CNS STORY: Priest recalled as spiritual patriarch who influenced faith of many

NEUHAUS-FUNERAL Jan-14-2009 (870 words) xxxn

Priest recalled as spiritual patriarch who influenced faith of many

By Beth Griffin
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Father Richard John Neuhaus was a spiritual patriarch whose "priestly and fatherly soul generated sons to the order of grace and begat many who labor even now to make his beloved America a morally great nation," according to Father Raymond J. de Souza.

He made the comments in his homily at the standing-room-only funeral Mass for Father Neuhaus Jan. 13 at Immaculate Conception Church in New York.

Father Neuhaus, a former Lutheran minister who became a Catholic priest and ardent defender of church teaching on life issues, died Jan. 8 after a recurrence of cancer. He was 72 and was a parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception.

The Canadian-born Father Neuhaus was an author, lecturer and the founder of First Things, a journal published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life. According to its mission statement, the magazine is "an ecumenical journal whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society."

Father de Souza, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario, said Father Neuhaus "never ceased to call upon the Lord of life for those most vulnerable. The day when every unborn child is protected by law and welcomed in life is not close at hand but, as he put it in one of his last major addresses, 'We shall not weary, we shall not rest.'"

He said the late Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York and Father Neuhaus were "happy, mighty warriors in the cause of life. The cardinal gave two precious gifts to the church and to the pro-life movement: Father Richard John Neuhaus and the Sisters of Life, and it would please him that the latter are here praying for the former."

Cardinal O'Connor received then-Rev. Neuhaus into the Catholic Church in 1990 and ordained him to the priesthood the following year.

The Sisters of Life were well-represented in the 30-voice choir and in the congregation of more than 500 people who filled the French Gothic church that was originally home to an Episcopal congregation. The Mass was concelebrated by five bishops and 70 priests.

Auxiliary Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of New York was the principal celebrant. He read a letter from Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York, offering the cardinal's condolences to the mourners and explaining that he was attending meetings in Rome and had designated Bishop Sullivan to celebrate the Mass in his name.

The other concelebrating bishops were Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of Baltimore, Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York Auxiliary Bishop Gerald T. Walsh and retired New York Auxiliary Bishop Robert A. Brucato.

Father de Souza said Father Neuhaus was a wise friend and trustworthy guide for Christians in the public square, which he called a dangerous and forbidding place where those who wish to follow Christ find great travails and manifold tasks.

He said the Christian is called "to be in this world, and if need be, bestride it like a colossus; to wrestle with the passing things here below while keeping eyes fixed on the prize above; to be successful as earthly standards permit while remaining faithful to the standard of the cross; to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ while taking note of the profane news of the doings of men."

The homilist said Father Neuhaus "loved the priesthood and loved being a priest."

"He had a great deal of time for priests, nurtured priestly vocations and stood up for the priesthood in recent years," Father de Souza said.

"Devastated by the unspeakable sins of so many of our brothers, wounded by the pain of so many innocent victims, slandered by so many who hate Christ and his church -- we priests needed a stalwart friend in those dark days of the long Lent," he said. "For his brother priests, Father Richard was an often lonely voice speaking for prudence, for courage, for justice, for wisdom and for holiness."

He said that Father Neuhaus held the priesthood in "wonder and awe," once opening a dinner-table reflection on Holy Thursday with "How utterly promiscuous is the love of God!"

Father de Souza said Father Neuhaus' "most gifted forum" was the dinner table, where he delighted in celebrating "convivium," a banquet or feast that draws people together for a purpose.

"Convivium is an essential part of the Christian life," he said. "We are not meant to be disciples alone. Convivium is what Father Richard created over his whole life, delighting in the company of others and the delightful things the Lord had made.

"He drew people together who might not otherwise meet -- Christians and Jews, evangelicals and Catholics, Canadians and Americans, clergy and laity, theologians and journalists, entrepreneurs and evangelists, distinguished authors and aspiring writers," he added.

Father de Souza called the Last Supper the "great Christian convivium on earth" and said Father Neuhaus was drawn to the altar as the center of life and death, the "axis mundi."

"This altar, surrounded by the love of parishioners who had no reason to know what he did the rest of his time, was the center of his world, because every altar is the 'axis mundi,'" he added.

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