Books for Christmas – 2024 December 11, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Books, Commentary, The Catholic Difference In the spirit of happy browsing, here are some suggestions for Christmas book-giving (not “gifting”!) at a historical moment that needs equal doses of realism and hope.
Hard times coming, whoever wins October 30, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: 2024 Election, Commentary, The Catholic Difference Given an ever-darkening international landscape and the pandering of both parties to our baser instincts, the realistic conclusion is that whoever wins the White House, hard times are coming.
Keeping (or making) Catholic education great September 26, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, Schools, The Catholic Difference An authentic Catholic education is imbued with a Catholic worldview throughout the curriculum.
‘Witness to Hope,’ 25 years later September 4, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference A quarter-century later, the memory of that silent embrace remains. So does my gratitude that Witness to Hope continues to strengthen the faith of Catholics and lead seekers to Christ and his Church.
“Reminders” about Ukraine July 24, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Samuel Johnson, that great coiner of aphorisms, averred that “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” In that Johnsonian spirit, here are some reminders about what has been happening in Ukraine, for Senator J.D. Vance and others who persist in certain confusions about the situation and its implications.
Aroused consciences changing history July 4, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference John Paul’s revolution of conscience began when he restored to the Polish people the truth about their history and culture, which Poland’s communist regime had both distorted and suppressed since 1945.
Summoning the heroes May 29, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference These heroes will never be memorialized by a John Williams composition. But their courage was nonetheless just as moving – and as indicative of the nobility of which human beings are capable – as that of any Olympic athlete.
Invoking John Paul the Great May 21, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Last month’s anniversary Mass was something of a grand recapitulation of the John Paul II years.
Two who didn’t run March 7, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference Both Stanley Rother and Alexei Navalny exemplified the cardinal virtue of courage, which is also a gift of the Holy Spirit.
The MAD magazine caricature of U.S. Catholicism January 4, 2024By George Weigel Syndicated Columnist Filed Under: Commentary, The Catholic Difference U.S. Catholicism’s intellectual life is robust, dynamically orthodox, and culture-enriching — unlike Catholic intellectual life in those large swathes of western Europe where “Follow the Zeitgeist to Mordor” is the order of the day.
Christmas in a time of war December 20, 2023By George Weigel Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Christmas, Commentary, The Catholic Difference What shall we make of the burning Holy Land, during a Christmastide when we celebrate the angelic announcement of a messianic birth that marks the inbreaking of the peaceable kingdom of Isaiah 11:6-9?
German Catholicism: on the brink or at the cutting edge? December 13, 2023By George Weigel Special to the Catholic Review Filed Under: Commentary, Synodality, The Catholic Difference Some of those in charge of the “Synod on Synodality” may have regarded the German “Synodal Path” as a useful instrument in clearing the path for a dramatic reconfiguration of Catholic self-understanding and governance, moving the goalposts so far to the left that the old 50-yard line of the Catholic Vital Center would now be the old left end zone.
