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
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
Remembering Peter Berger
Published in National Review Online on July 1, 2017
The Persecution of Cardinal George Pell
Published in National Review Online on June 29, 2017
The Summer Reading List
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 28, 2017
It’s Howdy Doody Time!
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 21, 2017
Way Beyond the New Atheist Nonsense
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 14, 2017
Thoughts on the Western Wall, Fifty Years Later
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 7, 2017
The Remarkable Life of Lubomyr Husar . . .
Published in National Review Online on June 5, 2017
Interreligious Dialogue with Edge and Purpose
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 31, 2017
Health Care Needs a Soul
Published in Commencement Address at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University on May 22, 2017
Catholic Lite and Europe’s Demographic Suicide
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 24, 2017
A Hillarian Lesson for Church Leaders
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 17, 2017
The Fifty-Day Party
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 10, 2017
Why Did Pope Benedict Resign?
Published in Faith magazine (UK) - May/June 2017 issue on May 4, 2017
Ironies in the Fire: Catholicism and Modernity
Published in Magnificat Foundation on April 29, 2017
Après Gorsuch Le Deluge
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 3, 2017
Let’s Not Make a Deal…at Least this Deal
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 26, 2017
The Importance of Jackie Robinson
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 19, 2017
Easter and the ‘Panula Option’
Published in National Review Online on April 15, 2017
The Power of the Cross
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 12, 2017
Ike Memorial No-Brainer
Published in National Review Online on April 4, 2017
A New Awakening
Published in National Affairs - Spring 2017 issue on April 5, 2017
A Bishop of Consequence
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on April 5, 2017
Waugh’s Helena, Father General, and the Reality of Revelation
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 29, 2017
On “Owning” the Church
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 22, 2017
Persuasive Disciples, Not Anarchic Disrupters
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 15, 2017
A New Lenten Discipline
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 8, 2017
A Lent to Remember
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on March 1, 2017
Appeasement Never Works
Published in National Review Online on February 25, 2017
Bitter Harvest and the Bitter Present in Ukraine
Published in National Review Online on February 23, 2017
A Modest Defense of the “Liberal World Order”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 22, 2017
Remembering Michael Novak
Published in National Review Online on February 17, 2017
Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, All Over Again
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 15, 2017
Meeting with Moscow, Rome Must Refuse to Bend to the Putin Storyline
Published in National Review Online on February 8, 2017
Synod-Talk, Again
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 8, 2017
A Papal Tutor of Heroic Virtue
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on February 1, 2017
Theology isn’t Math; but it is Theology
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 25, 2017
Fake History
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 18, 2017
Interview with George Weigel: The Creative Catholic
Published in The Catholic World Report on December 27, 2016
Lessons from an Era of Confusion
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 11, 2017
New Year’s Wishes for Some Catholic Brethren
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 4, 2017
A Ukrainian Christmas . . .
Published in National Review Online on December 29, 2016
A “Merciless Assault on Human Dignity”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 28, 2016
Christmas and Living Beyond Fear
Published in National Review Online on December 24, 2016
Europe’s Future
Published in The Patriarchate (Ukraine) on December 21, 2016
Christmas and the Divine Proximity
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 21, 2016
The Persecution of Professor Esolen
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 14, 2016
Books for Christmas 2016
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 7, 2016
A (Liturgical) New Year’s Resolution
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 30, 2016
Vicious Teenagers Have Run Cuba for 57 Years
Published in National Review Online on November 29, 2016
On Our Need for the Real Thomas More
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 23, 2016
Gloucester Fisherman, American Veteran, Polish Benefactor
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 16, 2016
Good News, Bad News
Published in National Review Online on November 10, 2016
Catholicism Embodied: “The Pivotal Players”
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 9, 2016
The Year of the Con: When the Civil Calendar and the Liturgy of Hours Align
Published in National Review Online on November 8, 2016
Those Catholic Wikileaks
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 2, 2016
The End of an Era, the Interment of an Event
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 26, 2016
Russian Orthodoxy’s Aggressive Obsessions
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 19, 2016
Europe is Under Threat
Published in National Review Online on October 17, 2016
What ‘Peace’ Means Today
Published in National Review Online on October 13, 2016
Changing the Game
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 12, 2016
Is Faith the Missing Ingredient that Can Make Western Democracy Work?
Published in The Scotsman on September 27, 2016
Golden Memories of a Golden Anniversary
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 5, 2016
The Culture of Death, on the March in Colorado
Published in National Review Online on September 29, 2016
Speaking of “Deplorables”….
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 28, 2016
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