Cardinal George Pell: The Encourager January 18, 2023By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference I know of few, if any, public figures who have displayed the moral courage George Pell displayed for decades as he defended and promoted the truth of Catholic faith in the face of a relentless, vicious Australian media campaign to destroy him.
The true Joseph Ratzinger January 4, 2023By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary, Pope Benedict XVI, The Catholic Difference The Joseph Ratzinger I knew for 35 years — first as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, later as Pope Benedict XVI and then Pope Emeritus — was a brilliant, holy man who bore no resemblance to the caricature that was first created by his theological enemies and then set in media concrete.
Books for Christmas – 2022 December 7, 2022By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Books, Commentary, The Catholic Difference A look at a few books that would make good Christmas gifts for Catholics.
Genocide in Ukraine? November 29, 2022By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Crisis in Ukraine, The Catholic Difference Yale historian Timothy Snyder thinks that, measured by the criteria of the Genocide Convention (to which Russia is a party), the Russian war in Ukraine is genocidal.
An open letter to the Synod General Secretary October 5, 2022By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Catholic schools in our inner-urban areas, like the new, state-of-the-art Mother Mary Lange School in Baltimore, are the most effective anti-poverty program the U.S. Church has ever devised — and they serve students from many religious backgrounds.
The Summer Reading List: A Ukrainian Primer June 9, 2022By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Books, Commentary, Crisis in Ukraine, Feature, The Catholic Difference Given the rubbish about Ukraine spewed out by Russian propaganda trolls and regurgitated by foolish or ideologically besotted Americans, this year’s annual Summer Reading List will focus on serious books that explain the background, including the religious dimension, of a conflict that will shape Europe’s future – and ours.
Marching toward a different future January 19, 2022By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Respect Life, The Catholic Difference A post-Roe America will be one in which the pro-life movement must work with state legislators to provide legal protection to unborn children.
The sacred earthiness of Christmas December 24, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Christmas, Commentary, Feature, The Catholic Difference “Besides the cradle in which our Lord, it is alleged, was rocked, is the stone manger of the grotto of Bethlehem. One of the stones of this manger is shown in the basilica of St. Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline, in the altar of the crypt of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
On not buying into the mythology of “prestige” universities October 14, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Parents and high school seniors making those tough college decisions would do well to look beyond the U.S. News and World Report college rankings and consider UD, Benedictine College, the University of Mary, Christendom College, Thomas Aquinas College, and other small Catholic liberal arts colleges.
A bold Catholic investment in inner city education September 16, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Feature, Schools, The Catholic Difference Today, inner-urban Catholic schools are a lifeline for children whose futures are being put at even greater risk by failing government schools and hidebound teachers’ unions that resist educational reform while engaging in various forms of ideological indoctrination.
Moral courage and the many cultures of death August 4, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Feature, The Catholic Difference Ryszard Kuklinski was a genuine hero of the long, twilight struggle against communist totalitarianism — the man who helped prevent a bloody Soviet invasion of Poland to crush the nascent Solidarity movement.
The oldest cathedral and the newest challenge June 2, 2021By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Baltimore Basilica, Commentary, The Catholic Difference It’s now the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but for native Baltimoreans of a certain vintage (like me) it is, was, and always will be “the Old Cathedral:” the first of its kind in the United States
