(CAMDEN) – On what would have been Pope John Paul II’s 85th birthday, May 18, biographer George Weigel will speak in Camden as part of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception’s “Cathedral Form” lecture series.
The lecture will begin at 7:00 PM. Mr. Weigel will discuss and take questions about his relationship with the late pontiff and his critically acclaimed book Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. He recently provided the NBC commentary for the Pope’s funeral and also shared his experiences and thought about the recent events in which the Catholic Church transitioned between two Popes.
George Weigel is the Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. He is the authored or edited 16 other books. In addition to his books, Weigel has contributed essays, op-ed columns, and reviews to the major opinion journals and newspapers in the United States. He has appeared on numerous network television, cable television, and radio discussion programs, and is a consultant on Vatican affairs for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to sixty newspapers around the United States, including in the Catholic Star Herald, the newspaper of the Diocese of Camden.
From 1986 until 1989, Weigel served as founding president of the James Madison Foundation. From 1989 through June 1996, Weigel was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. From June 1996, as President of the Center, Weigel prepared a major study of the life, thought, and action of Pope John Paul II. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II was published to international acclaim in the Fall of 1999.
Weigel, who has been awarded eight honorary doctorates and the papal cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, serves on the boards of directors of several organizations dedicated to human rights and the cause of religious freedom. He is also a member of the editorial boards of First Things and Orbis. George Weigel and his wife, Joan, live in North Bethesda, Maryland with their three children. The evening’s forum is part of an ongoing lecture series held at Cathedral Community Hall, located at Broadway and Federal Streets, Camden. Recent speakers have included DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, Ambassador L. Bruce Laingen who was chargé d’affaires of the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran, when Iranian militants overran the embassy in 1979, CNN Reporter and Co-Host of Crossfire Mark Shields and Ambassador Thomas Melady who served as Ambassador to the Vatican, Burundi and Uganda. “It is hoped that this forum, held quarterly with presenters recognized as experts in their field, from local, regional and national venues, serves as a think tank and stimulus to consider ethical, quality of life, religious, spiritual and cultural dimensions of the present renaissance of the City of Camden,” said Father Michael Mannion, Rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Roman Catholic Church in Camden.