The Narthex

Last week a gang of thieves shot and killed a fellow parishioner. The thugs were stripping the catalytic converter from a car, and he’d tried to stop them. At Sunday’s liturgy, our pastor spoke about the terrible loss and grief of the victim’s family. Many people in the congregation had…

Five years having passed since the COVID lockdowns, I do hope that some of the worst practices that emerged in conjunction with the flight from human contact might be finally put to rest. Seeing, however, how bad ideas tend to acquire a life of their own, I offer a few…

The Italian website La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana broke a story March 3 (linked below) claiming that Marko Rupnik and his Centro Aletti confreres are moving into a convent in Montefiola, northeast of Rome. According to the report, the nuns currently there are being evicted. The website claims the whole process…

I suggest we know something of purgatory because we experience purgatory beginning in this life. Father Paul O’Callaghan, a theology professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, has said that “the purifying process, which will take place in a definitive way after death, is already taking…

Some of what I write in this series is the hardest I have ever written. It evokes deep emotion in me and I assume it will in you. But that will come later. I begin with this: What happens in purgatory? How does God help people change in purgatory? As…

Dressing to the Zeroes Once upon a time, being “dressed to the nines” meant being dressed to perfection, with distinction. It was expected in public, including many places today’s Americans would no longer expect. When I went to college in the late 1970s, my primary way home was by airplane:…

The Opening Prayer (Collect) for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) implores, “O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.” Let us examine…

Does charity begin at home? The short answer to the question is yes, it surely does. But the answer is controversial. In part, that’s because a short answer often calls for a careful explanation and we don’t provide it. Sometimes we’ve filed it where we can’t find it. That’s alright,…

Much of Pope Francis’s February 10 letter to the Catholic bishops in the United States centered on its subject: immigration. I focused on that in my first take, which addressed how to define “dignity,” what were the letter’s potential long-term implications, and how ordo amoris could be understood in ways…

Marty is a great film, both for National Marriage Week (February 7-14) and for Valentine’s Day weekend. Even though it is 71 years old, it’s telling to see what’s changed -- and what hasn’t -- since 1954. (And, I'll admit, there's something about black-and-white films.) Marty (played by Ernest Borgnine) is…

The Senate’s confirmation of Robert Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) concludes a particularly contentious nomination. He will be the Secretary of HHS, whether one likes it or not. So, I’d like to do something somewhat out-of-character in today’s Washington: call a truce. Perhaps we Catholics…

Pohutsky’s Pregnancy Problem Laurie Pohutsky is a “bisexual” Michigan Democratic State Representative from northern Wayne County (the county where Detroit sits). You’d probably never hear about a member of the Wolverine State’s legislature -- even the chair of the “Progressive Women’s Caucus" -- except for the fact that Pohutsky took…

Wittgenstein, in his early Tractatus, concludes his remarks with the proposition "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Many took him to mean that we can only speak of that for which there is empirical evidence or that which is simply tautological. If that were so, could we…

I recently criticized in vitro fertilization (IVF) as being, despite appearances, unloving. It raises questions of spousal exclusivity when other peoples’ gametes are used. It raises questions of alienation from our bodies and our child’s, who subtly shifts from a gift to be welcomed to a commodity to be ordered.…

Many people, including Catholics, can’t see the problems with in vitro fertilization (IVF). They contend it’s “pro-life” and “gives people what they want, a baby.” So why does the Catholic Church oppose IVF? Because life and love can’t be separated, which is why Karol Wojtyla -- the future John Paul…