Richard John Neuhaus

You might want to check out the Religious Coalition for Marriage to get the full text. The letter signed to date by fifty-one national religious leaders may not be unprecedented, but it is remarkable in its reach. The initiative has received considerable attention in the general media, but it . . . . Continue Reading »

Alan Wolfe is Boston College’s man on religion and public life. In Sunday’s New York Times Book Review he addresses several books dealing with religion and the American founding. Wolfe’s conclusion: Religion is so important to our country, and the founding fathers were so unusual . . . . Continue Reading »

James Piereson of the Manhattan Institute has a brilliant article in the current issue of Commentary , ” Lee Harvey Oswald & the Liberal Crack-Up .” You are readily forgiven if, at first, you wonder if Piereson is not making some improbable connections. Stipulating (as the lawyers say) . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on Catholic World News , a fellow who goes by the name of Uncle Di reflects on the way that clerics in recent decades have abandoned revealed truth and saving souls in favor of sundry causes of social justice. He recalls a 1942 essay by C.S. Lewis, “First and Second Things.” Lewis . . . . Continue Reading »

In last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine , Peter Beinart continued his musings about the Democratic Party that once was and may be again. Lifted up were the figures of George Kennan and Reinhold Niebuhr who, says Beinart, represented a kind of moral realism, or even just plain morality, that . . . . Continue Reading »

Last week, all week, was Vienna. Which, for readers of this site, had the advantage of a full week of Joseph Bottum’s inimitable reflections on what struck his fancy and elicited his considered fears. He was supposed to have been in Vienna as well, but last-minute editing of a new issue of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est—“God Is Love”—is dated the Feast of the Nativity but was not issued until late January. There has been so far surprisingly little commentary on the substance of the argument that the pope advances. Most of the initial . . . . Continue Reading »

Some readers have taken sharp issue with my agreement with George Will, Thomas Derr, and a host of others that we should cultivate an informed skepticism about some of the more alarmist claims advanced by those warning us about global warming. One reader writes, “Of course there is . . . . Continue Reading »

Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles has been both garnering praise and taking a drubbing for his somewhat melodramatic statements on immigration. A New York Times editorial lauded him for his boldness and his injection of a moral dimension in the political debate. Catholic bishops intervening in . . . . Continue Reading »

GOOD FRIDAY 2006 “Through Mary he received his humanity, and in receiving his humanity received humanity itself. Which is to say, through Mary he received us. In response to the angel’s strange announcement, Mary said yes. But only God knew that it would end up here at Golgotha, that it . . . . Continue Reading »