On May 26, 2002, our guest on the Booknotes television program was Richard John Neuhaus . His book, "As I Lay Dying: Meditations Upon Returning." The Neuhaus interview received one of the biggest responses of any during the history of the 16-year program. Neuhaus was 66 at the time and told us that several years earlier, he had a ruptured tumor that almost killed him. During a series of complicated operations, weeks in critical condition, and months in slow recovery, he was brought face to face with his own mortality. As he lay dying, he found that despite his faith, he had been quite unprepared for the experience. In 1990, Richard John Neuhaus, a writer and Lutheran minister, became a Catholic priest. He died of cancer in 2009 at age 72.

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