leadership! [To see McManus's policy, click here.] But, some may ask, doesn’t that harm…

A New Thack(eray) on the Dumbing Down of Reading and Culture In a recent Facebook post, Joe Bottum commented on a 1915 lecture in which the speaker threw around multiple literary allusions to William Makepeace Thackeray’s characters as if they were obvious to everyone. Truth is, a lot of them…

The Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption, when the Blessed Virgin Mary, “at the end of her earthly life,” was taken body and soul into heaven. The feast is a logical extension of the Resurrection: the latter’s transfiguring power is intended to reach every one of Christ’s followers, of…

Seventy-two years ago today, St. Maximilian Kolbe was murdered by a poison injection at Auschwitz, after about two weeks in a starvation bunker. Most probably on August 15 -- the feast of she to whom he was devoted -- his emaciated body went up in smoke through Auschwitz's crematorium chimney.…

"Listen to Him" In both last Sunday's Second Reading (from II Peter) and Gospel, we are exhorted (in the Gospel by no less than God the Father) to "listen to" Jesus. Peter, James, and John "listen" to that message from the bright cloud that overshines Mount Tabor; it would be…

"Les extremes se touchent" means the extremes touch each other, they overlap. People say the Church’s teachings about sex and life are extreme, but the truly extreme, truly contradictory response comes from its opponents. That sex can give life and foster a unique spousal relationship is not some esoteric Catholic…