Fr. Richard John Neuhaus: (CNS file photo, 2005)Posted on 01/08/2009 9:40:01 AM PST by NYer
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus: (CNS file photo, 2005)
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a leading voice of Catholic conservatism in America, and one of those rare theologians and spiritual leaders whose influence vastly exceeded the boundaries of their religious community, has died at 72.
Neuhaus slipped away Jan. 8, shortly before 10 o’clock Eastern time. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering.
A priest of the New York archdiocese and a former Lutheran minister, Neuhaus was best known to society at large as an intellectual guru of what came to be known as the “religious right.”
From the early 1970s forward, Neuhaus was a key architect of two alliances with profound consequences for American politics, both of which overcame histories of mutual antagonism: one between conservative Catholics and Protestant Evangelicals, and the other between free market neo-conservatives and “faith and values” social conservatives.
In 2005, Time magazine took the unusual step of including the Catholic Neuhaus on a list of America’s 25 most influential Evangelicals, noting that in a 2004 session with journalists from religious publications, President George W. Bush cited Neuhaus more often than any other living authority.
“Father Richard,” the president said then, “helps me articulate these [religious] things.”
To Catholic insiders, however, it was Neuhaus’ writing rather than his political activism that made him a celebrity. From the pages of First Things, the unapologetically high-brow journal he founded in 1990, Neuhaus kept up a steady stream of commentary on matters both sacred and secular.
In broad strokes, Neuhaus was an unabashed supporter of the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and his commentary was prized in Rome. John Paul, for example, named Neuhaus as a delegate to the 1997 Synod for America. Yet he was no lapdog for ecclesiastical authority; he lamented the Vatican’s opposition to the Iraq war in 2003, and early in Benedict’s papacy Neuhaus voiced “palpable uneasiness” that the new pontiff was not clamping down on what Neuhaus saw as dissent from church teaching.
Over the years, even people who disagreed with Neuhaus’ politics or theology would devour his monthly essay in First Things, titled “The Public Square,” for sheer literary pleasure. His combination of epigrammatic formulae and occasionally biting satire often reminded fans of English-language Catholic luminaries of earlier eras, such as G.K. Chesterton or Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Though Neuhaus became an iconic American Catholic figure, at birth he was actually neither American nor Catholic. He was born in 1936 in Ontario, Canada, one of eight children of a Lutheran minister. Neuhaus followed in his father’s footsteps, and was ordained as a Lutheran minister himself in 1960. He served at St. John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in New York, which covered the largely black ghetto of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
During the ferment of the 1960s, Neuhaus was identified with progressive causes. Alongside the Jesuit peace activist Fr. Daniel Berrigan and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Neuhaus co-founded “Clergy Concerned about Vietnam.” Even after his later turn to the right, Neuhaus continued to admire figures such as Berrigan, saying that although he found their activism misplaced, they shared a profound conviction that public life ought to be shaped by Gospel values.
Neuhaus would later recall that the trigger for his break with the left was the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, legalizing abortion in America. He became an outspoken voice for pro-life causes, helping craft the policy of the Bush administration, for example, on embryonic stem cell research.
Neuhaus converted to Catholicism on September 8, 1990, and was ordained a priest one year later by Cardinal John O’Connor of New York. In a letter to his Lutheran friends at the time, Neuhaus said he had become persuaded that the Reformation-era logic for separation from Rome was no longer justified, and that Lutheranism no longer saw itself as a reform movement within the broader church of Christ but rather as one denomination among many.
Given his Lutheran roots, Neuhaus had a lifelong interest in ecumenism. Together with Charles Colson, an erstwhile Nixon operative turned Protestant minister, Neuhaus co-founded “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” which was often seen as a conservative alternative to official ecumenical dialogues operated by the institutional Catholic church and mainline Protestant bodies.
Over the years, Neuhaus served either as an officer or an advisor for a cluster of neo-conservative foundations and think tanks, including the Institute on Religion and Public Life and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He was often styled as one member of a “trinity” of prominent American Catholic neo-conservatives, the other two being the lay Catholic writers George Weigel and Michael Novak. The three men were not only political and theological allies but also close friends.
Weigel said that Neuhaus leaves behind a lasting legacy.
“Neuhaus did more than anyone since John Courtney Murray to develop and advance a critical Catholic case for the American experiment in ordered liberty,” Weigel said, referring to the American Jesuit theologian who helped provide the basis for the Catholic church’s acceptance of church/state separation at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).
“In addition, [Neuhaus] inspired countless Christians by his theological and spiritual writings and personal example,” Weigel said. “He had the rare ability of letting his own high intellectual and literary energy level energize others, which means that his thought is likely to have an impact on the U.S. religious scene for a long time to come.”
Though keenly interested in politics, Neuhaus was at heart a theologian rather than a politician, and even critics of his social views often admired the depth of his spiritual convictions. In 2001, for example, Neuhaus published a widely praised volume of reflections titled Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross.
Neuhaus’ other books include Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth (2006); The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America (1997); Appointment in Rome: The Church in America Awakening (1998); Doing Well & Doing Good: The Challenge to the Christian Capitalist (1992); and The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World (1987.)
Thursday, January 08, 2009
***Programming note: On Friday January 9th, the World Over will feature a tribute to the life and legacy of Father Richard Neuhaus. George Weigel and Michael Novak will be our guests. We hope you'll join us in remembering this great man***
Father Richard John Neuhaus has gone to the Lord. My heart breaks with so many of you who loved and respected Father Neuhaus.
I feel privileged to have known him and to have had so many occasions to share broadcasts with him. His precise eye, deep faith, and unfailing eloquence in print and in speech will be sorely missed. But it is his laughter and wicked sense of humor-- all those long meals in Rome and New York that I will miss most. There is no one in the Church like him. May this great man of letters and priest of God, who fought the good fight for so long, rest in peace. Godspeed my friend.
Joseph Bottum, the editor at First Things announced his passing earlier today:
'Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died.
My tears are not for him—for he knew, all his life, that his Redeemer lives, and he has now been gathered by the Lord in whom he trusted.
I weep, rather for all the rest of us. As a priest, as a writer, as a public leader in so many struggles, and as a friend, no one can take his place. The fabric of life has been torn by his death, and it will not be repaired, for those of us who knew him, until that time when everything is mended and all our tears are wiped away."
I can be reached at: raymond@raymondarroyo.com
Thank you for that information. I will post it as a separate thread and ping the list. Fr. Neuhaus provided such great commentary throughout the papal conclave. I look forward to this evening’s tribute to Father Neuhaus.
Indeed...a great man.
Over the years I've spent many a contented hour reading The Public Square, marveling all the while at the breadth and competence of Father Neuhaus' intellect.
He will be sorely missed.
Rest in Peace good and faithful servant, or as he would undoubtedly put it:
Requiescat in pace bona et fide famulus.
Agreed. It has been posted to FR; simply do a search on the title. It should be required reading for those who plan to avail themselves of assisted suicide.
Raymond Arroyo did a wonderful tribute to Fr. Neuhaus last night on his EWTN program The World Over Live. One of his guests was George Weigel who was a close friend of Fr. Neuhaus. If you missed it, check EWTN's web site for the re broadcast time. Indeed, Fr. Neuhaus will be sorely missed.
I recorded Arroyo's show and just now finished watching it. Novak and Weigel contributed some interesting observations and anecdotes about Neuhaus, especially the one where Neuhaus, after an evening of revelry, shouted out from the street late at night at the residence of Avery Cardinal Dulles, Neuhaus' close longtime colleague, but, nevertheless, a Jesuit, to flee Rome after Ratzinger's elevation.
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