The Narthex

With the new year comes a new session of the Virginia Legislature, and job one of the Democrat-dominated chambers this week is writing a pro-abortion amendment into the state constitution. H.J. Res. 1 and S.J. Res. 247 will likely hit the floor in at least the lower chamber this week;…

I recently read a lament about fathers not attending Mass and failing as role models for their kids. Of course a much worse tragedy is that millions of kids do not know their dads. I was a long-time friend of a recently deceased elderly couple. They regularly attended St. Mary's…

Did you realize the liturgy on New Year’s Day does not officially countenance the civil new year? New Year is traditionally a day when people reckon with the passage of time. That’s particularly true when it also marks the closure of a quarter century. (Yes, I know, some folks want…

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…

The New York Times’ “Ethicist” column is an anti-gift that just keeps on giving. On December 20, it discussed “family planning in uncertain times” (a link is below). The gist of the correspondent’s question is whether, at a time when the climate is changing and the bogeyman of “overpopulation” still…

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…

Do you remember being nine? As it happens, I don’t much remember being nine. But ten was a big year for me. Golly, I had a Schwinn bike. I weighed 76 pounds. We put up a basketball hoop. The downside of that year was coming down, precociously, with “mono.” Cuidado,…

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…

Jesus told His disciples that as they “receive” a child, they receive not just Him but He who sent Him. In the past I have written about Jesus’ words in light of Catholic teaching about parenthood and openness to life (article linked below). If we are to recognize children and,…

The Value of a Smile This morning, a woman sat opposite me on the Metro. I didn't know her nor she me, but I did notice one thing. She smiled, not just at me but at whomever she looked. She didn't try to pretend she saw nobody in a car…

In her debate answers on abortion, Kamala Harris showed how she will dodge and deflect on this question to make her pro-abortion extremism look "moderate." Catholics need to be clear about -- and tells others -- how Kamala Harris (and Democrats) lie about abortion. Harris says she will “reinstate Roe…

In Part 1, linked below, I looked at the Catholic Church’s criteria for just war and just conduct of war. Here I turn to the loss of civilian lives and physical destruction, and address the issue of Israel’s conduct of the war. Hamas alleges a large number of deaths among…

Freedom Versus Self-Will Continuing my way through Roman Brandstaetter's superb literary corpus, I ran into a collection of short meditations he penned, inspired by his positive encounter with Franciscanism. He spoke of a writer, sitting at his desk, who noticed a bee walking along his window pane. Caringly, he opened…

The number of killed, injured, and displaced people among two million Gazans has been large and is growing. I hope my words here will contribute to a conversation on assessing the morality of Israel’s actions. The social teaching of the Catholic Church appeals to human reason, not only to the…