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.

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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 ninety-one newspapers and magazines in five countries.

Mr. Weigel received a B.A. (Philosophy) from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, an M.A. (Theology) from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, and is the recipient of nineteen honorary doctorates. In 2024 he was decorated with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and has also been awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, the Lithuanian Diplomacy Star, and the Gloria Artis Gold Medal of Poland’s Ministry of Culture.

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Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action

Publication date: December 26, 2007Publisher: Doubleday From the publisher: “History must be made to march in the direction of genuine…

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God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church

Publication date: November 1, 2005 Publisher: Harper From the publisher: George Weigel’s New York Times bestselling biography of Pope John…

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Letters to a Young Catholic

Publication date: March 2, 2004Publisher: Basic Books From the publisher: For the faithful, the doubtful, and the searchers of every…

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The Truth of Catholicism: Inside the Essential Teachings and Controversies of the Church Today

Publication date: November 5, 2002 Publisher: Harper Perennial From the publisher: “An important book and a spectacular public service. It…

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The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, And The Future Of The Church

Publication date: August 21, 2002Publisher: Basic Books From the publisher: The Catholic Church in America is in a state of…

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Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II

Publication date: October 1, 1999Publisher: Harper From the publisher: Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the…

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Soul of the World: Notes on the Future of Public Catholicism

Publication date: January 1, 1996Publisher: Eerdmans Publication Company From the publisher: Social commentator George Weigel shows how three dynamics of…

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Idealism Without Illusions/U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1990s

Publication date: January 1, 1994 Publisher: Isi Books From the publisher: “[This] book presents a vision of American foreign policy…

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Building the Free Society: Democracy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching

Publication date: October 19, 1993 Publisher: Eerdmans Publishing Company From the publisher: Through the insightful and thought-provoking commentaries of ten…

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The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism

Publication date: November 19, 1992 Publisher: Oxford University Press From the publisher: The collapse of communism in central and eastern…

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Being Christian Today

Publication date: August 3, 1992 Publisher: Ethics & Public Policy Center From the publisher: Mark A. Noll, Max L. Stackhouse,…

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A New Worldly Order: John Paul II and Human Freedom

Publication date: February 1, 1992 Publisher: University Press of America From the publisher: The encyclical issued in May 1991 by…

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