July 1st, 2009 by George Weigel
Dear Dr. Diaz:
Congratulations on your nomination as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Having worked on a bipartisan basis with seven of your predecessors, in both calm and turbulent times, I’ve some ideas I hope might be of use to…
June 17th, 2009 by George Weigel
When Samuel Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bush in 2005, there was a great and frequently uncivil hoo-rah to the effect that Alito would give the Supremes a “Catholic majority.” In this case, “Catholic” was code…
June 12th, 2009 by George Weigel
In another summer of baseball’s steroid-driven discontent—A-Rod scandals, Manny’s suspension, Clemens’s denials, etc.—it’s worth remembering a different era in the pastime, the virtues of which were embodied by the other DiMaggio: Dom, the Little Professor, kid brother of Joltin’ Joe,…
June 4th, 2009 by George Weigel
Thirty years ago this week, the Bishop of Rome returned to Poland for the first time since his recent election to the papacy. America’s premier Cold War historian, John Lewis Gaddis of Yale, is not ambiguous in his judgment of…
May 27th, 2009 by George Weigel
William George Ward was a mid-19th century English Catholic convert from Anglicanism and a controversialist of the take-no-prisoners variety. Having been intellectually convinced of the truth-claims of the Catholic Church, Ward’s approach to Church authority might be characterized as “in…
May 25th, 2009 by George Weigel
He was an amazingly prolific writer, but the late Father Richard John Neuhaus was also finicky about writing. He would personally review the galleys of each issue of First Things, the journal he founded, which was one reason the magazine…
May 16th, 2009 by George Weigel
Of all the commentary I’ve read on Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Obama to receive an honorary doctorate of laws as the university’s 2009 commencement speaker, the most disturbing came from Father Kenneth Himes of the Boston College theology…
May 8th, 2009 by George Weigel
Every September, the Congregation for Bishops in Rome hosts a seminar for newly-ordained bishops from around the world; the seminar is widely known, at least sotto voce, as “Baby Bishops’ School.” I have a modest suggestion for the curriculum: everyone…
May 1st, 2009 by George Weigel
This past Lent, in the course of an interview with Attitude, a gay magazine, Tony Blair said that Pope Benedict XVI’s “entrenched attitude” toward homosexual behavior was less tolerant than that of many ordinary Catholics. “There are many good and…
April 24th, 2009 by George Weigel
A few days after the 2008 election, I was walking toward the Largo Argentina on a cool, clear Roman evening, when I noticed a magazine kiosk and wandered over to have a look. There were journals from all over Europe:…
