Richard John Neuhaus

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Father Richard John Neuhaus is a North American Catholic writer. He is the founder and editor of First Things and the author of several books, including The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America (1984), The Catholic Moment: The Paradox of the Church in the Postmodern World (1987), As I Lay Dying: Meditations Upon Returning (2002), and Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth (2006). He is widely regarded as one of the most influential priests in the world. A close friend of John Paul II, he has long been an acquaintance of Pope Benedict XVI.

Originally from the Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Canada, Neuhaus was born in Pembroke, Ontario, on May 21, 1936. He had a Lutheran background. Ordained a Lutheran minister, Neuhaus was pastor of a poor congregation in a minority area of New York City. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement. He was a close acquaintance of Martin Luther King, Jr. He was active in liberal politics until Roe v. Wade. He is the originator of "Neuhaus's Law"[1] which states that "Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or later be proscribed".

Neuhaus was a scholar at the Rockford institute before parting ways in 1989. He then founded First Things, a journal published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life, as an ecumenical journal that is notable for its commitment to Catholic orthodoxy and its ties to conservative political ideas.

Neuhaus supported the mainline (ELCA) wing of American Lutheranism before converting to Catholicism in 1990. A year later, he was ordained a priest by Cardinal John O'Connor. He was a commentator from Rome for the Catholic cable TV network EWTN during the final illness and death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

He promotes ecumenical dialogue and social conservatism. Along with Charles Colson, he edited Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission (ISBN 0-8499-3860-0). This ecumenical manifesto sparked much debate; some Catholics and evangelicals claimed that Neuhaus and Colson had compromised major doctrines to promote a neoconservative agenda and unfairly demanded that both branches of Christianity stop trying to convert the other's members.