George Weigel, well-known Catholic theologian and author of the papal biography “Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II,” will give a lecture April 28, 7 p.m., in St. Paul Church, Princeton.

Part of the parish’s Richard Collier Memorial Lecture series, the title of Weigel’s talk is “The Gospel of Life and a ‘Church in Permanent Mission’: Pope Francis’ Challenge to Catholics in America.” The lecture will center on the Pope’s call for Catholics to be in constant mission, particularly caring for those on the peripheries of 21st century life. Weigel will explore this new movement in Catholic history and how Pope Francis’ support of the pro-life cause fits into it.

The lecture series honors Richard Collier, pro-life advocate and longstanding member of St. Paul Parish and its pro-life ministry, who died on Christmas Day, 2013.

“It was a devastating loss for many of us who have worked hard to protect human life from conception to natural death,” said Aileen Collins, St. Paul’s Respect Life Ministry member and parishioner. “He was a leader and a true hero of the pro-life movement.”

As a way of honoring his dedication, several members of the Respect Life ministry team – including Todd and Katy Theroux, Professor Robert P. George and then parochial vicar Father Michael McClane – decided to organize a memorial lecture “in memory of Rich’s staunch defense of human life that spanned a legal career of nearly four decades,” Collins added.

Since 1989, Collier served as president  of the Legal Center for Defense of Life, a non-profit organization providing legal services to protect human life from conception to natural death, especially the life of the unborn.

“As a first rate and very well-respected pro-life attorney, Rich was involved in numerous high-profile cases,” Collins elaborated, “including his 1997 appointment by a Superior Court judge to represent an unborn baby, and his 1997 appointment by the state legislature to defend its statute banning partial-birth abortions.”

Collier was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Guardian of Life Award from New Jersey Right to Life; the Pro Vita Award and the St. Thomas More Award, both from the Diocese of Metuchen; the Cardinal John J. O’Connor Pro-Life Award from the Northeast Region of Legatus International; and the Diocese of Trenton’s Lumen Gentium Award.

The St. Paul Respect Life ministry invited Weigel to be its 2015 Richard Collier Memorial Lecture presenter, asking him to give a talk on Pope Francis’ pro-life views.

In addition to his extensive bibliography, Weigel is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a Washington-based advocacy group. Founded in 1976, the group describes itself as “dedicated to applying the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to critical issues of public policy.” Weigel was president of the EPPC from 1989-1996, during which time he led a wide-ranging, ecumenical and inter-religious program of research and publication on foreign and domestic policy issues.

Following the worldwide acclaim of the St. John Paul II biography in 1999, Weigel continued to publish several more books, as well as essays, op-ed columns and reviews for major opinion journals and U.S. newspapers, and is a contributor to Newsweek. Weigel is also Vatican analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to 60 newspapers around the country.

The lecture is free and open to the public. St. Paul’s welcomes a free will offering. For more information about George Weigel, visit http://eppc.org/fellows-scholars/george-weigel/ or  georgeweigel.blogspot.com