The Narthex

Puzzles, especially real life puzzles, can drive us crazy. (When my dad was charged with doing this very thing, he’d reply “Sir/Madam, in your case it will be a short, quick trip.”) But puzzles can also lead to insight, and the harder the puzzle the more valuable the insight can…

A lesbian couple in Texas has become the first such couple to give birth to a baby that they both carried.  Using a technique dubbed Reciprocal Effortless IVF, one of the women had several of her eggs fertilized while she acted as an incubator using a device called INVOCell.  After…

Let’s list a few words: smart, clever, bright, ingenious. They’re all familiar. No one needs to make a pitch for aspiring to being smart, clever, bright, or ingenious. With “practical reason” we’re in a different territory. The term isn’t so familiar. It’s easy to confuse with “practicality.” And we can’t…

As reported in a number of news sources, there are now two separate “migrant caravans” heading towards the US-Mexico border, totaling about 10,000 migrants from Central American countries.  Their crawl to the border is like a slow fuse sure to reignite the contentious debate over immigration.  Protecting migrants is part…

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, met with Mahatma Gandhi to gain his support for her promotion of birth control devices versus using self-control of sexual desire. She was sorely disappointed, as he predicted rampant licentiousness would result from widespread use of such devices. In 1934, an Indian…

America, it’s said, is the land of the free and home of the brave. It’s also said, and might well be true, that America flies the flag of pragmatism. But if we are pragmatists, then the star spangled banner is at risk. So is our freedom, and our bravery is…

In a presentation at the Gates Foundation's “Goalkeepers” last month, French President Emmanuel Macron made comments that appeared to be critical of large families: “One of the critical issues of African demography is that this is not chosen fertility... I always say: ‘Present me the woman who decided, being perfectly…

The headline caught my eye: “Banksy shreds a painting, and its value likely rises.” Even if you sampled the media fanfare, some background helps. Banksy is an unnamed but not unnoticed U.K. street artist. The painting, Girl with Balloon, first appeared in 2002 as a stencil on a London building.…

In the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony during Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings, her supporters exhorted us to “Believe Women.” That phrase became a rallying cry against sexual assault generally and Kavanaugh specifically. What does it mean to “Believe Women”? In its most basic sense, it means that we…

When Margaret Sanger attempted to attack the Church’s opposition to contraception, she did so mainly through anecdotal evidence of the thousands of mothers suffering under the burden of too many children.  She even went so far as to collect the stories of these women and bind them in a book…

San Francisco was recently dubbed the "Poop Capital of America" due to the high number of poop complaints reported in 2017. Local channel KRON reports that while dogs play a part, at issue is the number of homeless people defecating in streets and parks. Could "privy demons" be a reason why down-and-outers…

A character in Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, tempted to despair, asks an intriguing question. Will beauty save the world? There are a couple of reasons to answer “not likely.” Here’s a first reason. Since there are sharply differing accounts of the nature of beauty, it probably isn’t any one thing. But…

Does the Synod of Bishops on Young People, running this month in Rome, strike anyone else as same-old same-old? The Church continues to come across as bureaucratic and uninspiring. Aside from some free trips to Rome for some motivated young people, it's hard to see how a train of meetings…

Student protests have become routine, such that nobody takes them seriously anymore. So now, the adults are getting involved — as they did with last April’s walkouts for gun control — approving and supporting their charges’ acts of “defiance” — which really don’t defy anything if everybody is on board…

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…