Richard John Neuhaus, 1936 – 2009

First Things reports the passing of its founder and editor:

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.

Neuhaus wrote, among other things, The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America (1984), The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World (1987), and Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth (2006).

I’ll be posting more links to articles and tributes soon.

Ross Douthat

Month after month, issue after issue, Richard John Neuhaus – through his writing, and also through the writers he cultivated – demonstrated to my adolescent and early-twentysomething self that it was possible to be an intellectually fulfilled Christian.

And here are Neuhaus’s thoughts on death, published nine years ago.