George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies
Program: Catholic Studies
Contact: catholicstudies@eppc.org
George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. He holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.
From 1989 through June 1996, Mr. Weigel was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he led a wide-ranging, ecumenical and inter-religious program of research and publication on foreign and domestic policy issues.
Mr. Weigel is perhaps best known for his widely translated and internationally acclaimed two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II: the New York Times bestseller, Witness to Hope (1999), and its sequel, The End and the Beginning (2010). In 2017, Weigel published a memoir of the experiences that led to his papal biography: Lessons in Hope — My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II.
George Weigel is the author of more than twenty other books, including The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God (2005); Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (2013); Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (2013); Letters to a Young Catholic (2015); and The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times (2018). His essays, op-ed columns, and reviews appear regularly in major opinion journals and newspapers across the United States. A frequent guest on television and radio, he is also Senior Vatican Analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to eighty-five newspapers and magazines in seven countries.
Mr. Weigel received a B.A. from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore and an M.A. from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto. He is the recipient of nineteen honorary doctorates in fields including divinity, philosophy, law, and social science, and has been awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, Poland’s Gloria Artis Gold Medal, and Lithuania’s Diplomacy Star.
George Weigel is a giant. George, God bless you for everything you do, not only for this organization, not only for the Church, not only for the country, but truly for humanity.
Robert P. George
PUBLICATIONS
Falsely, Matilda
Published in The Catholic World Report on August 22, 2019
The Australian Disgrace
Published in First Things on August 21, 2019
Getting Beyond Darwin
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 21, 2019
Heroism and Priesthood, Dachau and Amazonia
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 14, 2019
Extraordinary Coincidence, Contemporary Lesson
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 7, 2019
Lessons in Virtue from Apollo 11
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 31, 2019
Interview: George Weigel On Our Turbulent Times And The Way Forward
Published in Catholic Digest on July 30, 2019
The Vandals Sack Rome….Again
Published in The Catholic World Report on July 29, 2019
On the New “Nationalism”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 24, 2019
The Quiet Hours of Leonid Brezhnev
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 17, 2019
Herman Wouk, Storyteller
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 10, 2019
Icons on Ammo Boxes
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 3, 2019
The Summer Reading List
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 26, 2019
Whose Republic? Which “Liberalism”?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 19, 2019
High Noon in Poland, Thirty Years Later
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 12, 2019
Eastern Catholics and the Universal Church
Published in First Things on June 6, 2019
Restoring, and Strengthening, Episcopal Credibility
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 5, 2019
Biden, Bernardin, and Today
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 29, 2019
“Uncle Ted” and Me…
Published in The Catholic World Report on May 29, 2019
The Pell Case: Developments Down Under
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 22, 2019
A Christian Gentleman in the Nation’s Capital
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 15, 2019
On the Composting of Thee and Me
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 8, 2019
Ukraine’s Presidential Election Was, among Other Things, a Rebuke to Moscow
Published in National Review Online on May 3, 2019
Truth-Telling and Big Abortion
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 1, 2019
The Ratzinger Diagnosis
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 24, 2019
Remembering Father James V. Schall, an Old-School Jesuit
Published in National Review Online on April 21, 2019
The Easter Effect Today
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 17, 2019
Easter in Jail: The Travesty of the Pell Case
Published in The Catholic World Report on April 16, 2019
Creation, Redemption, Martyrdom: A Lenten Reflection
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 10, 2019
The High-Priced Spread, Revisited
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 3, 2019
An Open Letter to Cardinal Reinhard Marx
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 27, 2019
A Tale of Two Georges
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 20, 2019
The Holy See and Cardinal Pell
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 13, 2019
Our Dreyfus Case
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 6, 2019
Homecoming
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 27, 2019
The Pell Affair: Australia Is Now on Trial
Published in First Things on February 27, 2019
Why the Case Against Cardinal George Pell Doesn’t Stand Up
Published in National Review Online on February 26, 2019
“Synodality” and the Rome Abuse Summit
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 20, 2019
The Ever-Present Totalitarian Temptation
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 13, 2019
Ferocity, Courage, and Grace — Remembering the Great Frank Robinson
Published in National Review Online on February 9, 2019
Wojtyłan Fantasies, Revisited
Published in First Things on February 7, 2019
The Moral Depravity of Andrew Cuomo & Friends
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 6, 2019
The Courageous Honesty of Peter Steinfels
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 30, 2019
Squandering Moral Capital
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 23, 2019
Nothing About Us Without Us
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 16, 2019
Lay Collaboration and Episcopal Authority
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 9, 2019
U.S. Catholic Bishops Should Convey a Note of Fraternal Caution to Rome
Published in National Review Online on January 4, 2019
A Tough Year Ahead
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 2, 2019
The Unfair, Anti-Catholic Conviction of Cardinal George Pell
Published in The New York Post on December 31, 2018
Soho Pilgrimage: A Christmas Meditation
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 26, 2018
Stephen Hawking’s Surprise
Published in National Review Online on December 24, 2018
Books for Christmas
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 19, 2018
In Ukraine, a Seismic Ecclesiastical Shift
Published in National Review Online on December 18, 2018
Why 42 Had to Be Impeached Twenty Years Ago
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 12, 2018
Avoiding Another Roman Fiasco in February
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 5, 2018
Cleansed and Conformed to God’s Will
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 28, 2018
Remembering a Christian Gentleman
Published in National Review Online on November 25, 2018
Vatican Autocracy and the U.S. Bishops
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 21, 2018
A Century After the Armistice
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 14, 2018
Roots of Catholic Anger
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 7, 2018
Shifting Tectonic Plates in Eastern Christianity
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 31, 2018
Reflections on Synod-2018
Published in First Things on October 29, 2018
A Public Church, not a Partisan Church
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 24, 2018
John Paul II, Youth Minister
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 17, 2018
The Catholic Crisis, in Perspective
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 10, 2018
Courage in the Slough of Despond
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 3, 2018
The Kavanaugh Battle, Viewed from Rome
Published in National Review Online on October 1, 2018
An Orthodox Fracture with Serious Consequences
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 26, 2018
Did Pope Francis Just Make China Protestant?
Published in National Review Online on September 24, 2018
Another Vatican Diplomatic Blunder
Published in National Review Online on September 20, 2018
Maintenance vs. Mission
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 19, 2018
Saving Synod-2018 from Itself
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 12, 2018
Full-Immersion Catholicism
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 5, 2018
A Crisis—but Not of Faith
Published in The Wall Street Journal on August 31, 2018
Why We Stay, and the Viganò Testimony
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 28, 2018