Special US report: Catholics leading the way in Politics in 2025

This year’s US Leaders Special Report highlights the new realities of American public affairs. Just as one Catholic left the White House, after Joe Biden finally decided not to seek a second term, another returned as Donald Trump was re-elected with JD Vance as his vice-president and a cabinet filled with conservatives who wear their faith on their sleeves.

In this sixth section of the report, we honour those who contribute to Catholic thought through their teaching and writing. We pay special tribute to Alasdair MacIntyre, who died earlier this year and is included posthumously. The Augustinian-Thomist philosopher was a giant in his field, paving the way for many intellectually inspired conversions to the Faith.

Patrick Deneen
Professor and author
Patrick Deneen is professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 2012. He previously taught at Princeton University (1997–2005) and Georgetown University (2005–2012), where he held the Eleni and Markos Tsakopoulos Kounalakis Chair in Hellenic Studies. He is the author of numerous essays and several books, including Why Liberalism Failed, which has been translated into 14 languages. His most recent book, Regime Change (2023), critiques the political status quo and makes the case for a community-focused conservatism oriented towards the common good.

Mary Eberstadt
Essayist, novelist and public speaker
Mary Eberstadt holds the Panula Chair in Christian Culture at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, and is a senior research fellow at the Faith & Reason Institute. A writer whose work traverses genres, she is the author of several non-fiction books including How the West Really Lost God and Adam and Eve After the Pill, as well as The Loser Letters, a satire modelled on C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. Her work often focuses on the fate and aspirations of postmodern men and women.

Anthony Esolen
Catholic scholar and author
Anthony Esolen is a writer, social commentator, and distinguished professor of humanities at Thales College in North Carolina. He has taught at Providence College, the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, and the Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts. He is the author and translator of more than 25 books, including a three-volume translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. His work has appeared in Modern Age, Catholic World Report, Crisis Magazine, and Touchstone, where he is a senior editor. He was awarded the Circe Institute’s Russell Kirk Prize in 2020. With his wife Debra, he publishes Word and Song, a weekly cultural journal featuring hymns, poems, and film recommendations.

Robert George
Legal scholar and political philosopher
Robert George is the sixth McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and director of its James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. A graduate of Swarthmore College, he holds degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University, as well as 21 honorary doctorates. One of the leading conservative intellectuals in the US, he co-founded the American Principles Project and previously chaired the National Organization for Marriage. In 2009, The New York Times described him as the most influential conservative Christian thinker in America. He has received the Presidential Citizens Medal and the Canterbury Medal from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. A former chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, he also served as a Judicial Fellow at the US Supreme Court.

Scott Hahn
Theologian
Scott Hahn is a Catholic theologian and Christian apologist. He is the author of numerous bestselling books, including Rome Sweet Home, which recounts his and his wife’s conversion to Catholicism. Other notable works include The Lamb’s Supper, Reasons to Believe, and Hail, Holy Queen. Hahn holds the Father Michael Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990. A widely popular speaker, Hahn has helped many Protestants and lapsed Catholics return to the faith. He co-runs the St Paul Center for Biblical Theology with his wife Kimberly.

Dean Koontz
Author
Dean Koontz is an American novelist whose books have sold more than 500 million copies and been published in 38 languages. Thirty of his novels have reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list. Raised in Pennsylvania by an abusive father, Koontz found escape in books and later discovered Catholicism, which he credits with offering both existential clarity and intellectual rigour. A prolific writer, he blends horror, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and satire. One of his recent novels, After Death (2023), follows a modern-day Lazarus figure. He cites G.K. Chesterton as a key influence, describing his work as rooted in wonder, joy, and the mystery of life.

Larry Kudlow
Conservative TV host
Larry Kudlow served as the 12th director of the National Economic Council under President Trump from 2018 to 2021. A former left-wing activist turned conservative economist, he previously advised President Reagan. Now a Fox News host, Kudlow is a Catholic convert who overcame addiction after losing his Wall Street job in the 1990s. Following recovery through a 12-step programme, he was received into the Church with the help of Opus Dei priest Fr C. John McCloskey. He has served on the Catholic Advisory Board of the Ave Maria Mutual Funds and on the board of trustees at Fordham University.

Alasdair MacIntyre
Philosopher
Alasdair MacIntyre was a Scottish-American philosopher known for his work in moral and political philosophy. His landmark book, After Virtue (1981), remains one of the most influential works of the 20th century. He was a senior research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies at London Metropolitan University and emeritus professor at the University of Notre Dame. A former Marxist, MacIntyre moved towards Aristotelian ethics, converting to Christianity—and eventually Catholicism—by the early 1980s. His work draws heavily on an Augustinian-Thomist approach to moral reasoning.

Ralph Martin
Author and president, Renewal Ministries
Ralph Martin is a lay Catholic leader, speaker, and author. He is president of Renewal Ministries and hosts The Choices We Face, a globally broadcast Catholic TV and radio programme. He teaches theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and speaks regularly at conferences in the US and abroad. His books include The Fulfillment of All Desire (2006) and A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward (2022). In 2022, he addressed the UK Confraternity of Catholic Priests at an event sponsored by the Catholic Herald.

Chad Pecknold
Professor of Theology, Catholic University of America
Chad Pecknold is professor of historical and systematic theology at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History and co-editor of the T&T Clark Companion to Augustine and Modern Theology. A contributing editor to the Catholic Herald, Pecknold writes for First Things, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on EWTN, BBC, and NPR. He co-founded the Postliberal Order, and serves as resident theologian at the Basilica of St Mary in Alexandria, Virginia. He is currently working on a book on The City of God.

Ramesh Ponnuru
Conservative political pundit, journalist and thinker
Ramesh Ponnuru is editor of National Review and a columnist for the Washington Post. He is also a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Raised by a Hindu father and Lutheran mother, Ponnuru converted to Catholicism and defends Catholic teaching as central to his public philosophy. His books include The Party of Death (2006) and The Mystery of Japanese Growth (1995). In 2015, Politico named him and his wife April among the 50 most influential people in US politics.

Stephen Rasche
Senior fellow, Religious Freedom Institute
Stephen Rasche is an expert on persecuted Christians and legal counsel to the Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil, Iraq, since 2010. He has helped establish the Catholic University in Erbil and represented the Chaldean Church to the Vatican’s refugee and migration bodies. A professor of theology at Franciscan University, Rasche also made the documentary Francis in Iraq chronicling the Pope’s 2020 visit. His recent work has focused on anti-Christian violence in Nigeria.

Christopher Rufo
Senior fellow, Manhattan Institute
Christopher Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a graduate of Georgetown University, and a prominent critic of critical race theory and gender ideology in public education.

Roy Schoeman
Author
Roy Schoeman is a Catholic convert from Judaism, whose books explore the relationship between the two faiths. His best-known work, Salvation Is from the Jews, argues for the fulfilment of Judaism in the Catholic Church. Other books include Honey from the Rock and Judaism: From a Catholic Perspective. He teaches theology, hosts a Radio Maria show, and maintains a YouTube channel focused on evangelisation and Jewish-Catholic dialogue.

Nicholas Sparks
Author and philanthropist
Nicholas Sparks is the bestselling author of The Notebook, Dear John, The Wish, and Dreamland. His books have sold over 75 million copies in the US alone. He supports several charitable causes and co-founded the Epiphany School in North Carolina. He also contributes to the creative writing programme at the University of Notre Dame.

Adrian Vermeule
Legal scholar
Adrian Vermeule is the Ralph S. Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. A Catholic convert, he advocates a legal philosophy known as common-good constitutionalism, rooted in Catholic social teaching. He is the author of eight books and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His advocacy of Catholic integralism remains controversial, and was critiqued by the Catholic Herald in a 2023 article titled How Catholics Can Lose Friends and Alienate People.

George Weigel
Author and commentator
George Weigel is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of 29 books, including the bestselling biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope. He has served on the board of the Institute for Religion and Public Life and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. A frequent contributor to First Things and National Review, Weigel is an outspoken advocate for religious liberty and Jewish-Christian solidarity.

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