• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Bishop Robert Barron
          • George Weigel
          • Question Corner
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Suzanna Molino Singleton
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Paul McMullen
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • Subscribe
George Weigel, who wrote a biography of Blessed John Paul II, speaks at a press conference at the Vatican April 25, 2014. At right is Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) (April 25, 2014)

Weigel’s new book recounts “unexpected” connection to St. John Paul II

Christopher Gunty August 10, 2017
By Christopher Gunty
Filed Under: Behind the Headlines, Blog, Commentary

George Weigel has written more than 20 books, including one of the primary biographies of St. John Paul II.

How did this Baltimore boy get connected to Pope John Paul II, and how did he come to write “Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II,” published in the fall of 1999, and “The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy”?

Weigel’s 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.

He grew up in Baltimore and received a bachelor of arts from St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore and master’s degree from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto.

Weigel will kick off a speakers’ series at the Baltimore Basilica Sept. 21, just a couple days after his latest book, “Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II,” hits the market. He will discuss the new book and his connections to one of the longest-serving popes.

Listen to George Weigel discuss “Lessons in Hope” and St. John Paul II in this episode of the “Catholic Baltimore” radio show.

In the interview, Weigel noted that all of his material from the John Paul II research will be donated to the Library of Congress after he dies. That includes audio tapes of his research for “Witness to Hope,” including 12 hours of conversations with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. The cardinal was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope John Paul II. Scholars and others who are interested will be able to access that information, once it is digitized by the LOC.

For more information about Weigel’s Sept. 21 talk at the Baltimore Basilica, click here.

Contact Gunty at editor@catholicreview.org; Twitter: @ReviewGunty.

 

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Christopher Gunty

Christopher Gunty

A Chicago-area native, Christopher Gunty is associate publisher/editor of The Catholic Review and CEO of its parent publishing company, The Cathedral Foundation/CR Media. He also serves as a host of Catholic Review Radio.

He has spent his whole professional career in Catholic journalism as a writer, photographer, editor, circulation manager and associate publisher. He spent four years with The Chicago Catholic; 19 years as founding editor and associate publisher of The Catholic Sun in Phoenix, Ariz.; and six years at The Florida Catholic. In July 2009, he came to Baltimore to lead The Cathedral Foundation.

Chris served as president of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada from 1996 to 1998, and has traveled extensively learning about and reporting on the work of the church, including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Haiti, Poland, Italy, Germany and finally in 2010 visited the Holy Land for the first time.

View all posts from this author

Recent Commentary

A Lent full of promise, steak success, cooking with children, and more (7 Quick Takes)

Archbishop Lori reflects on the Year of St. Joseph

Reason for celibacy/ Blessing for non-sacramental marriage?

Pandemic Stories (or why there’s a Nerf gun in the tub)

A pandemic Lent, ox cookies, and Valentine’s gifts (7 Quick Takes)

Recent Local News

Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84

Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography

Pasadena parish cites pandemic in decision to close preschool

Father Snouffer, information technology trailblazer for archdiocese, dies at 83

‘Blessing bags’ a focal point for merged St. Casimir Parish during pandemic

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • A Lent full of promise, steak success, cooking with children, and more (7 Quick Takes)
  • Archbishop Lori reflects on the Year of St. Joseph
  • Health care chaplains in Baltimore and beyond embrace self-care in COVID-19 work
  • Religious order withdraws request to transfer founder’s remains to U.S.
  • Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84
  • Reason for celibacy/ Blessing for non-sacramental marriage?
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography
  • Heroes of love: New pathway open for future saints
  • Some English Catholics object to transfer of nun’s remains to Philadelphia
  • Bishops: If passed, Equality Act will ‘discriminate against people of faith

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2021 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED