EPPC - George Weigel RSS Feed

A Surprising Cast of Characters: King Belshazzar, Pope Leo XIII, and the 2012 Election

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

In this, his eleventh Simon Lecture, George Weigel--following the thought of one of Modernity's "Daniels," Pope Leo XIII, to interpret the "writing on the wall"--will diagnose the causes of the Secularist project's demise and prescribe a way of renewal for both the Church and society.

Seekers or Finders?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EST

All believers are "seekers," but the ultimate point is not about the seeking, but about the finding.

Child Sacrifice in 21st Century America

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

Thirty-nine years after Roe v. Wade created an unrestricted abortion license in the United States, and during the week when hundreds of thousands of Americans pray and march for life, all Americans ought to ponder the kind of country to which Roe v. Wade led.

V�clav Havel and Us

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

After his death, Václav Havel's brilliant literary deconstruction of the moral tawdriness of late bureaucratic communism, the underground essay called "The Power of the Powerless," was widely and appropriately quoted. Another Havel essay from his days in opposition also bears re-reading: "The Anatomy of a Reticence," the Czech playwright's 1985 critique of the willful blindness of western peace activists about the nature of Soviet totalitarianism.

Converts and the Symphony of Truth

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

There are as many reasons for "converting" as there are converts. If there is one common thread among them, it may just be the enticement of what Blessed John Paul II called the "symphony of truth."

Gehry’s Ghastly Eisenhower Memorial

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The present Eisenhower Memorial design, by postmodernist Frank Gehry, is an aesthetic and historical travesty having virtually nothing to do with the Dwight David Eisenhower of history.

Breaking Bad Liturgical Habits II

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

The introduction of the third edition of the Roman Missal and the new translations of the liturgical texts offer the entire English-speaking Church an opportunity to correct some bad liturgical habits that have developed over the past four decades.

The Weakness of Tyranny

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST

What drives history over the long haul is culture: what men and women cherish, honor, and worship; what men and women are willing to stake their lives, and their children's lives, on. The truest realism, therefore, is one shaped by truths and ideals, not only by calculations of power.

Christmas, the Infinite, and the Finite

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Christmas faith inspires righteous living, not by fear, but by love: the love that expresses itself in history in the humility of the Incarnation and the Holy Birth; the love that speaks of the glory of God, "wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

Time Out with Professor George Weigel

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

EPPC's Distinguished Senior Fellow, George Weigel, spoke with Fiona Basil of the Kairos Catholic Journal during a recent trip to Australia.

Confronting Truth

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Václav Havel (1936-2011)

The Cardinal Down Under

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, will be regarded by historians as the man who set the pattern for Australian Catholic prelates of the twenty-first century. In doing so, he has saved Catholicism in Australia and set it on course toward a vibrant future, evangelically and publicly.

Coercing Consciences

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

Some Catholics argued that, when then-Cardinal Ratzinger's warnings about the "dictatorship of relativism" were too over-the-top. Others thought the formula an accurate summary of a grave threat to freedom. Recent events throughout the western world have fully vindicated the latter.

Books for Christmas

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 EST

In a world of Kindles and iPads, real books still make wonderful Christmas gifts. Here are some recently published (and read) titles EPPC's George Weigel recommends with enthusiasm.

Catholics and Freedom

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

"Progressive Catholics" and "social-justice Catholics" do both the Church and American democracy a disservice by suggesting that the bishops' recent alarms about threats to religious freedom are self-serving, as if the bishops were simply playing institutional defense and battling for the right to indulge the Catholic Church's idiosyncrasies.

Downsizing-to-grow in Ireland

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

While there has been no one cause of Ireland's radical secularization, the Church in Ireland had best look to itself, its sins, its errors, and its unbecoming alliance with political power as it considers how to begin anew.

Remembering Bill Doherty

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

Bill Doherty, who died on August 28, 2011, was one of the great Catholic laymen of twentieth century America. A bear of a man who had been a defensive lineman at Catholic University during his student days, Bill dedicated his professional life to trade unionism as an instrument of democracy-building (and hence peace-making) in Latin America.

Must the Roman Curia be Italian?

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

The universal ministry of the pope in the Evangelical Catholicism to which Vatican II and the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI are giving birth is going to require a different kind of central administration, a different kind of Roman Curia.

Breaking Bad Liturgical Habits

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

The long-awaited introduction of the new translation of the Roman Missal on November 27, the First Sunday of Advent, offers the Church in the Anglosphere an opportunity to reflect on the riches of the liturgy, its biblical vocabulary, and its virtually inexhaustible storehouse of images.

The Emerging Crisis in Ukraine

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 EST

That the Ukrainian government would conduct, publicly, a trial on trumped up and politically motivated charges, and that the court would return a guilty verdict with a heavy penalty (including a $190 million fine on top of the prison sentence) - as it has in the recent trial of Yulia Tymoshenko - makes quite clear that the current authorities have little regard for justice or democratic norms of governance; an especially troubling prospect with revanchist Russia looming to the east.