George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies
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.
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 work as a papal biographer: Lessons in Hope — My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II.
George Weigel is the author or editor of more than thirty other books, many of which have been translated into other languages. Among the most recent are Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (2013); Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (2013); Letters to a Young Catholic (2015); The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times (2018); The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020);Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse Cast of Characters, Most of Them Admirable (2021); and To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II (2022). 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.
Truth and Labeling
George Weigel
A senior American prelate once said to me that the “greatest curse” of Catholic life since the Second Vatican Council…
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Syndicated Column / April 16, 1998
Ockham and Us
George Weigel
Everybody knows and uses “Ockham’s razor” even if they’ve never heard of William of Ockham, the 14th century Franciscan philosopher….
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Syndicated Column / April 9, 1998
Meditation on Opening Day
George Weigel
Until the philistines in charge started imitating the NBA and filling the ballparks with rock-‘n’-roll between innings, baseball taught one…
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Syndicated Column / April 2, 1998
At the Center of the Human Drama
George Weigel
According to ancient custom and church law, a bishop must make a pilgrimage to Rome every five years to pray…
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Syndicated Column / March 26, 1998
Dumbing Down Morals
George Weigel
It’s been a bad two months for moral argument in these United States. I don’t have in mind the latest…
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Syndicated Column / March 19, 1998
John Paul II and the Priority of Culture
George Weigel
That no good deed goes unpunished is nicely illustrated by the terms in which several biographers have recognized Pope John…
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First Things / February 1, 1998
John Paul II — Preparing the 21st Century
George Weigel
Even at the height of Hollywood’s infatuation with things Catholic, no screenwriter would have dared propose such a storyline: Months…
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Crisis Magazine / November 1, 1997
Homecoming
George Weigel
“Before he got here I was worried,” a Polish friend confessed during Pope John Paul II’s homecoming pilgrimage this past…
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Crisis Magazine / September 1, 1997
Pope 007?
George Weigel
His Holiness: John Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time. By Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi. Doubleday. 582…
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First Things / January 1, 1997
The Quinn Proposals
George Weigel
The debate on the future of the papacy and the Roman Curia launched this past June 29 by the…
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Crisis Magazine / November 1, 1996