George S. Weigel, Jr., author, political analyst and social activist, will speak at Saint Vincent Seminary at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 12 in the Robert S. Carey Student Center on campus. The lecture is part of the Pope Benedict XVI Lecture Series. His talk is entitled “The New Evangelization and the Crisis of American Public Life.”
Weigel received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Saint Vincent Seminary and gave the commencement address in May of 2000. At that time the Seminary recognized his monumental contribution to the understanding of the role of religion in public life.
Weigel is the distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. He holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.
From 1989 through June 1996, Weigel was president of the EPPC, where he led a wide-ranging, ecumenical and inter-religious program of research and publication on foreign and domestic policy issues.
He is perhaps best known for his widely translated and internationally acclaimed two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II, the New York Times bestseller, Witness to Hope (1999), and its sequel, The End and the Beginning (2010). In 2017, Weigel published a memoir of the experiences that led to his papal biography, Lessons in Hope—My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II.
Weigel is the author of more than twenty other books, including The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How The Church Rediscovered Itself & Challenged The Modern World To Reform (2019); The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God (2005); Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (2013); Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (2013); Letters to a Young Catholic (2015); and The Fragility of Order: Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times (2018). His essays, op-ed columns, and reviews appear regularly in major opinion journals and newspapers across the United States.
A frequent guest on television and radio, he is also senior Vatican analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to eighty-five newspapers and magazines in seven countries.
Weigel is the recipient of nineteen honorary doctorates in fields including divinity, philosophy, law, and social science. He has been awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, Poland’s Gloria Artis Gold Medal, and Lithuania’s Diplomacy Star.
The Pope Benedict XVI Lecture Series was established in 2005 with support from Mr. and Mrs. John F. Donahue and Dr. and Mrs. George Magovern.
Given the evolving situation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and recently surfaced variants, all visitors to Saint Vincent College, Archabbey, and Seminary are required to wear a mask while indoors regardless of vaccination status.
For reservations for this free lecture, please go to: https://hipaa.jotform.com/212565805922155.
The event will be broadcast at this link: https://vimeo.com/595430695.
