From Thanksgiving to Christmas and right on through New Year’s Day, people feel an overwhelming need to give of themselves through service.
From Thanksgiving to Christmas and right on through New Year’s Day, people feel an overwhelming need to give of themselves through service.
ROME – Jerzy Kluger, known as Blessed John Paul II’s lifelong Jewish friend and one who had a deep impact on the pope’s commitment to improved Catholic-Jewish relations, died in Rome Dec. 31 at the age of 90.
NEWARK, N.J. – A group of 12 nurses who sued the University Hospital in Newark over a policy requiring them to care for patients before and after abortions can no longer be compelled to assist in these procedures, under an agreement reached in federal court.
Since this blog was launched in November of 2010, it has logged more than 35,000 page views. In 2011 alone, The Narthex had about 29,000 page views. As a new year gets started, I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to read these posts. I hope you find them interesting and I […]

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Nigerian bishops’ conference described the Christmas church bombings as the equivalent of war and declared Dec. 31 a day of fasting and prayer to ask God’s forgiveness for the acts.

Paulist Father James McCabe, former director of the Family Life Center in Baltimore and a longtime columnist for The Catholic Review, died Dec. 25, 2011 in Toronto. He was 81 and had been battling cancer.
VATICAN CITY – A select group of young international designers will be submitting innovative mock-ups of what an eco-friendly popemobile should look like.
WASHINGTON – Pope Benedict XVI has established a U.S. ordinariate for former Anglicans who wish to become Catholics and named a married former Episcopal bishop to head it.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many […]
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, announced today that the Archdiocese has approved leases for five former Catholic school buildings for use as educational facilities in the Baltimore area. Earlier this year, the Archdiocese announced a new policy for processing requests to sell or lease former Catholic school buildings. The […]
Clerics brawl with broomsticks at the site where Jesus is believed to have been born. (BBC image) Two days after the world celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace, things weren’t so peaceful at the Bethlehem church built on what is believed to be the site of Jesus’ nativity. Brandishing brooms, 100 black-robed Greek […]
I have a 20-something friend who spends her days working with the elderly. Many have dementia. Some are rude and blurt out foul language. Some are truly sweet. My friend seems to have a place in her heart for them all. She has affectionately dubbed them, “the olds.” Over the holidays, I spent some quality […]
