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. From June 1996, as a Senior Fellow, Mr. Weigel prepared a major study of the life, thought, and action of Pope John Paul II. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II was published to international acclaim in the fall of 1999, and has since been translated into twelve languages, with a Chinese edition currently in progress.
Mr. Weigel is the author or editor of some twenty other books, including The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (Doubleday, 2010); Practicing Catholic: Essays Historical, Literary, Sporting, and Elegiac (Crossroad, 2012); Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (Basic, 2013); Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (Basic, 2013) and City of Saints: A Pilgrimage to John Paul II’s Kraków (Image, 2015). 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 sixty newspapers.
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 eighteen honorary doctorates in fields including divinity, philosophy, law, and social science.
George Weigel is a giant. George, God bless you for everything you do, not only for this organization, not only for the church, no only for the country, but truly for humanity.
Robert P. George
PUBLICATIONS
The Vatican, China, and Evangelical Prudence
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 21, 2016
Ukraine, 25 Years from Now
Published in National Review Online on September 16, 2016
They’re Confessors, Not “Culture-Warriors”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 14, 2016
Catholicism’s Empty Quarter
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 7, 2016
He’s Not “Turning His Back to the People”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 31, 2016
Joe Biden is Isaac Hecker’s Fault?
Published in George Weigel’s weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 24, 2016
Ukraine’s Determined Will is Inspiration for Rest of World
Published in Kyiv Post on August 19, 2016
Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Dead at 89, Was Bred to Heroism
Published in Crux on August 2, 2016
God and Brexit
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 17, 2016
The Washington Post and the Church of Me
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 10, 2016
Trump, Kaine, and More Illusions
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 3, 2016
Homelessness, Party-Style
Published in George Weigel’s weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 27, 2016
The Ostpolitik Failed. Get Over It.
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 20, 2016
The Last Puritan Statesman and the 2016 Conventions
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 13, 2016
Interview: George Weigel on What Poland Can Teach the U.S.
Published in National Review Online on July 7, 2016
On not Settling for Mediocrity
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 6, 2016
A Cinematic Lesson in Hope
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 29, 2016
Confessions of an “Elitist”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 22, 2016
Two Catholics and the Catholic Game
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 15, 2016
There Aren’t “Two Popes” in Any Way, Shape, or Form
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 8, 2016
Only Francis Can Go to China?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 1, 2016
Intolerance and Evangelization
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 25, 2016
Biblical Preaching and Healing the Culture
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 18, 2016
Now What?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 11, 2016
Good Catholics, Good Citizens
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 4, 2016
The Most Important Day of Your Life
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 27, 2016
The Best Nuncio We’ve Had Thus Far
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 20, 2016
Catholics and Campaign 2016
Published in Legatus Magazine on April 1, 2016
The Merciful Grace of the Truth
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 13, 2016
Pope Francis on Love, Marriage, and the Family
Published in National Review Online on April 8, 2016
After the “G-Word” has been Spoken
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 6, 2016
Things that Can’t Change
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 30, 2016
Easter is not a Question Mark
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 23, 2016
A Sordid Anniversary, to be Remembered
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 16, 2016
‘A Tiny Bit of a Man’: Evelyn Waugh’s Anticipation of Donald Trump
Published in National Review Online on March 14, 2016
Resisting the Demagogue
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 9, 2016
An Appeal to Our Fellow Catholics
Published in National Review Online on March 7, 2016
Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Heroes
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 2, 2016
After Justice Scalia
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 24, 2016
Testing ‘Brotherhood’: Next Steps for the Vatican and Russian Orthodoxy
Published in National Review Online on February 19, 2016
ISIS, Genocide, and Us
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 17, 2016
John Paul II and His ‘Secret Letters’ to a Woman Who Was a Colleague and Friend
Published in National Review Online on February 15, 2016
Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches
Published in Basic Books on October 29, 2013
An Invitation to a Roman Lent
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 10, 2016
Pope Francis and the Russian Patriarch Will Meet, as Ukrainian Catholics Watch and Wait
Published in National Review Online on February 5, 2016
Anger and Citizenship
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 3, 2016
Gain Some Iranian Contracts, Lose Your Civilization
Published in National Review Online on January 28, 2016
China’s Population Crisis: An Evangelical Opportunity?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 27, 2016
Robert Pickus: An American Original
Published in National Review Online on January 25, 2016
A Ukrainian Christmas-at-the-Crossroads
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 20, 2016
Dear Father: Please Stop It
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 13, 2016
Looking Toward November 8
Published in George Weigel's Weekly Column The Catholic Difference on January 6, 2016
Liberal Racism Bares Its Fangs
Published in George Weigel's Weekly Column The Catholic Difference on December 30, 2015
Christmas 2015: History within ‘History’
Published in National Review Online on December 24, 2015
Christmas and a World Upside-Down
Published in George Weigel's Weekly Column The Catholic Difference on December 23, 2015
Remembering Two Great Bishops
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 16, 2015
Jews and Catholics: A Common Witness?
Published in National Review Online on December 15, 2015
Books for Christmas
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 9, 2015
What Really Happened at Synod 2015
Published in First Things - January 2016 issue on December 3, 2015
Synod 2015 Revisited
Published in George Weigel's Weekly Column The Catholic Difference on December 2, 2015
Mission Abandoned: Did We Betray John XXIII’s Vision for Vatican II?
Published in Catholic Herald (UK) on November 27, 2015
A Thanksgiving Meditation on Freedom and Its Enemies
Published in George Weigel's Weekly Column The Catholic Difference on November 25, 2015
The Grittiness of Christian Faith
Published in George Weigel's Weekly Column The Catholic Difference on November 18, 2015
John Paul II’s “Beloved Krakow”
Published in The Catholic Difference on November 11, 2015
The Speaker and the Social Doctrine
Published in The Catholic Difference on November 4, 2015
The Saints and All of Us
Published in The Catholic Difference on October 28, 2015
A Blessed Loss
Published in The Catholic Difference on October 21, 2015
Pius XII, Co-Conspirator in Tyrannicide
Published in The Catholic Difference on October 14, 2015
Issues Beneath Issues at Synod 2015
Published in The Catholic Difference on October 7, 2015
Synod 2015 Hopes
Published in The Catholic Difference on September 30, 2015
Pope Francis and Those Radical, Permanent Things
Published in National Review Online on September 29, 2015
Lessons from the Rough Rider for Today’s Political Ruffians
Published in The Catholic Difference on September 23, 2015
Interview with George Weigel: A Big Week for Catholics in America
Published in National Review Online on September 21, 2015
Popes in These United States
Published in The Catholic Difference on September 16, 2015
George Weigel Discusses Pope Francis’s U.S. Visit
Published in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana [The New Daily Compass] on September 17, 2015