The Narthex

Over the last few years there have been a number of high-profile cases of patients in a vegetative state dying after they had their feeding and hydration tubes removed. The most recent case was in France, where a brain-damaged and crippled man named Vincent Lambert had his feeding tube removed…

I was a friend of the family for 40 years and was visiting Minola, its matriarch. Minola was dying of cancer, and she lay on a hospital bed in her living room, too nauseated to eat. She’d refused the prescribed radiation and chemical cocktails because she knew her life was…

Funny things happen on the way to political dialogues. Not to mention that the participants say the darnedest things… On the one hand, we believe that our deepest commitments should inform our political practices. These practices, presumably, include political dialogues. On the other hand, we tell each other that true…

In 2014, I was in discussion with the principal of St. Joseph Academy about my teaching a finance course there. When I happened to mention my brother owned and operated a successful gold mine, that led to an eager invitation for a Power Point presentation at the school. Since Bill…

In Balboa Park, a renewed antique carousel turns round and round, with bobbing horses and the familiar circus décor and music. It has one of the few operational brass-ring games anywhere. I was touring the Park to create an excursion video for the San Diego County Library branch in San…

My wife and I were sitting in Pann’s, a local eatery. Filmmakers use it to get “real life” footage. Service at Pann’s is also real life, as in slow. Rena, in her mid-90’s, stopped by our table, sequins shining, to schmooze. With her husband, decades ago she’d started the place.…

In his bid to become the first openly gay President of the United States, Pete Buttigieg recently went on the offensive against those people, especially Christians, who would object to his lifestyle. Rather than defending, he deflected, saying that their quarrel was not with him but “with my Creator.” Perhaps…

When I was a kid in the 1950s, a uniformed policeman with white gloves would direct the flow of traffic at busy intersections. Not any more. Now computerized robots do it better. Despite the advances of artificial intelligence by 2001, we humans still had to program unique routines into each…

In what may be his most prophetic book, The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis examines the long-term effects on a culture that has swallowed the poison of moral subjectivism. Lewis envisions a future in which men have evolved to have no heart -- where, absent any objective values, the rule that…

My 15-year-old Royal Apricot tree died last year. It had borne the nectar of the gods. Taking an axe to its roots, I mourned as if a beloved monarch had passed on. I closed my eyes in memoriam to savor once again the rich harmonics of its flavorful, exotic fruits.…

"Evangelization is to the person of Jesus Christ, not to a church." Haven't we all heard this? With all due respect to people's good intentions in saying this, I would caution against setting up a false dichotomy. The Church is identified in Scripture as Christ's Body, and -- to use…

A suburban New York county has banned all unvaccinated minors from public places in hopes of staving off a recent measles outbreak in the area. This comes on the heels of a Northern Kentucky Health Department decision to ban unvaccinated students from school after a chickenpox outbreak there. Parents cite…

As I stood in the entry of an Assisted Living dining hall, hoping to join my friend after lunch, I overheard this comment: “She’s no angel. I heard she shacked up with George last night.” The speaker nodded toward another woman two tables over with coiffed hair and Fifth Avenue…

This year my parish re-themed Lent to address the Climate CO2 Crisis. It's apparently a "wholesale" international push (by Global Catholic Climate Movement, a "collective" of diocesan offices and international NGOs inspired by Laudato Si and Catholic Climate Covenant, the USCCB-related entity) with local "retail" distributors, embodied in miniature in our…

A group of fearless movie-makers is about to release Unplanned, a film based on Abby Johnson's story of going from being manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic to becoming a highly effective pro-life activist. You can bet that the entertainment industry is dead-set against this film. Check out these quotes…