The Dispatch

The importance of Jackie Robinson

April 19, 2017 George Weigel 0

In the history of the modern American civil rights movement, three iconic moments are typically cited. May 17, 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, […]

The Dispatch

The power of the Cross

April 12, 2017 George Weigel 0

Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890) – a theologian who came to prominence in the Victorian Age – can help us check the Church’s spiritual pulse in the post-modern twenty-first century, thanks to his prescient sense […]

The Dispatch

A bishop of consequence

April 5, 2017 George Weigel 5

When I first met Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., more than twenty years ago, I was struck by his boyish demeanor, his exquisite courtesy, and his rock-solid faith. Then the bishop of Rapid City, South […]

The Dispatch

On “owning” the Church

March 22, 2017 George Weigel 0

The question of “who owns the Church” has had a stormy history in Catholic America, although the terms of reference have changed considerably over time. In the 19th century, “lay trusteeism” – lay boards that owned […]

The Dispatch

A new Lenten discipline

March 8, 2017 George Weigel 0

For Lent 2016, I adopted a new Forty Days discipline in addition to intensified prayer, daily almsgiving, and letting my liver have its annual vacation: I quit sports talk radio, cold turkey.  This was not […]

The Dispatch

A Lent to remember

March 1, 2017 George Weigel 0

The best Lent of my life involved getting up every day at 5:30 a.m., hiking for miles through ankle-twisting, cobblestoned city streets, dodging drivers for whom traffic laws were traffic suggestions, avoiding the chaos of […]

Essay

Paul, Apollos, and Cephas, all over again

February 15, 2017 George Weigel 0

In April 2016, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, England, issued a pastoral letter on the interpretation of Amoris Laetitia (the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on marriage) and re-affirmed the Church’s long-settled teaching: the divorced and civilly remarried, while members […]