The Narthex

When I was a 6th-grader walking home with friends from elementary school in the 50s, we would talk about all the interesting things heard in the news, like the Boston Braves leaving Boston or the first man to conquer Mt. Everest. We wondered what it was like to be Castro,…

Tennis Australia celebrated January 24th this year as Gay Pride Day. Australia has changed a lot in the past couple of generations; few now challenge the freedom of LBGT people to celebrate their diversity, and many warmly applaud them and defend their right to do so. But the official sponsor…

Betrayal is a part of human nature. If someone determines he may benefit by snitching on a friend, he may indeed give the Judas Kiss, an act appearing as one of friendship but which is harmful to the recipient. Judas is the model betrayer: weak-willed and full of selfish interest…

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…

As coverage of the March for Life 2022 winds down, I reflect that the mood in the pro-life movement seems very different now than ever before. I never attended the March for Life in Washington. But one year I did attend the smaller March for Life in Chicago. I remember…

At the NOR, few times are as exciting as when responses from a direct mail campaign start rolling in. It takes a while for the responses to start coming, but when they do the office staff knows we’re in for a wild ride. As most readers know, print magazines are…

The pet industry is reaping billions from modern man's spiritual desolation -- that sense of emptiness and disquiet that aches for remedy. As workaholism and an ever-higher cost of living moves people to delay or forego marriage and children, pets fill the void in their lives. It’s a sign of…

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is admired by Americans for his ability to make money. But there's a dark side to all that cash. Hayden Ludwig's "The Big Money Behind Abortion Activism," in The American Conservative (Jan. 18), tells of Buffett's "charitable" foundation, which since 2000 has given $4.7 billion --…

I was a candidate for the Trappist monastery, back in 1968. Personal pets were not allowed—an ancient discipline to enhance the inner companionship of God. Though written rules about pets were unlikely before the 13th century, Ancrene Wisse (Rule for Anchoresses) made it clear that a religious recluse should avoid…

In my last post Alasdair MacIntyre, a Marxist turned Thomist, had my full attention. Of late he’s argued that anything human dignity can do, justice can do better. I’m not persuaded, since it’s dignity that decides membership in the moral community, that is, the community of all those to whom…

The kingdom of heaven is like diving for sunken treasure and risking your life to find it. A coworker catalogued and filed "As Built" plans for us engineers after we’d finished our construction projects. I was intrigued by Sandy’s hobby of deep-sea diving, often done at great risk to life…

Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) missionaries run a news website called AsiaNews, which provides news briefs from Asia and around the world. A recent article called "Asia in 2022" (Jan. 1) offers a round-up of important events on the horizon for the enormous continent and its dominant player, China.…

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…

A few weeks ago I was completing the online registration forms for our local Little League. I grabbed my laptop, had my calendar, insurance information, doctor’s address, and a cup of coffee. Despite my preparation, I didn’t get far before being totally shocked. They wanted my child’s name, date…

Reporters at The New York Times have made public hundreds of confidential reports by the Pentagon on civilian casualties from U.S. air-strikes in Iraq and Syria, covering September 2014 through January 2018. The journalists describe the air-strikes as "marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting, and the…