STEUBENVILLE, OH—George Weigel, Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading commentators on religion and public life, will speak at Franciscan University of Steubenville on Tuesday, October 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Tony and Nina Gentile Gallery, J.C. Williams Center.

Weigel’s talk, “Evangelical Catholicism and Catholic Higher Education” reflects themes in his recent book, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church.

Weigel’s book describes “evangelical Catholicism” as “the Catholicism that is being born, often with great difficulty, through the work of the Holy Spirit in prompting deep Catholic reform—a reform that meets the challenges posed to Christian orthodoxy and Christian life by the riptides of changes that have reshaped world culture since the 19th century.”

Weigel is the distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and Vatican analyst for NBC News. He is the author of 21 books, including the acclaimed Witness to Hope and The End of the Beginning, his two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II. He has been awarded 18 honorary doctorates including one from Franciscan University in 2004.

Weigel’s talk is part of the Distinguished Speakers Series at Franciscan University, which is a collaborative effort of the offices of Academic Affairs, Student Life, and Advancement.