The Narthex

Let’s Get the Calendar Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar was on social media March 19, proclaiming it as “Medicaid Day of Action.” I expected that shortly thereafter, 46 other blue Senators would repeat the same talking points. Can I ask some mole to please get us the calendar of Democratic…

The Pillar ran a piece March 14 asking, “Does the Church Need a ‘Dallas Charter’ on Money?” (linked below). The gist of the piece was that, as the original Dallas Charter of December 2002 was supposed to protect against clerical sexual abuse, so today a similar document may be needed to…

The Italian website La Bussola Nuova Quotidiana continues to pose uncomfortable questions about ex-Jesuit Marko Rupnik, accused of sexual abuse; his seeming Cardinal Protector, Angelo De Donatis, former Vicar General (the Pope’s Administrator) of the Archdiocese of Rome and now the Church’s Major Penitentiary; and a convent in Montefiola, northeast…

The Italian website La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana broke a story March 3 (linked below) claiming that Marko Rupnik and his Centro Aletti confreres are moving into a convent in Montefiola, northeast of Rome. According to the report, the nuns currently there are being evicted. The website claims the whole process…

Dressing to the Zeroes Once upon a time, being “dressed to the nines” meant being dressed to perfection, with distinction. It was expected in public, including many places today’s Americans would no longer expect. When I went to college in the late 1970s, my primary way home was by airplane:…

Much of Pope Francis’s February 10 letter to the Catholic bishops in the United States centered on its subject: immigration. I focused on that in my first take, which addressed how to define “dignity,” what were the letter’s potential long-term implications, and how ordo amoris could be understood in ways…

Pohutsky’s Pregnancy Problem Laurie Pohutsky is a “bisexual” Michigan Democratic State Representative from northern Wayne County (the county where Detroit sits). You’d probably never hear about a member of the Wolverine State’s legislature -- even the chair of the “Progressive Women’s Caucus" -- except for the fact that Pohutsky took…

Romanian Rain on Francis’s Common Easter Parade Pope Francis’s idea of launching a “common Easter” hit a road block when the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania voiced objections. His primary objection was exactly the condition Vatican II set 61 years ago in the long-dormant appendix to Sacronsanctum Concilium that Francis wants…

Welcome to today’s episode of “As the Holydays Turn.” When last we tuned in, the Catholic bishops of the United States were in a quandary. In 2024, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 fell on a Sunday. According to the norms of the liturgical calendar, when a…

Even the most cursory social media survey in the past 24 hours suggests Vice President J.D. Vance’s comment about the money that flows through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for “immigrant” services touched a nerve among the bishops, who managed to react in the middle of a…

If you own a home, how many guests do you have to welcome? Most normal people would say, “As many or as few a I want. There is no obligation to have guests.” If you asked those people, “And how many of those guests should be allowed to move in…

On the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr, Pope Francis went to Rome’s Rebibbia Prison to open the holy door he established there. In his subsequent Angelus address (linked below), Francis focused on “martyrs” and those “persecuted.” And while he did not make an explicit connection to his prison…

Church and State in Paris If you followed the news, you’d have the impression that the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was primarily a backdrop for a political event at which President-Elect Donald Trump reconnected with world leaders. And you might not be wrong. The Archdiocese of Paris…

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…

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…