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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Just War and the Gulf War

Publication date: December 1, 1991 Publisher: Ethics & Public Policy Center Co-Authored by George Weigel and James Turner Johnson From…

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Freedom and Its Discontents: Catholicism Confronts Modernity

Publication date: August 15, 1991 Publisher: Ethics & Public Policy Center From the publisher: How can an authoritative church avoid…

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The American Search for Peace: Moral Reasoning, Religious Hope, and National Security

Publication date: May 1, 1991 Publisher: Georgetown University Press From the publisher: Revolutions and aborted revolutions and bitter civil and…

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A Century of Catholic Social Thought: Essays on ‘Rerum Novarum’ and Nine Other Key Documents

Publication date: April 1, 1991 Publisher: Ethics & Public Policy Center From the publisher: Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum…

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The Structure of Freedom: Correlations, Causes, and Cautions

Publication date: January 1, 1991 Publisher: Eerdmans Publishing Company Co-Authored by George Weigel, Peter L. Berger, Raymond D. Gastil, and…

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American Interests, American Purpose: Moral Reasoning and U.S. Foreign Policy

Publication date: July 7, 1989 Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing From the publisher: American Interests, Amercan Purpose explores the relationship between moral…

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Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy

Publication date: January 1, 1989 Publisher: Paulist Press From the publisher: In Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy, George…

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Tranquillitas Ordinis: The Present Failure and Future Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and…

Publication date: February 26, 1987 Publisher: Oxford University Press From the publisher: In recent years, Roman Catholic bishops and activists…

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The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God

Publication date: July 31, 2008Publisher: Basic Books From the publisher: Why do Europeans and Americans see the world so differently?…

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