Columnist: George Weigel
German Bishops’ Conference, Over the Cliff
When it was first published in 1993, Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the reform of Catholic moral theology, Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), dealt a severe blow ...
George Weigel: When ‘The Last Hurrah’ Met Catholic Lite
I would like to feel pity for the now-former president, but that’s a steep climb. Four years ago, this column praised the courage of Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, ...
The Continuing Scandal of the Vatican’s China Policy
In the annals of historical boorishness, it would be hard to find something more egregious than the Holy See’s timing as it renewed its 2018 agreement with the People’s Republic ...
The Questions That Norah O’Donnell Should Have Asked Pope Francis
Whatever else it managed to accomplish, Norah O’Donnell’s 60 Minutes interview with Pope Francis, aired on May 19, obliterated that much-lauded program’s reputation for hard-hitting investigative journalism. The questions posed ...
George Weigel: Unity in What?
Among the many urgent questions raised by the Synods on the Family in 2014 and 2015 and the current Synod on Synodality — questions that will inevitably bear on the ...
By Their Vocabulary, You Shall Know Them
By their vocabulary, you shall know them? Well, to a considerable degree. And in these early November days, when the Church celebrates all the saints in glory and prays for ...
Bishop Wilmer Calls for ‘Significant Changes in Sexual Morality in the Catholic Church’
The bishop of Hildesheim, Germany, who may still be named prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently published a letter stating that “it has become clear ...
The “Synodality” Masquerade
The mechanisms of consultation that exist in the Church—from parish councils through diocesan pastoral councils to the Synod of Bishops—exist to strengthen the governance of the Church by its pastors: ...
There’s a Pony in Here Somewhere: A Post-Synodal Reflection
According to his longtime consigliere, Edwin Meese, President Ronald Reagan must have told the “pony joke” at least a thousand times. The story involves the super-optimistic child whose parents take ...
The Ratzinger Diagnosis
Published a week short of his 92nd birthday, Joseph Ratzinger’s essay on the epidemiology of the clergy sex-abuse crisis vividly illustrated his still-unparalleled capacity to incinerate the brain circuits of ...
Weigel’s Open Letter to Cardinal Reinhard Marx
Your Eminence: I noted with interest your recent announcement of a “binding synodal process” during which the Church in Germany will discuss the celibacy of the Latin-rite Catholic priesthood, the ...
The Unfair, Anti-Catholic Conviction of Cardinal George Pell
No one with a sense of justice can fail to be outraged when, in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a jury in Maycomb, Ala., bows to social pressure and convicts an ...