George Dering Wolff

George Dering Wolff (b. at Martinsburg, West Virginia, 25 August1822; d. at Norristown, Pennsylvania, 29 January1894) was an American Protestant minister, later after a conversion an editor of Catholic publications.

Life

His parents were Charlotte Wolff, and Bernard Crouse Wolff (b. at Martinsburg, 1794), a prominent theologian of the German Reformed Church (Lutheran). The family moved to Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1835, the father becoming English pastor there.

George graduated A.M. from Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and there studied law for three years at Easton. Though admitted to the Bar, he never practised, but after a four years' theological course became a minister of the German Reformed Church. The elder Wolff and his son were staunch followers of John Williamson Nevin, who in 1843 began to develop in their sect a system of theology which, whilst bitterly opposing Catholicism, held Christ's Church to be a living organism and sought to restore certain teaching of Christ repudiated by the Protestant Reformation (see G. D. Wolff's article "The Mercersburg Movement" in "American Catholic Quarterly", 1878).

George Wolff joined the Catholic Church in 1871. The next year he became editor of the "Catholic Mirror" published at Baltimore, leaving it the year following for the "Catholic Standard" of Philadelphia, of which he died editor-in-chief. His editorial success caused him to be called to join Dr. James A. Corcoran and Father James O'Connor in establishing the "American Catholic Quarterly Review", first issued in Philadelphia, January 1876. Father O'Connor was consecrated bishop in August of that year, and went to his vicariate Apostolic in Nebraska. The other two editors sustainedthe publication until their death. Wolff's articles were largely on matters of apologetic theology. His wife, Sarah Hill, became a convert to Catholicism, as did his brother, Professor Christian Wolff.

References

*"In Memoriam, George Dering Wolff" in American Catholic Quarterly Review (April, 1894);
*"The Catholic Standard" (Philadelphia, February 1894)