Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Each Christmas sets me ruminating through memories of friends and family I've loved and lost. Here's a video about my mentor and friend Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. It stands as a singular honour that he asked me to participate in this project when its producer requested a Canadian friend to represent him in this CBC documentary piece. I miss him a great deal but am eager to great him again in the great convivium of the Parousia to come!

One of my favorite authors writes about one of my favorite friends. Nice piece! Richard John Neuhaus and the Priestly Vocation | First Things

I always knew that my old friend Fr. RJN was a trend setter. Too bad he didn't live to see these changes in the ecumenical movement he supported bear fruit. The Lutheran Landslide | Blogs | NCRegister.com

Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus on Islam and Reform | The American Catholic

What is 'First Things'? The best religious magazine in the English speaking world if you are interested in the role of religion is the public square! First Things’ New Old Direction | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Fr. Raymond deSouza, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston and media columnist was the homilist at Fr. Richard Neuhaus' funeral mass - and he gave the single best homily that I have ever heard at any funeral. Here is the text to another homily he offered at a mass celebrating RJN's 20th anniversary of ordination as a Catholic priest. He has another winner!  I don't know if it's because of the great material in RJN's life, or whether he is as gifted as I think he is, but I'd be honored to have such a priest as Fr. Raymond preach at my funeral (but not too soon I hope!). Fr. Tim The Straight Lines of Providence | First Things

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (RJN) often shared his hope that the sign he would see over the gates of heaven would read... “From the Wonderful People who Brought You New York: The New Jerusalem”. As a resident of Manhattan, he was all too aware of the role of expressways and collector lanes to move souls from one destination or another within that earthly city. It is not a great leap of imagination that this traffic imagery could easily indicate how he would expect the inner workings of the New Jerusalem and the unfolding of the coming prolepsis at the end of time. To put this more familiar biblical imagery:  will there be different ‘off ramps’, ‘collector’ and ‘express’ lanes which will carry the ‘sheep’ and ‘goats’ to their different end. (Matthew 25:31) Meditating upon this imagery can be instructive for us in our daily lives. If we know that death is the fundamental destiny that no man, woman or child can avoid, then it is not advisable (if one believes that life is not extinguis...

Best analysis of the events shaking the Roman Catholic Church I have read. (I have read a lot of them!!) The insights expressed by the Pope (B16) in the recent curial appointments of three theologians into the most powerful offices of the Church (including Cardinal Ouellet of Quebec to lead the Congregation responsible for choosing Bishops throughout the world) men who are wholly compatible with what B16 has already revealed in his first two encyclicals, the virtues of Love and Hope. It is (FINALLY!) an acknowledgment of the fact that the Church is 'on fire'... and not in the way that devout Catholics would have hoped for... but that at last it is orienting itself to face this deadly challenge to its very existence posed by the modern State. If B16 can steer the Barque of Peter into the wind, we are well equipped to weather the storms that threaten the ship of faith today. History is replete with predictions of the Church's imminent sinking, yet the barque of Peter continue...

It was said by Fr. Raymond deSouza at Fr. Richard John Neuhaus' funeral, that one of RJN's favorite expressions was, come the day of the great prolepsis, he would see inscribed over the gates of the Messianic eternal city of God... "From the Wonderful People Who Brought You New York City: The New Jerusalem". (American Babylon p.2)  The wry wit and wisdom of this quote is typical of RJN's many contributions in arguing for the place of religion within  culture. His predictions of the despair that results from post-modernist secularism's inability to answer the great existential questions, is obvious today with the attendant collapse of one's individual sense of well-being as a citizen of western culture, in the shifting mores of 21st century life. Put simply, RJN believed that he would meet his God on that day as an American. That the understanding of the 'first principles' spoken of in the Declaration of Independence which launched and sustained t...

 I've taken up again my dear friend, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus' (RIP) last book American Babylon: Notes of a Christian Exile. I was sitting in the sun and quiet of my cottage  enjoying a  few hours of relaxation  when my attention was captured by an ad from the radio playing in the background. It was one of the ubiquitous jingles promoting a national lottery announcing some mind-blowing prize for an upcoming draw. The conjunction of these two thoughts (RJN's discourse on what it means to be an exile; thoughts of fancy about what I would do if I won such an obscene amount of money) led me to ask myself whether there was  ENOUGH wealth and power to  satisfy that human innate desire for wanting 'more'. One might think of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett who have given away the majority of their money in pursuit of causes such as the elimination of malaria, the amelioration of poverty. Yet it is pertinent to note that they still kept to themselves sufficient fund...

CNN is advertising an upcoming 'Solidad O'Brien Investigates' special entitled "Gary & Tony Have a Baby". The documentary is being previewed at 'Newfest: a LGBT Film Festival in New York. I believe that it is to be aired on CNN on June 24th. Watch for further details. I look forward to the broadcast. I do so, not to follow that old Irish  maxim 'know your enemy', rather to grow in my understanding of the reality of gay families today. It may not be a traditional configuration, but my previous training as a social worker as well as my life experiences have taught me that children raised in any stable, loving and chaste relationship will be as normal as a child raised in a traditional family. One cannot know the full truth of any social, moral or medical experiment until the matter is broadly studied, but if the state says that gay couples merit the same legal status as heterosexual marriages, then they are entitled to the same rights, privile...

 Fr. Richard Neuhaus' opening address at a public debate (sponsored by the Economist Magazine). The question was:  "Religion and politics should always be kept separate." I speak in favor of the separation of church and state, and therefore against the resolution that religion and politics should always be kept separate. Permit me to explain. To enforce the exclusion of religion from politics, or from public life more generally, violates the First Amendment guarantee of the "free exercise of religion." The free exercise of religion is the reason for the separation of church and state—a principle that aims not at protecting the state from religion but at protecting religion from the state. In the First Amendment, religious freedom is of a piece with, indeed is in the very same sentence with, free speech, free press, free assembly, and the right to challenge government policy. Hence the resolution put before this house flatly contradicts the guarantees of a f...

George Weigel, biographer of Pope John Paul II and author of many other books, is interviewed to share his thoughts on his (and my) long time friend , Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (RIP). The interview provides some poignant insights in what propelled RJN into positions of influence where he was able to shape public policy and discourse from the late 1970's till his death in 2009. Click here to read the interview.

Nathan Martin writes on the First Things blog about an interview with Os Guinness on the true meaning of 'evangelicalism'. His wisdom helps to purify the term from the American understanding which confuses the spiritual with the political (The "Christian Right"). It is in the historical sense of the word that we find its true power. If you are looking for another work which explores the same ground, make Richard John Neuhaus' last work American Babylon: Notes of A Christian Exile (Basic Books, 2009) the first book your read in 2010!

G. Tracy Mehan has written an excellent review of American Babylon:Notes of a Christian Exile . It is published here . Any one who appreciated Neuhaus' insightful writings in First Things , especially his "The Public Square" ruminations at the end of each issue will no doubt enjoy reading this book.

Here is the bulk of a CBC piece on Fr. Richard Neuhaus that is well worth watching. He was without a doubt one of the single most influential voices in the Catholic Church of the past 50 years.

FIRST THINGS is the one essential publication for anyone searching for a serious inquiry into the issues of faith and religion in the public square. Whether one purchases a subscription via snail mail (it is a delight to hold and read, notwithstanding their ruminations about changing its format)or via the internet (a smaller carbon footprint for those who choose to make environmental concerns among their priorities) it is a must read and have. Its' founding editorial voice, Fr.Richard John Neuhaus (RIP, 2009)offered the speech below at a public debate sponsored by the Economist Magazine in New York of the following proposition: That religion and politics should always be kept separate. Clearly his position was cast in arguing the case in the "negative" - in opposition to the proposition (which was the overwhelming position of the majority of the audience, who expressed their pre-debate opinion in a show of hands vote); yet he brought to bear the solid argument for th...

Fr. Tim Finnigan posts at The Hermeneutic of Continuity a link to letters to the editor in The Catholic Herald that followed a debate between Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens vs Ann Widdecombe and Archbishop Onaiyekan on the topic: "Is the Church a force for good?" in which the theists "lost". http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/letters/index.shtml#l06112009" Aside from the excellent points made in these letters, I was reminded of a debate in New York sponsored by The Economist Magazine (2007) on a the related topic: "Religion and Politics should always be kept seperate" in which my late friend, Fr. Richard Neuhaus bested his opponents. I participated in a CBC television program that was inspired by his performance. A link to an abridged Youtube posting this 15 minute documentary is posted below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFwMZKtHiaE Further, here is a link to a text article which summarizes RJN's argument: http://www.politics...

A CHALLENGE, AND A TIP OF THE HAT To: My fellow admirers of Fr. Richard Neuhaus, If you are reading this post, then might I suggest that the core of the argument (which you can read in the first three posts of this blog) has for the greater part been proven. I am searching for the Catholic minds who so inspired the heart and mind of our mutual friend and mentor, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. I can say this with absolute certainty, as I have been honored to have been his summer neighbor for many years. Each summer, RJN would retire to his cottage here along side the Ottawa River immediately upon that summer's tertio millennio seminars in Poland. I thank you for the gift that you were to him and to me. Your debates and conversations were the fuel for many nights shared together in either his, or my cottage. As World Youth Days infused energy and spirit in the Holy Father, so did you for him each summer. You renewed his faith, exercised his mind (you would be amazed how many folk...