The great Richard John Neuhaus, a champion of religion in public life, has passed away. John Podheretz of Commentary Magazine writes:

He was ever a man of principle. As an official of the Rockford Institute, he could not hold his silence when the magazine published by that institute, Chronicles, began running barely veiled anti-Semitic work (much of it aimed at COMMENTARY and his contributors). His breach with Rockford led to the creation of the Institute on Religion and Public Life and the creation of First Things, the brilliant monthly he edited and then supervised until his passing.

Neuhaus also converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism during this period.