The Narthex

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…

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…

David French is one of a particular species of pundit, one who likes to trade on the gases of his erstwhile conservative credentials while reliably ending up where good liberals are expected to be. It was that imitation of the Colossus of Rhodes’ straddle that initially led to his famous…

“Sleek barbarians” is a term and concept articulated by contemporary Polish philosopher Zbigniew Stawrowski which I have tried to popularize and disseminate in the English-speaking world. I do so because the concept seems to have even broader application here than in Poland (though Poland does not lack for its own…

The patria potestas was a legal power held by fathers in the Roman Empire. If you think that Tiberius was just dad in a toga, think again. In Roman law, a father had rights over his family, including the right of who could bear his name. If, therefore, a child…

Sunday’s readings said a lot about trees and their growth. The First Reading spoke about God, who fosters some trees and withers others. The Gospel spoke of the tiny mustard seed that produces a large tree. The Catholic poet Joyce Kilmer wrote a poem, “Trees,” that was once standard fare in…