Richard John Neuhaus

In his influential book The Courage to Be Catholic, George Weigel wrote about the “The Truce of 1968.” By that is meant the decision not to discipline the many theologians and priests who, in a public and concerted campaign, rejected the teaching of the 1968 encyclical on human sexuality, . . . . Continue Reading »

America , the official Jesuit weekly, had not editorially commented on the recent instruction from Rome when I wrote “Gays and the Priesthood,” which appears in the current issue of F IRST T HINGS . America ‘s editorial response was a very delicate matter, and I am told it . . . . Continue Reading »

As you might imagine, I spend a good deal of time talking with reporters. I usually don’t mind it. It comes with the territory. With notable exceptions, reporters are people of good will working hard to write a story that will please their editors. It is true that they are not always the . . . . Continue Reading »

And so, nine months into the pontificate, Benedict XVI has issued his first encyclical. (It is dated December 25, Christmas, although released on January 25, the Conversion of St. Paul.) The title is Deus Caritas Est —“God is Love”—and it is an extended commentary on that . . . . Continue Reading »

The Roe decision of 1973, wrote Yale’s legendary law professor, John Hart Ely, "is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be." He is hardly alone in holding that view. Among the harshest critics of Roe, most of whom nonetheless support the . . . . Continue Reading »

“Hoo boy!” as Albert the Alligator of “Pogo” fame used to say. Mark Gauvreau Judge stirred up a storm in the American Spectator with an article deploring the conflation of conservatism with populism. Judge is the author of two recent books, God and Man at Georgetown Prep: . . . . Continue Reading »

For the first time in about 35 years I took a winter break last week, five days in Mexico. I don’t mention this to boast of my work ethic but to confess my foolishness in not having done it more often. The five days are a little like a pleasant black hole in my memory—eating, drinking, . . . . Continue Reading »

The other day I wrote about “Church-haunted” Quebec being a little like Flannery O’Connor’s “Christ-haunted” South. The occasion was a report that unconsecrated communion hosts had become a favorite munchie for couch potatoes. Now it turns out that the report, . . . . Continue Reading »

Ross Douthat of the Atlantic has been filling in as a guest editor on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Here are wise words on confronting the lacrimae rerum that attend our journey through this shadowed vale: In a year of war, tsunami and hurricane, what just happened in the West Virginia mine might . . . . Continue Reading »

The "Christmas wars" of the last several months—When does the season, whatever it is called, begin?—occasioned commentaries beyond numbering. Some wise things were said, but among the dumbest of the dumb things said, and said repeatedly, was that the whole thing was made up by . . . . Continue Reading »