Russian Orthodoxy and Lenin’s Tomb
By George Weigel
Posted: Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Self-respect—and respect for its martyrs—ought to compel the Russian Orthodox Church to lead, not oppose or hinder, any move to demythologize Lenin and put an end to his obscene tomb, home to a mummified mass murderer and maniacal persecutor of the Church of Christ.  [Read More]

The Gentlemanly Art of the Insult
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The vulgarity of our culture has made nearly extinct the once great gentlemanly art of delivering insults fit for polite company.  [Read More]

Among the “Progressed”
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Had he lived beyond his untimely death in 1968, Thomas Merton might—just might—have become one of the first Catholic neoconservatives.  [Read More]

Martyrdom in Pakistan
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Pakistan's federal minister for religious minorities, a Catholic named Shahbaz Bhatti, was murdered earlier this year for refusing to abandon his convictions about religious freedom in the face of Islamic extremists. If the Church one day celebrates the feast of Blessed Shahbaz Bhatti, martyr, this good and brave man's confession of faith —"I know the meaning of the Cross and I am following the Cross"—would make an exemplary addition to the Office of Readings.  [Read More]

Benedict XVI on Europe's Future
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI is engaged in a campaign to remind Europe of its Christian roots and to call Europe to a nobler understanding of democracy. The two parts of that campaign—the recovery of Christian roots and the deepening of 21st century Europe's idea of democracy—go together.  [Read More]

The First—and Last—"European"?
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Otto von Habsburg was arguably the first modern “European,” embodying the link between the old monarchies of pre-war Europe with the post-war democracies and eventually the European Union. He may also have been the last. For the EU, as it has evolved in the early 21st century, has been built around a naked public square in which biblical religion plays no role; faith in reason is faltering under the assault of post-modernism and political correctness; and the rule of law is jeopardized by what Pope Benedict XVI has called the “dictatorship of relativism.”  [Read More]

Why Hasn’t Francis Ford Been Beatified?
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, August 3, 2011
The Catholic Church should not be reticent about celebrating the heroic witness of those martyred by Chinese communists.  [Read More]

Michael Novak, Founding Father
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Twenty years ago, the American Catholic thinker Michael Novak decided to see what might be done about educating a new international cadre of young Catholic leaders in the social doctrine of the Church. The Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society is just one part of his towering legacy.  [Read More]

China-Watching in the Vatican
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The Catholic Church need be in no rush to establish full diplomatic relations with China. Keeping the pressure on, especially about religious freedom and the free appointment of bishops, is more important now than a nunciature and a Vatican ambassador in Beijing.  [Read More]

Moral Revolutions in America
By George Weigel
Posted: Wednesday, July 13, 2011
In a recent article, Yale professor David Gelernter noted that modern America had "two extraordinary accomplishments: victory in the Cold War and the all-but-eradication of race prejudice in a single generation..." The back story of the latter is worth pondering around Independence Day.  [Read More]