Free Republic

Father Neuhaus was a defender of fundamental human rights throughout his entire ministry. His early “politics” and his later “politics” were grounded in the same great principles derived from the implications of the Incarnation, consistent with reason and based on the Social teaching of the Church. He loved the teachings of the Church and he grew in his understanding them. He became one of their greatest teachers to the rest of us. He also knew that the truth about the dignity of every human life was not dependent upon revelation, not simply a “religious” position, but that it was revealed...

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...

Richard John Neuhaus, prominent Catholic priest and founder of the religion magazine First Things, died today after a short battle with cancer. He was 72. According to a note sent out by Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, Father Neuhaus died shortly before 10 a.m. at Manhattan's Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In a post on the First Things blog after Christmas, Bottum reported that Father Neuhaus was diagnosed with serious cancer over Thanksgiving. At the time he said the long-term prognosis was not good, but that the priest would be undergoing outpatient chemotherapy treatment. The day after Christmas, however, Father Neuhaus...

Prayers for Father Neuhaus Please pray for Father Richard John Neuhaus, who is quite ill. This note went out yesterday to his friends and associates: Fr. Neuhaus is in the hospital here in New York. Over Thanksgiving, he was diagnosed with a serious cancer. The long-term prognosis for this particular cancer is not good, but it is not hopeless, either, and there is a possibility that it will respond to the recommended out-patient chemotherapy. Unfortunately, over Christmas, he was taken dangerously ill with what seems to be a systemic infection that has left him very weak. Entering the hospital the...