“At the center of Bill’s conservatism was his Catholicism,” Roger Kimball writes in this moving reflection on the life of his friend Bill Buckley. In remembering Sundays spent with Buckley, beginning with an underground Latin Mass and ending with long afternoons at his Connecticut home, Kimball came to understand the faith that animated his friend: “Bill was the opposite of ostentatious in his religious observances. But any close friend could see that prayer occupied an important place in the spiritual economy of his life.”

For further reading: First Things founder Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote in the wake of Buckley’s 2008 death, “Bill insisted on many occasions that he had never harbored the slightest doubt about the Church’s teaching authority. Bill was what some call a natural Catholic, bred-in-the-bone, so to speak, but his was also a faith refined and reinforced by a lifetime of spiritual reflectiveness.”

From the December issue: When various Young Republicans group chats leaked last month revealing cadres of offensive texts, many conservatives were quick to join their political opponents in condemnation. But the eroding of political correctness began when moral correctness lost its grip, Matthew Schmitz writes. To bring decorum back, we need to begin with removing swear words from public speech: “This measure would elevate public discourse and diminish the cult of transgression, thereby reducing both the opportunities for and the appeal of offensive speech.”

For further reading: Contributing editor Mark Bauerlein wrote about how the normalization of profanity makes other boundaries easier to cross. In “You Can Say That” (December 2017), he wrote, “We didn’t need a half century of Jay-Z, Tarantino, Jon Stewart, and other purveyors of ripe swearing to realize that knocking down barriers is easy, but holding back ever more ‘transgressive’ crossings is hard.”

Casey Chalk reviews Charles Murray’s journey to Christianity as described in his new book Taking Religion Seriously. Though there are aspects of Christian theology that Murray has not reckoned with, the book “represents an admirable attempt by one of the most interesting political scientists of the last half-century to work through a variety of popular objections to God and Christianity.”

For further listening: Charles Murray joined Conversations with Mark Bauerlein last month to discuss his conversion. 

Anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss joined Conversations with Mark Bauerlein to discuss her book On the Warpath: My Battles With Indians, Pretendians, and Woke Warriors. Weiss drew the ire of Native American activists for refusing to rebury skeletal remains, and from the woke academy for refuting that a skeleton can be gender fluid. 

First Things is launching our first topical newsletter. It’s called The Fourth Watch, and it’s about Catholicism. The questions facing the Catholic Church have-wide reaching implications and spawn no small amount of sensationalism and quick takes. James F. Keating, a theologian at Providence College, will analyze the storms that the Barque of Peter faces and offer, whenever possible, a passage through them.

Sign-ups are open now, the first installment will go out on Monday, December 1st. Subscribe with just one click. 

Upcoming Events

• December 1, 2025: Launch of The Fourth Watch: A Newsletter about Catholicism | Sign up with one click.
• February 1, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL. Details coming soon.

Until next time,

VIRGINIA AABRAM

Newsletter Editor