Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II

by George Weigel

Overview

From a preeminent authority on the Catholic Church and papal biographer, an intimate understanding of John Paul II (Weekly Standard)

In Lessons in Hope, George Weigel tells the story of his unique friendship with St. John Paul II. As Weigel learns the pope from inside, he also offers a firsthand account of the tumult of post-Vatican II Catholicism and the Cold War's endgame, introducing readers to the heroes who brought down European communism. Later, he shows us the aging pope grappling with the post-9/11 world order and teaching new lessons in dignity through his own suffering.

A deeply humane portrait of an eminent scholar learning a saint, Lessons in Hope is essential reading for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of a world-changing pope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465094295
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

George Weigel is distinguished senior fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center and one of America's leading public intellectuals. The first volume of his biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, was a New York Times bestseller, and his writing appears regularly in a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal. He lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Table of Contents

A Dinner of Consequence 1

Coincidence and Providence 5

Lent in the Third Grade: Baltimore, 1960 7

First Steps in Philosophy: Baltimore, 1969-1973 9

Contesting the Council: Toronto, 1973-1975 12

Apprentice Wordsmith: Seattle, 1975-1984 17

Front Row Seat: New York and Baltimore, October 1979 24

In the Castle: Washington, 1984-1985 28

Cold War Endgame: Washington, 1985-1989 33

EPPC, Diplomacy, and Centesimus Annus: Washington and Copenhagen, 1989-1991 38

New Worlds 43

In the Belly of the Beast: Moscow, October 1990 47

Rookie Vaticanista: Rome, May 1991 and March-April 1992 50

"Do You Have Some Polish Ancestors?": Warsaw, Kraków, Gdansk, and Tarnów, June 1991 57

Pilsner on Tap and Martyr-Confessors: Prague and Bratislava, October 1991 65

In the Alps: Liechtenstein, July 1992 70

COST Giovane: Rome, November 1992 73

After the Revolution: Rome and Poland, 1993-1994 76

The Biography That Wasn't: Washington and Rome, Spring 1995 83

Parsing Freedom: New York and Baltimore, October 1995 88

The Witness, From Inside 93

The Mandatum Scribendi: Washington, January 1996 97

"That's Obvious…": Rome, March 1996 100

Worse Than Solzhenitsyn: Kraków, July 1996 103

"It Was Always 'Them' and 'Us'": Rome, September 1996 107

The Indispensable Man: Rome, 1996-1999 111

Spiral Staircase: Rome, December 1996 116

Tutor, Translator, Librarian, Nun: Rome, February-October 1997 120

"Humiliation at the Hands of Evil" and Crypto-Lenin: Rome, January 1997 126

A Pride of Curialists: Rome, 1996-1999 132

"Something Useful for the Universal Church": Rome, March 1997 154

Wojtyla's Poland in Depth: Warsaw, Kraków, and Lublin, April 1997 156

Inside the Holy See-Israel Negotiations: Austin, May 1997 169

Back in Sync in Poland: Kraków, June 1997 171

Camels for Daughters? Kraków and Paris, August 1997 174

Polonia on the Potomac: Washington, 1997-1998 176

Literary Architecture: Charleston, September 1997 181

"Who Eez Bob DEE-Lahn?" Rome, September 1997 183

"Are You Proud to Be an American?" Rome and Vienna, November-December 1997 186

The Island Prison; Cuba, January 1998 194

"What Are You Doing Here? You Are Not from Milwaukee …" Rome, March 1998 200

"Joan or Gwyneth?": Rome, April 1998 202

"He Is a Source of Light": Rome, April 1998 204

"You Are Getting Grey": Poland and Rome, July-December 1998 210

Impeachment Intervenes: Washington, July 1998-February 1999 219

Last Lap: Washington and Rome, January-June 1999 221

Jubilee Pilgrim's Progress 225

A Long Embrace: Rome, September 1999 227

On the Road: The United States, Canada, and Europe, October 1999-January 2000 231

Wisdom Personified: Jerusalem, March 2000 237

Back Home in Poland: Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw, and Kraków, May 2000 243

Lusitania and Oz: Portugal and Australia, June and October 2000 246

Erasmus, the Ethereal Spanish Pyrenees, and a Report to the Pope: New York, Pamplona, and Rome, November-December 2000 249

Via Crucis 255

Under the Golden Dome: Notre Dame, February 2001 257

Abraham Lincoln in Full Pontificals: Rome, February-March 2001 259

Chilled Guinness, Michael Jackson, Honorable Members, and Unhappy Tabletistas: Ireland, England, and Scotland, March 2001 263

Ben-Hur and the Pope: Rome, May 2001 267

New World Disorder: Rome, October-November 2001 272

The Long Lent: Rome, Portugal, Toronto, and Germany, 2002 280

The Iraq Crisis: Washington and Rome, January-April 2003 293

Dark Night and Silver Jubilee: Rome, October 2003 297

T. S. Eliot and a Good Story Ruined: Rome, December 2003 299

"I Proved Them Wrong!" Rome, December 2004 302

Fourteenth Station: Rome, March-April 2005 306

Mission Continued 319

A Gold Mine of Secrets: Poland and Rome, 2007-2008 323

Beatification and a Life Reconsidered: Rome, 2006-2008 332

A Promise Kept: Washington and Poland, 2010-2012 336

Lessons in Hope 339

Acknowledgments 343

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

08/28/2017
Weigel, official biographer of Pope John Paul II and distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, episodically reveals his experiences accompanying (and studying) Pope John Paul II and the impact this famous pope had on contemporary society. Early in life, Karol Wojtyla demonstrated enormous intellectual capacity and expressed precocious interest in the intersection of faith and reason. The early account of his life, although sourced and factual, comes off as rosy—a sentiment that underpins the rest of the text. Weigel spent decades studying John Paul out of sheer curiosity, and he also brings a journalist and scholar’s attention to his account. His focus is not so much on John Paul’s place in the line of popes, but rather how Karol Wojtyla became pope and then used his power to transform both the Church and religious society at large. This is an enchanting biography about a popular pope. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Lessons in Hope offers an intimate understanding of John Paul II in action... Weigel's astute analysis of the pope's life and thought is sprinkled throughout with anecdotes from their interviews and encounters... John Paul's "rock-solid confidence in God's guidance of his life... made him the freest man in the world." Those who desire to have such freedom and clarity, especially in our days of ecclesiastical and political confusion, would do well to read this book."
—Weekly Standard

"For anyone in need of hope, this volume — with its reliable understanding of history and Catholic witness, sound analysis, and the humor of both the author and the saint — delivers in abundance."—National Review

"[A] touching and insightful memoir...Weigel never loses sight of his main purpose: to illuminate the character and mind of the 'emblematic figure of the second half of the twentieth century.'"
—Commentary

"[F]ascinating and insightful...Weigel details the many personal meetings he had with John Paul, as well as with his friends and collaborators, both in Poland and the Vatican. These lengthy and substantive encounters provided much of the rich material for his biography...Weigel's fine intellect and delight in friendship shine forth in this memoir... The book is written with Weigelian verve, replete with quotable anecdotes that are often amusing and always telling."
—The Catholic Thing

"An enchanting biography about a popular pope."—Publishers Weekly

"A page-turner for fans of John Paul II, devotees of papal history, or those who simply enjoy a good and literate personal story."
—Kirkus

"A delightful series of linked, autobiographical vignettes."
—Catholic Standpoint (UK)

"There's no better eyewitness to the life and papacy of St. John Paul II than George Weigel, and this touching, intimate memoirs tells the story of their improbable friendship. It's a must-read, not simply because it adds to recent Church history, but because it feeds the heart and soul."
—John L. Allen Jr,. Editor of Crux

"In this album of memories, George Weigel not only gives us an affecting intimate portrait of Saint John Paul II, but an up-close and personal view of the men who helped shape Holy See diplomacy during the late Pope's eventful pontificate. Lessons in Hope is much more than a memoir, for no one understands Catholic international relations theory better than Weigel, and no one has written with more sympathetic understanding of the challenges facing the post-conciliar Church."
—Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Learned HandProfessor of Law, Harvard University

"This book recalls a particularly splendid moment in the recent history of Catholicism, a time when a saintly Pope exerted a decisive influence on both the Church and the wider society. But above all, it tells a compelling story of divine providence, the manner in which God wove two lives together—George Weigel's and John Paul II's—for their mutual benefit. Briskly written, intelligent, funny, filled with good stories, Lessons in Hope will be a joy to anyone who reads it."—BishopRobert Barron

"For literary as well as spiritual pleasure, one new offering of interest to anyone who luxuriates in reading is George Weigel's Lessons in Hope. With settings as panoramic as those of a thriller, and anecdotes about some of the most fascinating figures and scenes of the twentieth century, it's a moving, personal, melodically rendered memoir of the biographer's times with the late great saint."—Mary Eberstadt , The Claremont Review of Books

"Reading Lessons of Hope is like watching a play about the making of a play. It's a book about the making of the most comprehensive and compelling biography of Pope John Paul II. No other writer enjoyed anything like the personal access that George Weigel did; no one else can speak now with more authority about the Polish pope's remarkable life journey and its impact. And no one else can tell the story behind the story better than Weigel does in this insightful, revealing postscript."—Andrew Nagorski, former Newsweek Rome and Warsaw bureau chief and author of The Nazi Hunters and Hitlerland

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
At age 44, Weigel (Ethics and Public Policy Ctr.; Witness To Hope), whose previous work The Final Revolution detailed the role of the Catholic Church in the fall of communism, was asked to write a new biography of Pope John Paul II. The former pope was not satisfied with earlier accounts, considering their portrayal of the church's relationship with Eastern Europe and his position on political events to be flawed. Weigel relates his relationship to John Paul as it developed during the time he spent writing this book, and his interactions with other Vatican and political officials he interviewed in the process. Weigel criticizes several church figures he sees as too liberal, while offering reflections on the general state of the religious institution. He includes many personal asides about his own life in the church and many visits with John Paul, both alone and with his family. VERDICT Fans of Weigel and John Paul II will love this very personal portrait of the pope and its observations about the Catholic Church in the post-Vatican II era. Fans of those clergymen whom Weigel considers liberal will probably loathe it.—Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, NJ

Library Journal

2017-08-08
The story behind the defining biography of John Paul II (1920-2005).Vatican expert Weigel (Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church, 2013, etc.) tells the tale behind the writing of his most influential book. In 1999, the author published Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. Though not technically an authorized biography, Weigel received the written permission of the pontiff to write the book as well as the assistance of the Curia in researching it. The book changed Weigel's life, but only partly through its publication. The process of researching and writing it was also life-changing, and that is the story the author conveys here. He takes readers back in time to the closing years of the Cold War, chronicling how he rose up the ranks of Catholic scholars and writers as the Catholic Church pivoted, with difficulty, toward a new worldview in terms of communism and its own future. As his story passes into the 1990s, the author describes a pope of immense moral stature who was often at odds with the church bureaucracy that often fought, or ignored, John Paul's agenda in a changing world, as well as many of the problems besetting the church as the 20th century closed. Weigel interviewed these bureaucrats, among many others, to piece together the story of John Paul's papacy. In the end, the author completed his acclaimed biography and received his greatest remuneration: the gratitude of the pope himself. Weigel brings out an astounding collection of names, and the work could easily sound like a continued exercise in name-dropping were it not for his skill as a storyteller. Though the language is occasionally overly forma, the author's standing as a thinker and writer keeps his work from seeming arrogant. A page-turner for fans of John Paul II, devotees of papal history, or those who simply enjoy a good and literate personal story.

Kirkus Reviews