"This pope is a public moral reference book," Weigel said.
Weigel is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a non-governmental organization established in 1976 to study the connections between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and domestic and foreign policy issues.
During the question and answer session following the speech, one audience member asked what the Pope had accomplished in relations with China.
Weigel described failed attempts to curb China's human rights violations as the Pope's "single biggest public disappointment."
In fact, the biography includes a copy of a letter John Paul II wrote to Deng Xiaoping over a decade ago, a letter to which the Pope received no response.
Although, unfortunately, the letter bore no fruits for the Pope, it might do more for Weigel.
"I'm interested in what the letter to Deng says," said first-year law student Kevin C. Walsh. "I'm going to buy the book to find out."