The Narthex

Truth-telling dialogue has its hazards. Patience wears thin. Distractions can demonize. So it is, gentle reader, that I return, a bit aggravated, to the dialogue with my one-time mentor and longtime radical Karl Meyer. What we share, in varying ways, is the legacy of the Catholic Worker. I’m aggravated because…

In recent posts I contested the “dignity deniers” Ruth Macklin and Steven Pinker. I noted also, with grave doubts, Alasdair MacIntyre’s annual Notre Dame lecture in which he suggests that everything dignity can do justice can do better. Those posts, gentle readers, offer a background to my ongoing dialogue with…

In the year’s most discussed philosophical lecture, Alasdair MacIntyre—at Notre Dame, no less—argued that appeals to dignity don’t work very well and can even be dangerous. On MacIntyre’s view, dignity can be lost. Hitler shows us just how. Moreover, recognizing that dignity is incompatible with slavery is of little worth…

Transparency is important. Interested in the latest batch of election returns? In California, the Secretary of State posts them in real time. Concerned about what Rome’s doing with the yearly Peter’s Pence collection? An audit is in order, isn’t it? Wondering about what Corporate is concocting? Try lobbying for more…

Being conservative has very little to do with the political left or the political right. We at the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies are not right-wingers. Though some of our views might be characterized as right-wing, we hold many opinions that would commonly be regarded as more typical of…

“Going my way?” Well, not yet. Sooner or later, though. Our word obituary comes from the Latin obire, which means “to go toward.” Many of us read the “obit” when someone famous dies. In such cases the obit was written soon after that someone became famous. That’s standard for the…

Frank Sheed, of Sheed & Ward, was a publisher, theologian, and Hyde Park Catholic apologist. When critics debated with him, citing the wrongs of the Inquisition, he would reply, “It was worse than that.” Then he would fill in the gaps. The Church was and is the home of sinners…

Appeals to the common good can go wrong. In my last post I argued that Thomas Aquinas was wrong to tolerate legal prostitution on the grounds that without it the commonwealth would suffer worse evils. Earlier I argued that he was wrong to conclude that a judge with personal, but…

In my last post I argued that St. Thomas Aquinas got it wrong when he suggested that a judge who had private knowledge, and only that, of a man’s innocence could find that man guilty based on the evidence properly adduced in a court of law. Thomas rightly notes that…

Some years ago a Jesuit, and yet a friend, warned me of “Thomistic howlers.” That is to say, sometimes, though rarely, St. Thomas Aquinas -- I like to refer to him as the Church’s Common Doctor -- made bad mistakes. Right. And who of us has not? Did not Aristotle…

Real-world balances have objective measures. Karl Wallenda, the patriarch of The Flying Wallendas, launched the amazing high-wire act as a teenager. He’d seen an ad for a “hand balancer with courage.” Fame and fracture continue to be the consequences. And then there’s the doctor’s imposing weight scale. It tells no…

Pope Francis calls for the wide use and distribution of the new anti-COVID vaccines, as do our bishops. They do so in the name of the common good. But they do not teach that everyone has an obligation to use the vaccines. Much less do they argue against ongoing reflection…

Vatican Council II counsels us to search out “the signs of the times.” The Latin, “signa perscrutandi” suggests the keen scrutiny this involves. One sign of our calamitous times is the invasion of the slogans of the day. What’s the difference between a sign and a slogan? A sign points,…

Charlie Camosy, a stalwart of the American Solidarity Party, argues that we should condemn the Capitol violence of “1-6” without using words like "sacred" and "temple" and "desecration." In his view, they are “not appropriate words for a place which (while very significant) is not sacred, not a temple, and…

Groucho Marx famously commented, “I wouldn’t join any club that would let me in.” I share this sentiment. But then there’s Miss Elayne’s “Simply for Laughs” online group. Count me in! The talent is top-notch. Here’s Miss Sheila’s latest: Seems there are a couple of factory workers. One tells the…