The Narthex

Endless print and online controversy can be a bit much. News from inside the Vatican, for example, can yield TMI—too much information. Beware the perils of second-hand theological controversy. Still, there are times when one might offer a comment or three. Consider some recent remarks of the Argentine theologian and…

When the Maryknoll Superior General and co-founder died in 1936, the election for his successor was held in Hong Kong for the convenience of the many Maryknollers in China. Under Vatican rules, in order for a religious society of men to elect a bishop to be their superior, a supermajority…

Just a few days after James Walsh’s consecration as a bishop, Father Daniel McShane, the first man ordained by Maryknoll (in November 1914) died at age 39 of smallpox contracted when he picked up a baby abandoned on the roadside. During his seven years in Loting (Luodong), he had cared…

The year 1924 saw the Vatican give Maryknoll’s mission territory independent status, with Fr. James Walsh being its head with the rank of monsignor. Headquarters was at Kongmoon (now Jiangmen), a major seaport on the West River, 40 miles west of Macao, with a population of 100,000. In other towns,…

Five years have passed since The New York Times broke the story that former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick had been found credibly guilty of sexual assault on a teenage altar boy in the sacristy of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, in connection with Christmas Midnight Mass. Read that sentence again. …

James Walsh was ordained just three-plus years after joining Maryknoll at age 24 on December 7, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1915. The initials after his name were initially A.F.M. for American Foreign Missioner. They later became M.M. for Maryknoll Missioner. Walsh’s first assignment, for two years, was headmaster…

Most teens and young adults are in the process of deciding what to do with their lives: what education or training to pursue, what line of work to choose, who to marry -- decisions that mark the way to their eternal destiny. Such should be the subject of frequent and…

As undergraduates at St. Mary’s College in Orchard Lake, Michigan, we were required as part of our core curriculum to take a course in art and/or music, and “Introduction to Humanities” fulfilled the requirement. I’ll admit that, as a 19-year-old, I wasn’t excited about the class and it didn’t help…

In announcing that non-bishops would be able to vote in this fall’s Synod on Synodality, Rome tried simultaneously to hype and downplay the news. Channeling its inner Leslie Neilsen, the synodal website blandly headlined the change as “Some News for the October 2023 Assembly.” General Relator Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich gave…

After delivering a muddled set of remarks about assisted suicide which now the Pontifical Academy for Life claims do not mean what most people think they mean, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia wants us really to believe that he was merely engaging in a thought experiment about how Italian civil law should…

The Octave Day of Easter—the Sunday following Easter—has gone by several names, including Divine Mercy Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter. One of its oldest names is Dominica in albis, “Sunday in white,” because this was the day that those newly baptized at the Easter Vigil historically took off…

Let us familiarize ourselves with the titles accorded these Cappadocian bishops we have studied: Basil, Gregory, and Gregory of Nyssa. St. Gregory of Nyssa is considered the philosopher and mystic; he wrote less than the other two but perhaps more deeply. An ecumenical council in 787 pronounced him “Father of…

Following the council of 381, Gregory returned to Nazianzus. For Lent, he gave up speaking! (Newman, Historical Sketches, p. 86) In his autobiographical poem, Gregory used some harsh words to describe his relationship with Basil. Yet, at the same time that he wrote the poem, he delivered a funeral oration…

Until Gregory’s father’s death in 374, Gregory stayed in Nazianzus. Despite the rupture between Gregory and Basil, Basil attended Gregory’s father’s funeral. (Gregory’s father had always supported making Basil a bishop; see Funeral Orations, p. 154.) Gregory, his father’s auxiliary bishop, did not want to succeed his father. Because nothing…

Gregory refused to go to the appointed town in Basil’s jurisdiction, becoming, in his words, “a fugitive.” At first, Gregory’s father tried to persuade him to be an active bishop of Sasima, then, when the father’s health declined, the father, himself a bishop, asked Gregory to become his auxiliary (Concerning…