Richard John Neuhaus

Elizabeth Bumiller, in the February 6 issue of the New York Times , reports on a speech made by President Bush. We are told that he “declared once again that his foreign policy was in part based on an ‘Almighty’ whose gift to the world was freedom.” It is the indefinite . . . . Continue Reading »

There are many things that need to be said about the Muslim reaction to those cartoons in the Danish newspaper, and yesterday in this space Joseph Bottum said some of them very well. They need to be said because the most frontal challenge imaginable has been put to the West. It is a challenge that . . . . Continue Reading »

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, President Bush criticized “activist courts” and their attempt to “redefine marriage,” and then said this in the context of his discussion of a more hopeful America: A hopeful society has institutions of science and . . . . Continue Reading »

According to a report by Reuters, religious leaders on the left are ratcheting up their opposition to the foreign policy of the Bush administration. A statement of conscience calling the war “an unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq” has been signed by 99 bishops and more . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square 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 . . . . 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 »

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 »

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 »