The Narthex

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Celebrated in the midst of summer, it perhaps gets short shrift from many Catholics. Catholics more regularly are reminded of the Transfiguration each year on the Second Sunday of Lent, when we read of it in one of the three Synoptic Gospels. It’s…

Describing the “den of infamous resort” where Old Joe, Mrs. Dilber, and others haggled over things pilfered from the possessions of Ebenezer Scrooge, Charles Dickens called that “beetling shop” a place where “iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were bought. Upon the floor within were piled up heaps…

July 21-27 is Captive Nations Week. Congress designated in 1959 the third week of July as Captive Nations Week and asked the President to proclaim it annually. (Congress initially designated Captive Nations Week by itself in 1953). Joe Biden issued an executive proclamation on July 19. Captive Nations Week commemorates…

Just war theory remains vital because -- naïve thinking aside -- war is not going away as long as men are sinners. As long as men are sinners, some will try to do injustice to others by force. As long as some are victims of injustice, they have a right…

July 22 used to be a state holiday in Communist Poland marking the day that the traitors imported by the Soviet Army installed themselves in Lublin in 1944 as the “Provisional Government of National Unity” and would proceed, for the next 45 years, to torture Poland with their pretensions to…

The Church along with her leadership has three munera, three offices and duties: teaching, governing, and sanctifying. These three responsibilities are prominent in last Sunday’s readings. The munus docendi (the office of teaching), on which I’ll focus, is prominent in the Gospel. The details of Jesus’ arrival on the other…

Michael Novak’s The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics (1972) generated an ethnic pride movement in the 1970s. Americans of Eastern and Southern European ancestry, Latinos, and others came out of the WASP shadows to acknowledge that their heritage remained -- and legitimately remained -- part of their American identity. I…

I’ve been watching the Republican National Convention. Political conventions are not new to me. I got into this stuff as a 16-year-old when I became involved in Ronald Reagan’s 1976 insurgent campaign. So, I’ve seen my share of conventions. There’s a palpable difference this year. You could hear that in…

Stress The New York Times recently reported (July 10) about workplace “stress” and the emergence of a new job: “burnout coach.” Apparently, so many employed people are so stressed and burned out in their jobs that they need the therapeutic voice of a “burnout coach” to help them cope. The…

Sunday’s Gospel recounted Jesus dispatching His Apostles, two by two, on their first missionary internship. They are dispatched to the neighboring villages in Israel and Judea, a fairly circumscribed venue considering they will ultimately be sent “to all nations” (Mt 28:19). That Gospel is instructive as to how the Church…

Most Supreme Court cases go by their official names. Some get nicknames. The nickname for Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation is the “Seven Dirty Words Case.” It upheld the right of the FCC to regulate indecent language on the public airwaves. (Yes, in theory the FCC can turn off…

Roger Whittaker, the Kenyan-born British singer who died last year, was best known for his ballad “The Last Farewell.” But the words of another Whittaker song, “Durham Town,” came to my mind yesterday. “Durham Town” is about a boy growing up, becoming gradually detached from and eventually having to leave…

Rare is the New York Times op-ed to which I refer readers and encourage them to read it. But I do so wholeheartedly as regards “This Is What Elite Failure Looks Like” by Oren Cass (July 6; linked below). Cass pulls no punches. Eighty-three thousand Americans died of opioid overdoses…

Marinette, Wisconsin, is a small town and a county seat north of Green Bay. As reported by National Review (July 5; a link to the story is below), there’s a K-12 Catholic school in town that’s been around more than a century. Also, the local school board, with declining enrollments,…

Good Question Bumper stickers are often great statements of truth, largely because they have to be short and pithy. A message to Catholic tailgaters seen on the rear of a car parked outside St. James in Falls Church, Virginia: “Do you follow Christ as closely as you do me?”  …