The Narthex

In the middle of summer in Year II of the weekday lectionary, the Church’s First Reading includes excerpts from the major prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel wrote during and after the Exile. To situate the story: For those who remember their grade school world history, Israel was at the western end of…

Last Friday’s tone-deaf remarks by Vatican Communications Dicastery Prefect Paolo Ruffini saying he saw no reason not to continue using the art of ex-Jesuit sex abuser Marko Rupnik on Vatican products has drawn two distinct responses. Most of the Catholic press has ignored the story -- not only nothing to…

Catholic World Report carries an article about Paolo Ruffini, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communications, who recently made a spirited defense of the Vatican’s ongoing use of Marko Rupnik’s art. His apologia came in remarks to press at the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta June 21. According to the…

Most Sundays, the Church prescribes one Gospel to be read. This Sunday, the priest has a choice of two. That’s because, while the Sunday Gospels normally rotate over three years, there is an exception on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. Lent is the season during which catechumens…

Five years have passed since The New York Times broke the story that former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick had been found credibly guilty of sexual assault on a teenage altar boy in the sacristy of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, in connection with Christmas Midnight Mass. Read that sentence again. …

Vos estis lux mundi (or Vos estis for short) is Pope Francis’s recent motu proprio establishing bishop accountability. Two U.S. bishops are feeling the heat of Vos estis. One is Bishop Michael Hoeppner of Crookston, Minnesota, who will be investigated by Minneapolis archbishop Bernard Hebda, on charges of abuse cover-up.…

“During a carnival, men put masks over their masks.” -- Xavier Forneret   Masks have been in use all over the world since before recorded history. In Central Africa, masks developed with a wide diversity and conveyed spiritual and religious meaning to ritual dances and ceremonies. In ancient Egypt, they…

Henry was in his glory when surrounded by us in soiree discussions. About a dozen of his fans would meet every Tuesday at his theater where we’d discuss religion and politics. His brilliant mind gave us the opportunity to ricochet ideas around, as in a game of racket ball. He…

In the March 1 installment of our “Daily News” feed, we linked to an article on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (which is Australia's state-owned and funded national public radio and TV-broadcaster) by Fr. James Alison called “Welcome to my world: Notes on the reception of Frédéric Martel's…

NOR readers who follow our daily news links are no doubt up-to-the-minute on the clerical sex abuse crisis. But for anyone who needs a one-article summary of said crisis, I recommend Emma Green’s “Why Does the Catholic Church Keep Failing on Sexual Abuse?” in The Atlantic (Feb. 14). Besides a…

Pope Francis has repeatedly voiced support for hearing more from women in the Church. According to Crux (Jan. 31) this week he and the Vatican were offered advice from prominent survivor of clerical sexual abuse Marie Collins. In fact the sturdy Irishwoman, who was appointed by Pope Francis to the…

Pope Francis is humanely concerned with over a dozen man-made problems that even school kids would wonder why the world doesn’t do something about: plastics littering the oceans, deadly drug gangs in Mexico, insane wars sparked by the pride of men, murderous Christian persecutions in Muslim nations, materialistic culture and…

You may recall New Oxford Review’s story of a Providence College student named Michael Smalanskas, who bravely confronted politically-correct college administrators over his display about traditional Church teaching on marriage (see “The New Hate Speech: Catholic Teaching at a Catholic College,” May 2018; link here: https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/the-new-hate-speech-catholic-teaching-at-a-catholic-college/). Now it’s another…

Historical caricatures to the contrary, Martin Luther did not, at least initially, intend for the Protestant Revolution to happen.  Even a cursory glance at his 95 Theses shows them to be far from revolutionary (assuming papal authority, validity of indulgences, etc.) and more like propositions for debate.  The debate however…

During the persecution of Catholics in Elizabethan England, Jesuit priests pretending to be family relatives or tutors hid in specially constructed ‘priest holes’ to avoid royal prosecutors. Surprise inspections and raids of family homes were not uncommon and if a priest was found, he would face torture and execution. Today,…