The Dispatch

The Holy See and thug regimes

January 27, 2021 George Weigel 22

The list of grave issues that must be addressed during a future papal interregnum, and by the cardinal-electors in a conclave, continues to grow. The finances of the Holy See are arguably in worse shape […]

The Dispatch

Fr. Maciej Zięba, O.P. (1954-2020) 

January 13, 2021 George Weigel 2

A wretched year came to a sorrowful end when Father Maciej Zięba, OP, died in his native Wrocław, Poland, on December 31. The birthplace of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wrocław was also the home of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who grew […]

The Dispatch

Catholic coherence, Catholic integrity

January 6, 2021 George Weigel 11

In 2007, the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean completed their fifth general conference with a final report, known from the Brazilian city where they met as the “Aparecida Document.”  Its principal authors included […]

The Dispatch

Thoughts on a pro-life picket line

December 30, 2020 George Weigel 20

One of Dr. LeRoy Carhart’s “Clinics for Abortion & Reproductive Excellence” – named to yield the Orwellian acronym CARE – is located about a mile away from my parish in Bethesda, Maryland. Earlier this year, […]

The Dispatch

What the Magi teach us

December 23, 2020 George Weigel 5

Among the tenured professorial skeptics, few Gospel episodes have been sliced, diced, and tossed to the dissecting room floor as “mythology” more often than the story of the Magi: the “wise men from the East […]

The Dispatch

On cages and evangelization in China

December 16, 2020 George Weigel 19

Joshua Wong is a young Chinese human rights activist, recently sentenced to 13 and a half months in prison on the Orwellian charge of “incitement to knowingly take part in an unauthorized assembly” – meaning, […]

The Dispatch

Books for Christmas – 2020

December 2, 2020 George Weigel 2

How bad a year has it been? Let me not count the ways. Good books can hearten us in 2021 and beyond, though. Herewith, then, some suggestions for Christmastide book-giving: Prison Journal, Volume 1, by […]