Richard John Neuhaus

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 »

“The Christ-haunted South.” Flannery O’Connor’s phrase came to mind, said a friend, upon reading this report from UPI: “Unconsecrated communion wafers are growing in popularity as a snack food throughout Quebec, alongside potato chips and popcorn on supermarket . . . . Continue Reading »

In a December 30 posting in this space, I commented on some intemperate and inaccurate remarks by Jeffrey Hart of Dartmouth. Referring to the F IRST T HINGS symposium, “The End of Democracy?”, he described me as a “Jacobinical priest” and “easy chair . . . . Continue Reading »

The Public Square Back in May 2001, I wrote in this space, under the title “Bible Babel,” about the translation that is the unfortunate New American Bible (NAB). It is a subject that should not be dropped. Not, mind you, that I expect anybody to do anything about it any time soon. But some day, . . . . Continue Reading »

One more word on that long searched-for Chesterton quote. And since Dale Ahlquist is, after all, the president of the American Chesterton Society, perhaps this can be the last word. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with a find that has eluded so many others. Mr. Ahlquist writes: Dear Fr. . . . . Continue Reading »

Jeffrey Hart of Dartmouth, assuming the mantle of Edmund Burke, had an essay in the Wall Street Journal opining on the meaning of conservatism today. Along the way, he declared that the unlimited abortion license established by Roe accords with the social “actuality” of modern life and . . . . Continue Reading »

At the 7:45am Mass this morning (the fifth day of Christmas, by the way), a parishioner said she was resigned to spending most of the day at Macy’s trying to return a sweater three sizes too small. Such is the madding crowd. In the course of discussing the recent “Christmas war” . . . . Continue Reading »