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
Homelands and Social Doctrines
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 20, 2018
EXCERPT: George Weigel’s New Book The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times
Published in The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times on June 14, 2018
After the Irish Debacle
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 13, 2018
INTERVIEW: God & I: George Weigel
Published in Messenger of St. Anthony on June 7, 2018
Craving Approval Isn’t Evangelization
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 6, 2018
Grace Under Pressure
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 30, 2018
Justin Trudeau and the Dictatorship of Relativism
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 23, 2018
Interview: George Weigel on Moral Order, the Current Mess, and a Theological Reading of History
Published in The Catholic World Report on May 22, 2018
The Holy See, China, and Evangelization
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 16, 2018
The Vocation of Law
Published in National Review Online on May 13, 2018
Freedom Is Never Free
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 9, 2018
Interview: George Weigel Discusses The Fragility of Order on CNS News
Published in CNS News on May 9, 2018
Making a Diverse College of Cardinals Work
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 2, 2018
Baseball and Synod 2018
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 25, 2018
Roe v. Wade Derangement Syndrome
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 18, 2018
Patriarch Kirill and Mr. Putin
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 11, 2018
Defending the Indefensible at Holy Cross
Published in National Review Online on April 5, 2018
Air Turbulence and the Resurrection
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 4, 2018
March Madness at the College of the Holy Cross
Published in National Review Online on March 29, 2018
The Easter Effect and How It Changed the World
Published in Wall Street Journal on March 30, 2018
Memory, Identity, and Patriotism
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 28, 2018
An Even Worse Vatican Deal with China
Published in National Review Online on March 24, 2018
Democracy and Its Discontents
Published in National Affairs - Spring 2018 issue on March 21, 2018
Getting Ready for Synod-2018
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 21, 2018
Learning from the White Rose
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 14, 2018
Parsing the “T”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 7, 2018
Rethinking “Mission Territory”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 28, 2018
Conscience and Grace: A Lenten Meditation
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 21, 2018
Death with Real Dignity
Published in National Review Online on February 16, 2018
INTERVIEW: New Book Shares Author’s Adventure of Telling St. John Paul II’s Life Story ‘From the Inside’
Published in Catholic Standard - Archdiocese of Washington on February 15, 2018
Pope Francis Is Playacting Realpolitik
Published in Foreign Policy on February 15, 2018
Pork Roll, Lent, and Catholic Identity
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 14, 2018
A Vatican-Based Bishop Extols China
Published in National Review Online on February 7, 2018
Men Without Conviction, Churches Without People
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 7, 2018
On the Vatican’s Reported Capitulation to Beijing
Published in National Review Online on February 5, 2018
The Catholic Church Doesn’t Do “Paradigm Shifts”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 31, 2018
Homage to Don Briel
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 24, 2018
“Equilibrium” and Ignominy
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 17, 2018
Recompense for a Serious Mistake
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 10, 2018
Viva Cristo Rey!
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 3, 2018
In Memoriam, 2017
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 27, 2017
The Catholic Journey to Religious Freedom
Published in National Review Online on December 20, 2017
The Crèche and the Gap
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 20, 2017
George Weigel Discusses His Lessons Learned From St. John Paul II
Published in National Catholic Register on December 15, 2017
Books for Christmas
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 13, 2017
A Meditation on “Maranatha”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 6, 2017
What’s Changed Since Humanae Vitae?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 29, 2017
A Museum for Which to be Thankful
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 22, 2017
The Museum of the Bible and the Roy Moore Embarrassment
Published in National Review Online on November 21, 2017
As the Bard Might Say…
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 15, 2017
The Bishops, the Pro-Life Cause, and Pope Francis
Published in National Review Online on November 14, 2017
“You Have to Decide.”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 8, 2017
Grit, Gus, and Glory
Published in The New Atlantis - Spring 2017 issue on November 2, 2017
Murderers’ Row, Soviet Style
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 1, 2017
Which Reformation? What Reform?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 25, 2017
Re-Forming the Church
Published in Plough Quarterly on October 18, 2017
Whose Bourgeois Morality?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 18, 2017
The Catechism of the Catholic Church at 25
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 11, 2017
Remembering Congressman John Miller
Published in National Review Online on October 6, 2017
Fencing with Bigots
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 4, 2017
A Last Chance to Win One for Ike?
Published in National Review Online on September 27, 2017
The Transmigration of Theological Nonsense
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 27, 2017
Interview: George Weigel on the “Lessons in Hope” He Received from John Paul II
Published in Catholic World Report on September 18, 2017
A Memoir I Never Expected to Write
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 20, 2017
Speaker Ryan Invites a Social Doctrine Conversation
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 13, 2017
Superheroes? Stardust? Or Vessels of the Incarnation?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 6, 2017
Domesticating the Divinity
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 30, 2017
It’s a Culture War, Stupid
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 23, 2017
Motown and the Turbocharged Church
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 16, 2017
Ecumenism, Influence-envy, Etc.
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 9, 2017
Questions of Competence
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 2, 2017
Are Jihadis “Losers”?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 26, 2017
The Cooler Cold War
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 19, 2017
Awkward? Or Wise?
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 12, 2017
Fifty Years of Friendship with Cardinal Pell
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 5, 2017