Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, R.I.P.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)

RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS, who died on January 8, was the most influential Catholic and Christian theologian and writer in America during the second half of the 20th century. His influence can be compared to that of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, with one important distinction: Fulton Sheen exercised his sway over the public directly, through his radio and television sermons. Father Neuhaus did so less directly, through his books and articles, through his editorship of a very important magazine devoted to religion and politics, through his friendship with Pope John Paul II, and through his impact on other theologians both in the Catholic church and in other Christian congregations. Partly for those reasons, however, Neuhaus's influence is likely to be the deeper, longer-lasting, and more extensive one.

Neuhaus began his adult life as a Canadian, a left-winger, and a Lutheran. He never lost his love for his country of birth--he spent six weeks of every year vacationing, reading, and reflecting in the Quebec countryside--his respect for a liberalism shaped by charity, or his admiration for the Lutheran tradition. He became nonetheless an American, a conservative, and a Catholic. And from these three conversions he forged for himself a distinctive religious identity that was conservative and generous, traditional and open, charitable and--yes--combative.

Neuhaus was a superb, natural controversialist. In the magazine he founded and edited, First Things, he commented on the overlapping topics of religion, culture, and politics in long, thoughtful articles and short, brilliant squibs. His wit was a vehicle for important truths, and some of his epigrams have entered the language.

Thus: For the New York Times, "the only good Catholic is a bad Catholic."

Or: "Whenever orthodoxy becomes optional, it will sooner or later be proscribed."

Neuhaus never shrank from what he considered a necessary fight--even one with friends-when the issue was important enough. He abandoned his original allies on the left ...