PROVIDENCE — Catholic theologian, leading public intellectual and author George Weigel, renowned as an author or editor on more than 30 books, including the New York Times bestseller “Witness to Hope” (1999), and its sequel, “The End of the Beginning” (2010), spoke to a group of those in formation for the priesthood at Our Lady of Providence Seminary last Thursday.
Weigel, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, spoke to the seminarians about his experiences as a papal biographer to Saint Pope John Paul II.
When writing his first bestsellers, his instinct was to relay his personal experiences in meeting John Paul II through stories, not simply narrative.
“People wanted to hear stories,” he said, which led to his third volume, “Lessons in Hope,” which enabled Weigel to share many encounters encounters he had with John Paul II that did not have fit into the first two volumes.
But the sheer volume of material he had collected through countless dinners and meetings with the Holy Father, including in the inner sanctum of the Apostolic Place, was daunting to prioritize and tell the story.
“How was I going to get the job done of telling his story in depth? Weigel said.
He said that certain broad themes emerged, which gave him a way of arranging the subject matter.
Weigel spoke of the qualities he admired most about the future saint, the more personal side of which he was privileged to reveal to the world through his books.
“They try to understand me from the outside, but they can only understand me from the inside,” John Paul II once told him.
That led Weigel to look at the pontiff’s process for accomplishing all that he had in his nearly quarter-century pontificate.
“John Paul II prayed his way into all his life decisions. He did all of that in front of the Blessed Sacrament. He prayed his way into everything.”
He told the story of how the pope decided to appoint a new archbishop of Paris in 1981.
“John Paul II thought [the appointment] needed a shot in the arm,” so he chose to appoint the Bishop of Orleone, Jean-Marie Aron Lustiger, who was born in the French capital of parents who were Polish Jews.
At first, Bishop Lustiger modestly refused, seeing himself as not worthy of such a high office in the Church. But John Paul II persisted and convinced him to take the appointment, where he would serve for the next 20 years.
Weigel likewise saw the pontiff’s fortitude in pushing for global events, such as World Youth Day, as instrumental in making such things happen when “everybody thought he was nuts.”
“Through World Youth Day, he changed the global face of Catholicism,” he said.
Weigel said that John Paul II’s permanent openness served him well, even as his instincts were most often spirit-driven.
“He remained the most relentlessly curious man I’ve ever met,” he said.
John Paul II knew the things he didn’t know and was always open to learning from others who did.
A vocal opponent of tyranny, he opposed dictatorships and communist rule throughout his papacy.
“He was a man who refused to submit to the tyranny of the impossible,” Weigel said.
Father Ryan W. Connors, S.T.D., rector of the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence, said that the seminarians of today continue to be inspired by Pope Saint John Paul II.
“Many have been influenced by his writings on the priesthood as well as his teaching on the redemptive power of human suffering. We were grateful for the lecture on the life and teaching of John Paul II, especially his confidence in God’s providence and joy amidst challenge,” he said.
“The priests of tomorrow are men of hope. For many, entering the seminary did not come easily. But they have come to rely on God and His abundant mercy. These men desire to serve God by serving His people, laying down their lives to serve the Church.”
The Weigel lecture was made possible by a generous bequest of Father Robert Hawkins, former pastor of St. Luke Parish in Barrington, who offered a generous bequest to the McVinney Foundation, which Father Connors said was being utilized for a lecture series.
