George Weigel joins Institute for Religious Liberty in commemorating the anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s death

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

Thomas More University’s Institute for Religious Liberty welcomed George Weigel, theologian and Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) as the keynote speaker for its Feb. 12 presentation, “Pope St. John Paul II and Religious Liberty.” This presentation is first in a series by the IRL, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the titular saint’s death.

Heralded as “one of America’s leading public intellectuals,” Mr. Weigel is best known for his widely translated and internationally acclaimed two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II: the New York Times bestseller, “Witness to Hope,” and its sequel, “The End and the Beginning.”

As the keynote presenter, Mr. Weigel’s talk began detailing large parts of the history of religious liberty and the Catholic Church, from the way church and state intertwined throughout the Byzantine Empire and middle ages, to the American revolution, and beyond.

“The Church had spent hundreds of years thinking that in one way or another, it needed the help of the state to do what it alone could do,” said Mr. Weigel, “The American experience suggested that there might be another way of looking at this.” — that being the separation of Church and state, allowing for Rome to appoint bishops in the new world and handle its own affairs separate from politics. This led directly into the Second Vatican Council where “groups of bishops came eager for a Catholic affirmation of religious freedom,” said Mr. Weigel.

In 1895, only 70 years before the Council, on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the American hierarchy, Pope Leo XIII sent a letter to the bishops of the United States, in which he “commented very favorably on the growth of the Church in the United States … and said that this distinctive American arrangement, a constitutional separation of Church and state institutionally, could be tolerated.”

As George Weigel’s presentation was the first in the series, those interested in the celebration of Pope St. John Paul II and the Institute for Religious Liberty can look forward to the second installment on March 31 with keynote speaker Dr. Paul Kengor, titled “John Paul the Great: Seven Things Every Catholic Should Know.”