Author Archives | George Weigel

George Weigel - who has written 226 posts on Catholic Exchange.


Contact the author

Riding the “Solidarity Express”

Posted on 01 January 2009

Twenty-five years ago, in one of its intervals of lucidity, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to an unemployed Polish electrician whose surname 95 percent of the world mispronounced. The electrician, Lech Walesa (pronounced vah-WHEN-suh, if you…

Born in the Midst of Daily Life

Posted on 25 December 2008

The Roman basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian tends to elude the casual tourist and the hurried pilgrim, although it’s right off the Via dei Fori Imperiali between Trajan’s column and the Coliseum. A visit at any time is worthwhile,…

Defending Human Dignity

Posted on 18 December 2008

Before tackling “Dignitas Personae” (”The Dignity of a Person”), the recent instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on contemporary bioethical questions, I’d suggest re-reading the first chapter of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Huxley was no great…

St. John Lateran: The Church Standing Erect

Posted on 06 December 2008

Because the media drama of the papacy often has St. Peter’s for its stage, many Catholics may not know that the Patriarchal Vatican Archbasilica isn’t the Pope’s cathedral. St. Peter’s belongs, in a sense, to the whole Church, and the…

Giving Thanks for America

Posted on 27 November 2008

The vagaries of scheduling put me in Europe for the week before the November 4 election. In conversations in both Rome and Cracow, I was struck by the frequency with which friends and colleagues said that Americans would be electing…

The Two Americas

Posted on 25 November 2008

By the dawn’s early light on Nov. 5, two distinct Americas hove into view. The two Americas are not defined by conventional economic, ethnic or religious categories; it’s not rich America vs. poor America, black America vs. white America, or…

Adult Interreligious Dialogue

Posted on 18 November 2008

Father Christian Troll, a German Jesuit, is one of the Catholic Church’s leading students of Islam and a key figure in the Catholic-Islamic dialogue launched by Pope Benedict XVI’s September 2006 Regensburg Lecture. Speaking recently at Cambridge University, Father Troll…

The Christian Story and the World’s Story

Posted on 10 November 2008

I can’t remember precisely when I fell in love with history, but it was surely in the first innings of my reading life.

Granted, this was easier in the days when history was written and taught as, well, history — meaning…

Praying for Those to be Elected

Posted on 04 November 2008

There will be much to ponder, once this interminable electoral cycle comes to an end. Why has so much of the campaign seemed like a prolonged episode of “American Idol,” with candidates trying to sell their personal “narratives” rather than…

Electing Our King

Posted on 29 October 2008

During the debate over ratification of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton and his Federalists argued for “energy in the executive” — a strong president who would set the national agenda and be the center of legislative and policy initiative in the…

CE Spotlight

Faith Factory

Champions of Faith Ad