Contact: Brian Hart, Becky Ogilvie; both with Sam Brownback, United States Senator - Kansas, 202-224-6521
WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator Sam Brownback yesterday offered his condolences on the passing of Father Richard John Neuhaus.
"I offer my condolences to the family and friends of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. For several decades, he has been a critical voice in our national discussion of religion and public life. He taught us that our public conversation must always be about the 'first things' of how we ought to order our lives together. He wrote more persuasively than perhaps anyone today of the need for democracy and free markets to always be sustained by a vibrant moral culture. We are a grateful nation because of the witness of Father Richard John Neuhaus. May he rest in peace."
Father Neuhaus founded the popular journal First Things and was credited with bringing together Evangelicals and Catholics into an effective coalition. He was a prolific and influential writer focusing on religion and public policy and he argued that faith should not be excluded from the public square. Father Neuhaus died due to complications with cancer. He is survived by four brothers and two sisters.