Fr. Richard Neuhaus, Founder and Editor of First Things, hospitalized with cancer

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Father Richard Neuhaus, founder and editor in chief of the journal First Things, has been hospitalized with "a serious cancer," the publication announced Dec. 31. A message sent to e-mail contacts and posted on the magazine's Web site said Father Neuhaus is in a New York hospital after being diagnosed with cancer in late November. "The long-term prognosis for this particular cancer is not good, but it is not hopeless, either, and there is a possibility that it will respond to the recommended outpatient chemotherapy treatment," said the message. But over Christmas, Father Neuhaus became dangerously ill with a systemic infection and was hospitalized, the note added. There had been some signs of improvement in the last few days, the message said, "and there is a reasonable expectation that he will recover from this present illness -- sufficiently, we hope, that he will be able to begin the chemotherapy for the cancer."