The Narthex

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…

Frank Sinatra encouraged “Luck” to “be a lady tonight.” The lady in question had not always been so. Even perfect “strangers in the night,” wondering as they do “what were the chances” of “sharing love,” might well fare better. Johnny Mathis, he of the honeyed throat, was more upbeat. “Guess…

Reflecting on the West’s strategy of nuclear deterrence, Winston Churchill expressed the hope that “safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.” Can such a hope be reasonable? Some argue that however odious it is, nuclear deterrence, in light of world realities, is…

Are we about to vote for the soul of the nation? Well, maybe. The political figures who say so are keener than ever to get out the vote, as are the “thought leaders” now popping up everywhere. The first order of business for those who insist that political figures really…

For many years, when urged to vote for a US president, I’d push back hard. My favorite riposte? “Don’t vote; it just encourages them.” Still, there’s a season for (almost) everything. And who says that a bloke can’t change after he turns 39? Not I, and here’s why. Note: As…

The gravestone of former New York Times editor A. M. Rosenthal reads, “He kept the paper straight.” Last month, A. G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times, disavowed “hiding behind” old standards. Sulzberger went on to say, “We’re not retreating from the principles of independence and objectivity. We don’t…

Everybody has heard of Socrates, the Greek philosopher who was put to death by his own people in 399 BC. The charge against him was that he had “corrupted the youth,” but in reality it was his profound intellectual humility that killed him. He was as honest a man as…