George Weigel

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George Weigel (Baltimore, 1951 - ) is an American conservative author, Roman Catholic theologian and political and social activist. He serves as a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and as an Adjunct Fellow of the Discovery Institute's Religion, Liberty & Public Life Program. Weigel was also Founding President of the James Madison Foundation. He is the author of the biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope.

Weigel grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he attended St. Mary's Seminary and University, and he lated received his masters degree from the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto. Weigel has received eight honorary doctorate degrees, in addition to the papal cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Weigel lived in Seattle, serving as Assistant Professor of Theology and Assistant Dean of Studies at the St. Thomas Seminary School of Theology in Kenmore, Scholar-in-Residence at the World Without War Council of Greater Seattle, before returning to Washington, D.C., as a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Weigel founded in 1986 the James Madison Foundation.

In his political writings, Weigel argues for a foreign policy of "moralism without illusions." His position is that the threat of evil in the world cannot be escaped, negotiated with, reformed, or constrained by international norms. Facing a world where "evildoers" still roam free, Weigel advocates a U.S. foreign policy guided not by moral notions about how nations should behave, but by moral reasoning.[1] In some cases, he adds, moral reasoning may require that the United States support authoritarian regimes to fend off the greater evils of moral decay and threats to the security of the United States, which in his view is "the champion of all that is good and right."

Weigel and his wife Joan live in North Bethesda, Maryland with their three children.

Contents

Contra connection allegations

Critics allege that while Weigel was president of the James Madison Foundation during the Reagan administration it received funding from the federal government's U.S. Institute for Peace to monitor what it called "peace groups." Weigel was also a principal at the Puebla Institute[2]. The Puebla Institute received U.S. government funding channeled through Weigel's National Endowment for Democracy to the contra front group Prodemca. Along with Carl R. Channell's National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL), both the Puebla Institute and Weigel's National Endowment for Democracy were important conduits for funds from the contra supply network coordinated by Oliver North. Also alleged is that the Puebla institute's investigation of purported Sandinista government religious persecution was conducted in close coordination with the CIA and its Contra directorate, and that Weigel worked closely with the institute's director, Nina Shea, on the investigation.[3] Critics note the irony of the naming of the World Without War Council since it advocated U.S. military action to secure a Pax Americana, (as has Weigel), and was virulently anticommunist, and that its activities were misrepresented to the American public.

Publications

Books

  • The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God
  • Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II
  • The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism
  • Cathlolicism and the Renewal of American Democracy
  • The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism
  • Soul of the World: Notes on the Future of Public Catholicism
  • The Truth of Catholicism: Ten Controversies Explored
  • The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church
  • Letters to a Young Catholic
  • Tranquilitas Ordinis: The Present Failure Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and Peace

Articles

Reference notes

  1. ^  George Weigel, American Interests, American Purpose: Moral Reasoning and U.S. Foreign Policy (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1989).
  2. ^  [4] Group Watch: Puebla Institute, Right Web.
  3. ^  The product of the investigation published by the institute was Christians Under Fire, a controversial polemic allegedly penned by Nicaraguan contras and financed by the CIA. In support of its work with the contra-affiliated Nicaraguan Human Rights Commission, The Puebla Institute also received funding from the right-wing Olin Foundation.
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