Pro-Life Leaders Reaction to the News of Fr. Neuhaus' Death
(LifeSite News)
Top pro-life leaders pay tribute to memory of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus who died today
By John-Henry Westen NEW YORK, January 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life and religious communities around the world today mourn the loss of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a prolific pro-life activist and intellectual giant. Neuhaus died today surrounded by family after a struggle with cancer for which he was hospitalized after Christmas.
Fr. Neuhaus was born in Canada, one of eight children, and was the founder and editor of the influential journal First Things. Some of the top leadership of the pro-life community spoke with LifeSiteNews.com today about their memorable encounters with Fr. Neuhaus and to express their sorrow at his passing.
Fr. Neuhaus was born in Canada, one of eight children, and was the founder and editor of the influential journal First Things. Some of the top leadership of the pro-life community spoke with LifeSiteNews.com today about their memorable encounters with Fr. Neuhaus and to express their sorrow at his passing.
Fr. Tom Euteneuer, President of Human Life International
"I am not surprised that Fr. Neuhaus would pass away in the Christmas season, just after Epiphany, because he was like the Star of Bethlehem leading people to Christ through the force of reason and faith. I remember well when he converted to (Catholicism). I was absolutely overjoyed, and since that time he has been a phenomenal influence for Catholicism and for truth in every thing that he did. Our society, as well our Church will really miss him."
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, Spokesman for the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada
"I first met Reverend Neuhaus at a book party he gave for his book 'The Naked Public Square' in the early 80s. He very much influenced the public debate in a sharp, concise intellectual way. He was a great pleasure to be with, a very witty conversationalist, a very warm person, an excellent orator.
"He was really one of the intellectual underpinnings of our cultural war for life and family, there's no question about it. He was never shy in taking positions, even if they were not politically correct. Even if they weren't politically correct within the conservative movement he would speak out.
"He was a great personality in terms of religious leadership. There aren't enough religious leaders willing to speak out as often and as sharply as he did and that's going to be our greatest loss.
"The greatest living monument to him will be for religious leaders to fill the vacuum, the tremendous void left by him, and to speak out forcefully in this time in history with the inauguration of the Obama era and all that that portends. I think the way we can commemorate the life of Reverend Neuhaus is to take up the strong leadership in the religious community which he had maintained."
Judie Brown, President of American Life League
"It's a terrible loss to the entire pro-life movement not to mention the Catholic Church."
"I had a very interesting discussion with him one time in New York when I was giving a talk, relating the sacrifices of the Blessed Mother for her cousin Elizabeth. After the talk Fr. John said to me 'I have never heard that perspective on the Blessed Mother before and I'm so glad I was here to hear it.' And I was so honored, because he would be the last person on earth I thought I could say something to that he hadn't thought of already. That was probably one of the highlights of my life, him giving me a compliment like that."
Joseph Scheidler, President of the Pro-Life Action League
"I was shocked. I just couldn't believe it. We'll miss him, and we needed him in these times."
"I remember I was out in New York and I was supposed to have dinner with him, and I got caught in a traffic jam in terrible weather, with no way to reach him.
"I stood him up for dinner, he made dinner for me. I tried to reach him to apologize for not being there. I couldn't reach him by phone or anything. Later on I met him and apologized, but he was so gracious - he made kind of a joke out of it. That had been one of the things I felt so bad about all my life - I stood up Richard John Neuhaus."
"I stood him up for dinner, he made dinner for me. I tried to reach him to apologize for not being there. I couldn't reach him by phone or anything. Later on I met him and apologized, but he was so gracious - he made kind of a joke out of it. That had been one of the things I felt so bad about all my life - I stood up Richard John Neuhaus."
"He was such a great mind. Every time I'd see his name on something - I'd have to read it."
Jim Hughes, President Campaign Life Coalition, VP International Right to Life
"It's a great loss. I can remember when he was the keynote speaker at an international conference in Toronto years ago. He applauded the presence of the youth and said that the youth is so important for the future of the battle. But he said 'You old people you can't retire, you're in this for the duration, you can't quit, and you're here until God calls you to your eternal reward.' He lived what he preached and died in service to Him whom he loved."
(Life News)
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Father Richard John Neuhaus, one of the leading Catholic thinkers on the pro-life side of the abortion debate has died at the age of 72. Neuhaus became very ill suddenly on Wednesday from several side effects from the cancer he was suffering and died Thursday morning.
Neuhaus became intimately involved in the pro-life movement after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and helped to unite pro-life advocates in both Catholic and Protestant circles.
He continued as an intellectual heavyweight -- founding the journal Fist Things in 1990 -- and became even more well-known for his advising President George W. Bush on pro-life matters.
His influence was so great on the president that his catch-phrase of "welcoming unborn children into life and protecting them under law" became Bush's standard line any time he referenced pro-life matters.
That influence was noted as Time magazine, in 2005, hailed Father Neuhaus as one of the top 25 most influential religious leaders in America. Bush, himself, credited with Neuhaus as "helping me articulate these [religious] things.”
In his most recent column on pro-life concerns, Neuhaus hailed the pro-life movement for being the one of the few truly grassroots, people-driven political movement of modern times. He said the pro-life movement was what many left-wing political groups hoped to become.
"Whatever else it is, the pro-life movement of the last thirty-plus years is one of the most massive and sustained expressions of citizen participation in the history of the United States. Since the 1960s, citizen participation and the remoralizing of politics have been central goals of the left," he explained.
"The pro-life movement is a movement for change, indeed for what some view as the radical change of eliminating the unlimited abortion license," he said.
Neuhaus also understood how pro-abortion incoming president Barack Obama could easily erase decades of gains since the Roe decision.
Neuhaus wrote: "As abortion extremists put it, the woman has a right to a dead baby. Obama apparently agrees, even saying that it is a constitutional right. In this he goes farther than almost any reputable constitutional scholar, claiming that the abortion license is covered by a right to 'privacy' that is found not only in the “penumbra and emanations” of the Constitution but in the Constitution itself."
"This, together with his adamant support for the government funding of abortion and for the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate all state regulation of abortion–including waiting periods, parental notification, and other very modest measures–leaves no doubt that Senator Obama is on the farthest edge of abortion extremism," he said.
Key players in the pro-life movement are well-informed about the influence Neuhaus has had, so much so that National Right to Life honored him last year by making him the keynote speaker of their annual convention.
Neuhaus and his brilliant analysis of the abortion problem will be missed. He was always able to transcend the bumper-sticker notions normally seen in the abortion debate to provide a logical assessment of how abortion has destroyed lives and denigrated society.
Neuhaus became intimately involved in the pro-life movement after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and helped to unite pro-life advocates in both Catholic and Protestant circles.
He continued as an intellectual heavyweight -- founding the journal Fist Things in 1990 -- and became even more well-known for his advising President George W. Bush on pro-life matters.
His influence was so great on the president that his catch-phrase of "welcoming unborn children into life and protecting them under law" became Bush's standard line any time he referenced pro-life matters.
That influence was noted as Time magazine, in 2005, hailed Father Neuhaus as one of the top 25 most influential religious leaders in America. Bush, himself, credited with Neuhaus as "helping me articulate these [religious] things.”
In his most recent column on pro-life concerns, Neuhaus hailed the pro-life movement for being the one of the few truly grassroots, people-driven political movement of modern times. He said the pro-life movement was what many left-wing political groups hoped to become.
"Whatever else it is, the pro-life movement of the last thirty-plus years is one of the most massive and sustained expressions of citizen participation in the history of the United States. Since the 1960s, citizen participation and the remoralizing of politics have been central goals of the left," he explained.
"The pro-life movement is a movement for change, indeed for what some view as the radical change of eliminating the unlimited abortion license," he said.
Neuhaus also understood how pro-abortion incoming president Barack Obama could easily erase decades of gains since the Roe decision.
Neuhaus wrote: "As abortion extremists put it, the woman has a right to a dead baby. Obama apparently agrees, even saying that it is a constitutional right. In this he goes farther than almost any reputable constitutional scholar, claiming that the abortion license is covered by a right to 'privacy' that is found not only in the “penumbra and emanations” of the Constitution but in the Constitution itself."
"This, together with his adamant support for the government funding of abortion and for the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate all state regulation of abortion–including waiting periods, parental notification, and other very modest measures–leaves no doubt that Senator Obama is on the farthest edge of abortion extremism," he said.
Key players in the pro-life movement are well-informed about the influence Neuhaus has had, so much so that National Right to Life honored him last year by making him the keynote speaker of their annual convention.
Neuhaus and his brilliant analysis of the abortion problem will be missed. He was always able to transcend the bumper-sticker notions normally seen in the abortion debate to provide a logical assessment of how abortion has destroyed lives and denigrated society.
posted by Al @ 1:01 AM
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