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.
Not Decadent Beyond Repair
George Weigel
In the aftermath of the Cold War and what was prematurely assumed to be the final triumph of democracy and…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
The Critique
George Weigel
The most developed expression of the East Asian critique with which I’m familiar can be found in the Spring 1994…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Social Rot
George Weigel
In Ambassador Mahbubani’s considered opinion, it is time for the West to rethink its basic notions of human freedom and…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Political Paralysis
George Weigel
The social rot of American life, as Mahbubani perceives it, has had enormous political consequences, which are intensified by the…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Back to Square One
George Weigel
Thus it is time for America to return to the philosophical drawing board. When citizens, even in suburbs, live in…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Demythologizing the Demythologizers
George Weigel
No doubt that’s true. A well-ordered society not only can be good for individual citizens; it is the prerequisite both…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Authoritarianism and Its Discontents
George Weigel
Stripped to its essentials, the claim of the Singapore School is that authoritarianism works (economically and socially), and that it…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Fragile Stability
George Weigel
The political risks of Singapore-style authoritarianism are also serious; left unaddressed, they could well jeopardize the East Asian miracle. As…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Pluralism and Universality
George Weigel
There are numerous other problems with Kishore Mahbubani’s account of contemporary American life. His imprisonment statistics are quite misleading; the…
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Syndicated Column / August 1, 1994
Wirth’s Law, Havel’s Woodshed
George Weigel
Like others before me, I have been known to complain from time to time about the circularity of the standard-brand…
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Syndicated Column / April 1, 1994