The Narthex
On Non-Compete Clauses
Should contracts that limit post-employment in the same general field be banned?
By John M. Grondelski | April 23rd 2024 11:49 AMThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected Tuesday to vote on a regulation banning “non-compete” clauses in employment contracts. Non-compete clauses are provisions in employment contracts that prohibit employees from working in that profession for a certain period of time or within a certain radius of the former employer. They…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA 'Come to Jesus' Message
Christian 'welcome' goes through sin, repentance, and conversion
By John M. Grondelski | April 15th 2024 11:48 AMThe past few years have seen a preoccupation in various ecclesiastical quarters about the Church’s “welcome.” It’s a strange preoccupation for an institution that has been around roughly two millennia and hitherto seemed to lack neither clarity about its welcome message nor success in its promotion. This year’s readings for…
READ FULL BLOG POSTPeople of the Plant
The story of a life-giving custom
By James Thunder | April 1st 2024 8:04 PMSome time ago, my wife and I were visiting my elderly, widowed father in his home in suburban Chicago. We remarked to him that, in his 25 years in this home, his gardening had achieved outstanding results, due not only to his efforts but to superbly fecund loam. Since all…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDo We Like Light?
Modernity's claim of 'privacy' serves the same cloaking function as antiquity's 'darkness'
By John M. Grondelski | March 12th 2024 11:57 AMIt is serendipitous coincidence that the Gospel of Our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus, “the man who came to Jesus at night” (John 3:2), occurred this year on the same Sunday that Daylight Savings Time began -- and within ten days of the beginning of spring. (Spring this year begins the…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRatzinger as Godfather of 'Fiducia Supplicans'
Is Fiducia's seed to be found in a CDF document from 24 years ago?
By John M. Grondelski | February 28th 2024 3:43 PM“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” is a Shakespeare line about a Hamlet character whose overacting makes one believe she is hellbent on concealing the truth of things. That line comes to mind on reading a featured editorial at Vatican News (Feb. 27): “Fiducia supplicans: Non-Liturgical blessings and Pope…
READ FULL BLOG POSTDivorce, from the Eyes of Children
On a film in which the children do not 'accompany' their wayward parents
By John M. Grondelski | February 23rd 2024 1:06 PMEx ore infantium comes from Psalm 8:3, “from the mouths of babes and infants.” I was reminded of that phrase recently while watching a perhaps unfairly neglected movie from 1965, “The Battle of the Villa Fiorita.” The film, starring Maureen O’Hara and Rossano Brazzi, is based on a book by…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Immorality of Plagiarism
Stealing another's work, week after week, month after month, is a premeditated wrong
By John M. Grondelski | February 21st 2024 1:00 PMHarvard’s president, Claudine Gay, became its ex-president through the confluence of two factors, neither one of which seemed sufficient to remove her from office but, together, generated sufficient public (and, apparently, internal private donor) criticism to render her continued incumbency untenable. As you may remember, Gay was criticized for her…
READ FULL BLOG POSTJudging Not by the Color of One's Skin
Ethically speaking, judging a person on racial terms is intrinsically evil
By John M. Grondelski | February 1st 2024 1:05 PMFebruary is observed as Black History Month. This year was also the 95th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Both events are relevant to renewing our commitment to a colorblind society, especially after last summer’s Supreme Court decisions on discrimination in college admissions. The man who spoke at the Lincoln…
READ FULL BLOG POSTNational School Choice Week? No, National Parental Choice Week!
Schools should act subordinate to and on behalf of parents
By John M. Grondelski | January 23rd 2024 12:41 PMWe are in the midst of “National School Choice Week.” It runs January 21-27. I unequivocally support the idea of school choice. But I would rename this observance to “National Parental Choice Week.” Why? Because I think it is imperative that we recast the debate to answer the question Who…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWhat Hath Notre Dame to Do with Harvard?
Universities must embrace truth, not 'freedom of inquiry' and 'diversity of opinion'
By John M. Grondelski | January 15th 2024 12:51 PMAn Indiana state judge dismissed Notre Dame sociology professor Tamara Kay’s defamation suit against a Notre Dame student newspaper for exposing her abortion advocacy, including her seeming facilitation of abortions by providing students information where they could obtain abortifacients. Kay wanted to exact punitive damages from the paper for exposing…
READ FULL BLOG POSTIs Making Orphans Good Public Policy?
Michigan lawmakers will consider legalization of commercial baby-buying and selling
By John M. Grondelski | January 8th 2024 12:21 PMAmong the four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance is oppression of the widow and orphan. The Bible saw exploitation of widows and orphans as the epitome of moral turpitude because both groups were, by their very status, vulnerable. In today’s parlance, they are “on the peripheries.” In Judaism,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWhy Knowing How Many Patients You Have Matters
When we overlook the obvious, we can do real evil
By John M. Grondelski | January 5th 2024 12:26 PMStephen Doran’s new book, To Die Well: A Catholic Neurosurgeon’s Guide to the End of Life, is a gem that pulls off several achievements simultaneously. It’s readable while tackling the major issues of bioethics around death and dying while situating the whole discussion in a spiritual context, recognizing that death…
READ FULL BLOG POSTThe Virtue of Obedience
There’s no expiration date to 'Honor thy father and thy mother'
By John M. Grondelski | January 3rd 2024 1:10 PMThe readings for the Feast of the Holy Family seem, by some contemporary standards, to be a bit quaint and dated. That’s because they put a lot of emphasis on obedience. Obedience correlates with other concepts, including authority and even hierarchy. Those are words at which our “democratic” world (and…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMemory of a Thanksgiving Past
A tribute to an early and ambitious pro-life Catholic, Mr. Gil Durand
By John M. Grondelski | November 28th 2023 12:33 PMAs we marked Thanksgiving last week, my memories reached back 50 years to Thanksgiving 1973. I remember the day well: sunny but chilly. The memory is an opportunity for me to salute a man I never met, Gil Durand. (I think it’s Durand. It might be Durant. He doesn’t come…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRemember Kermit Gosnell?
Ohio in 2023 should not want to be Pennsylvania in 2013
By John M. Grondelski | November 6th 2023 9:33 PMAs Buckeyes head to the polls Tuesday to vote on Issue 1, an extreme amendment to the State Constitution that would -- among other things like surrogacy, artificial reproduction, and state subsidy of abortion -- ensconce abortion-on-demand through birth, they might want to remember Kermit Gosnell. Kermit Gosnell is somebody…
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