The Narthex

Last month the L.A. Times ran a piece titled "New law targets crisis pregnancy centers in L.A." (Nov. 3, B3). It served up a noxious mix: a bloated press release for Mike Feuer, the city attorney, and more lousy journalism from the Times. To wit: the writers don't bother to cite any crisis…

What we Christians think of as spiritual realities have never been harder to grasp by ordinary people, in a world so richly endowed by thrilling material blessings yet also plagued by all kinds of miseries. The comforts and the dangers of our lives often almost overwhelm us. A wise friend…

My last post introduced the novel Mr. Blue. Here I'll look at author Myles Connolly's life. Connolly was born in 1897 in Roxbury, outside Boston. He attended Boston Latin School. At Boston College he edited the literary magazine The Stylus (founded in 1882 and still extant). After his 1918 graduation,…

Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh (Eccl. xii.12).   There was a time when “opinion pieces” occasionally changed readers' minds, but those days may have passed. If you finish reading a piece, you probably by and large agreed with it. If not, you…

In 1928 Myles Connolly published his 120-page debut novel, Mr. Blue. This book and author come to mind at this time of year because the protagonist, J. Blue, was in awe of the Incarnation, and also because Connolly was an adviser to film director Frank Capra for the Christmas-time favorite…

Under the direction of the United Auto Workers, 48,000 “academic workers,” chiefly researchers and graduate students, at the University of California are on strike—the largest such job action in history. It even includes the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, whose task is to “mind” and “develop” the country’s nuclear arsenal. The…

In 1967, 55 years ago, a referendum was held in Australia to allow a change to the Constitution that would remove the last impediment to the recognition of our aboriginal people as full citizens. Australians are slow to accept constitutional changes: we have held 44 referenda since federation, but only…

Before my class of one hundred graduated from grade school -- from Mary, Seat of Wisdom School in Park Ridge, Illinois, in 1964 -- we had a Day of Recollection at our church conducted by one of the priests who belonged to the Mission Band of the Archdiocese of Chicago.…

Make way for the memes! How many have you seen today? In an election season, they’re more plentiful than autumn leaves. Just what are they and where are they from? Are they friend or foe? Broadly considered, a meme is an idea or behavior that is widely imitated; it spreads…

Daniel S. Dickinson died suddenly on April 12, 1866. The day before he died he was quite well and trying a case in court with his close friend Daniel Webster. Five days before his death, he had composed a poem to his wife in which he referred to their deceased…

I recently watched the 1997 Bruce Beresford film Paradise Road at home on DVD. As the standard of free-to-air TV continues to plummet gutterwards, I find the urge to fossick through our old disc collections grows all the stronger! Paradise Road is a triumph of the Australian film industry. It…

In June of this year I had the pleasure of addressing the annual reunion of the Dickinson Family Association held at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts. The Association is devoted to learning more about its members’ ancestors, such as the poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). My richly illustrated talk was…

Disappointing election results may prompt Catholics to retreat to the Church for reminders that the world hasn't gone completely mad. But, then again, certain worldly attempts to solve spiritual problems within the Church -- the global Synod, for example -- give the impression that the world's worst excesses have invaded…

My nominee for the greatest songwriter of all time is King David of Israel (c. 1000 B.C.). There are 150 psalms in the Bible’s Book of Psalms. The psalms are songs; the title of the book refers to “instrumental music” or to the words accompanying music. Furthermore, there are inscriptions…

How would we answer the question “Who’s the greatest songwriter of all time?” For a moment let us revisit our musical past. What about Andrew Lloyd Weber (b. 1948) with his Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968; Broadway 1982), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), Evita (1978), Cats (1981), and Phantom…