You might think that it’s odd for George Weigel, usually billed as a conservative, to be supporting the Second Vatican Council. Because Vatican II supporters are liberals, no? And its critics conservative? Well, you’d be wrong. George Weigel thinks that the Second Vatican Council was necessary and right, so that’s one prejudice debunked. Actually, he doesn’t have time for the whole progressive/conservative binary divide. “Most of these labels are absurd and ridiculous,” he told me flatly. “The Catholic Church is not about left and right but about true and false.” That’s telling us. George Weigel, a heavyweight intellectual and author of over 25 books, is a fluent mixture of the genial and the combative, and it’s nice to see both sides. His new book on the Council, To Sanctify the World (Basic Books, £25), coincides with its 60th anniversary.