The Narthex

The Human Shield Dilemma I’ve long argued that the Church, and particularly the current pontificate, are derelict in not conducting serious discussions about just war theory and contemporary warfare (including the use of human shields and urban warfare). Failure to address these issues suggests what George Weigel has highlighted: a…

Things sometimes appear in social media seemingly out of nowhere, though one suspects they surface as “click-bait” created to generate readers’ reactions. That’s what I thought on Sunday when my X.com feed resurfaced a talk by National Public Radio chief executive Katherine Maher (her talk is linked below). The video…

World Vasectomy Day Nov 21-22 is the 12th Annual "World Vasectomy Day," an annual "celebration" during which vans prowl some neighborhoods offering male sterilization. Since 2022 the act has been designated a sign of male "ally-ship" with post-Dobbs women by "taking responsibility" for fertility. Such euphemistic claptrap has become so normalized…

November is the month dedicated to prayer for the faithful departed. Many Catholics visit cemeteries during November. For that reason I want to share Father Józef Tischner’s reflections on cemeteries, found in the just-released translation of one of his seminal works, The Philosophy of Drama. Tischner is most known as…

Yesterday, November 17, marked an anniversary: 35 years ago the Lord freed the Czech and Slovak peoples from Communist oppression through the Velvet Revolution. Let us not forget that great moment in human freedom in 1989. Five years ago, I walked across Charles Bridge, that famous span in Prague, going…

The Bald and the Unbeautiful Head shaving has been among the jejune reactions of some frenzied women to Kamala Harris’s implosion. Social media is full of these virtue signalers demonstrating why haircuts should only be done by trained professionals. I’m surprised Biden’s FDA has not demanded warning disclaimers on these…

November 11 is Veterans Day, the day we honor the sacrifices -- including their lives -- that men and women of our armed forces have made for their country. Veterans Day emerged as the day we honor soldiers because it was originally Armistice Day; on the eleventh day of the…

Social media is beset by hysterical women and soy boys having collective hissy-fits and meltdowns that their country has “betrayed” them by electing Donald Trump. A certain Schadenfreude has led to re-postings of breakdowns, and to normal people asking whether they're real. Alas, they are real. They're real and they…

Ten states recently voted on abortion referenda: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota. Six referenda legalizing abortion-on-demand passed; three failed (Florida, Nebraska, South Dakota). One (Nevada) passed but cannot go into effect unless passed in a second referendum. How shall we see the…

Anthony Esolen has penned a great essay about pride, especially in connection with the just-concluded Synod on Synodality. He rightly notes (at The Catholic Thing, linked below) that it is pride to believe that modernity has “discovered” a “new way of being Church” and that all we need to do…

As November begins, light or its lack becomes something of a focus. The American poet William Cullen Bryant described the end of October, leading into November, as when “suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief.” In England, bonfires traditionally illumined the hills on these days as the harvest…

"Opportunity cost” is the term economists use to define the forgone benefit that would have been derived from an option other than the one that was chosen. My choice of X over Y, for example, may be cheaper right now. But over the long run, due to hidden costs, inferior…

Germans are currently debating whether to lift their country's ban on donating female eggs. Germany and Luxembourg are the two EU countries that ban the practice. Can we donate the building blocks of human beings? If so, can we donate the humans themselves? Last April, The New York Times ran…

Each year as Columbus Day rolls around, I recall Mrs. Tkac. Mrs. Tkac was a childhood neighbor whose funeral I attended on Columbus Day 1968. They say that childhood impressions last longest and, I have to say, in this case, it’s true. I didn’t know Mrs. Tkac personally; I was…

Tim Walz has been called out several times over the accuracy of his claims, most recently about his alleged presence in communist China during the Tiananmen demonstrations of June 1989. During the October 1 Vice Presidential debate, “Knucklehead” Tim walked back his earlier claims to being an eyewitness to history,…