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
Squandering Moral Capital
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 23, 2019
Nothing About Us Without Us
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 16, 2019
Lay Collaboration and Episcopal Authority
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 9, 2019
U.S. Catholic Bishops Should Convey a Note of Fraternal Caution to Rome
Published in National Review Online on January 4, 2019
A Tough Year Ahead
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on January 2, 2019
The Unfair, Anti-Catholic Conviction of Cardinal George Pell
Published in The New York Post on December 31, 2018
Soho Pilgrimage: A Christmas Meditation
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 26, 2018
Stephen Hawking’s Surprise
Published in National Review Online on December 24, 2018
Books for Christmas
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 19, 2018
In Ukraine, a Seismic Ecclesiastical Shift
Published in National Review Online on December 18, 2018
Why 42 Had to Be Impeached Twenty Years Ago
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 12, 2018
Avoiding Another Roman Fiasco in February
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on December 5, 2018
Cleansed and Conformed to God’s Will
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 28, 2018
Remembering a Christian Gentleman
Published in National Review Online on November 25, 2018
Vatican Autocracy and the U.S. Bishops
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 21, 2018
A Century After the Armistice
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 14, 2018
Roots of Catholic Anger
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on November 7, 2018
Shifting Tectonic Plates in Eastern Christianity
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 31, 2018
Reflections on Synod-2018
Published in First Things on October 29, 2018
A Public Church, not a Partisan Church
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 24, 2018
John Paul II, Youth Minister
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 17, 2018
The Catholic Crisis, in Perspective
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 10, 2018
Courage in the Slough of Despond
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on October 3, 2018
The Kavanaugh Battle, Viewed from Rome
Published in National Review Online on October 1, 2018
An Orthodox Fracture with Serious Consequences
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 26, 2018
Did Pope Francis Just Make China Protestant?
Published in National Review Online on September 24, 2018
Another Vatican Diplomatic Blunder
Published in National Review Online on September 20, 2018
Maintenance vs. Mission
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 19, 2018
Saving Synod-2018 from Itself
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 12, 2018
Full-Immersion Catholicism
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on September 5, 2018
A Crisis—but Not of Faith
Published in The Wall Street Journal on August 31, 2018
Why We Stay, and the Viganò Testimony
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 28, 2018
Fackenheim’s Law and the Current Catholic Crisis
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 22, 2018
The Current Crisis
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 15, 2018
WYD-1993: The Turning Point
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 8, 2018
Fridays without Charles
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on August 1, 2018
Cardinal McCarrick and How Pius XI Might Have Disciplined Him
Published in National Review Online on July 27, 2018
Affirming and Celebrating Humanae Vitae
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 25, 2018
A Caveat on the Great Tom Wolfe
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 18, 2018
A Pastor in Full
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 11, 2018
The Summer Reading List
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on July 4, 2018
Acts and Us
Published in George Weigel's weekly column The Catholic Difference on June 27, 2018
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