RIP Father Neuhaus

I just learned of the passing of a dear friend, Father Richard John Neuhaus at 72 years. I say "good friend," though I never knew him; but years of reading his wonderfully thoughtful magazine, First Things, and gleaning wisdom from his monthly column, "The Public Square," makes me feel like I knew him personally. He began his religious career as a Lutheran minister but converted to Catholicism in 1990. He trumpeted the splendor of faith and of the enormous importance it had in our foundation as a nation and a people. While we weep at his passing, we rejoice that he has gone with certainty to our God.

All philosophy begins in wonder, said the ancients. With exceptions, contemporary philosophy stops at wonder. We are told: don’t ask, don’t wonder, about what you cannot know for sure. But the most important things of everyday life we cannot know for sure. We cannot know them beyond all possibility of their turning out to be false. We order our loves and loyalties, we invest our years with meaning and our death with hope, not knowing for sure, beyond all reasonable doubt, whether we might not have gotten it wrong. What we need is a philosophy that enables us to speak truly, if not clearly, a wisdom that does not eliminate but comprehends our doubt. -Fr. Richard John Neuhaus