Beyond Rome
Beyond Rome is a podcast that seeks to reconnect Catholics with their Hebraic and Christian roots in the Near East. Hosted by Simone Rizkallah and James O’Reilly from the Philos Catholic team at the Philos Project, they explore a variety of topics related to religion and culture in the West and why the Near East matters for a healthy Church and world. Beyond Rome looks beyond the West to understand what makes the Catholic Church truly universal.
Beyond Rome
21. Pope St. John Paul II in the Holy Land
This week Simone Rizkallah and James O’Reilly are once again joined by Dr. George Weigel to discuss Pope St. John Paul II’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000 and his exemplary witness to Catholic-Jewish relations despite the always changing geopolitical climate.
George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. He holds EPPC’s William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.
From 1989 through June 1996, Mr. Weigel was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he led a wide-ranging, ecumenical and inter-religious program of research and publication on foreign and domestic policy issues.
Mr. Weigel is perhaps 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 (1999), and its sequel, The End and the Beginning (2010). In 2017, Weigel published a memoir of the experiences that led to his work as a papal biographer: Lessons in Hope — My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II.
George Weigel is the author or editor of more than thirty other books, many of which have been translated into other languages. His essays, op-ed columns, and reviews appear regularly in major opinion journals and newspapers across the United States.
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Timestamps:
00:00-04:22 – Dr. Weigel covers Pope John Paul II’s trip to the Holy Land in 2000
04:22-17:14 – Pope John Paul II’s Catholic-Jewish relations were based on friendship and shared experiences
17:14-26:00 – Antisemitism is apparent in society but is there antisemitism in the Church? | The Ulma Family
26:00-31:19 – Nazi attempt to purge Old Testament from Christianity vs the radical holiness of Pope John Paul II
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Resources:
➡️ Read Holy Land Pilgrimage: A Diary by George Weigel: https://philosproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Holy-Land-Pilgrimage.pdf
➡️ Read Following the Jewish Jesus by George Weigel on First Things: https://firstthings.com/following-the-jewish-jesus/
➡️ Ethics and Public Policy Center: https://eppc.org/
➡️ Learn more about George Weigel here: https://eppc.org/author/george_weigel/