Michael Sean Winters

Michael Sean Winters is the author of Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats (Basic Books, 2008). His biography of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, God's Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Made God a Republican and Baptized the American Right was published by Harper One in January 2012 to critical acclaim. 

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Pope Francis looks on during an exclusive interview with Reuters at the Vatican July 2. (CNS/Remo Casilli)

Pope Francis' critics cram the church into their ideological narratives

Michael Sean Winters: George Weigel and Archbishop Joseph Naumann criticize Pope Francis in ways that are uniquely American and increasingly anachronistic.

Jordan Peterson speaks at the 2018 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

Links: Abortion ban fears; clerical complicity in Jan. 6; takedown of Jordan Peterson

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Ambiguity in abortion bans; a conservative writer takes on Jordan Peterson over Putin and Ukraine; the collapse of the Biden agenda; left-wing monoculture.

Pope Francis meets with a delegation from the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations in the library of the Apostolic Palace June 11 at the Vatican. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Women are now helping to select Catholic bishops. It is historic and long overdue.

Michael Sean Winters: The appointment of three women to serve on the Dicastery for Bishops is an enormous change in the life of the Roman Curia and in the life of the universal church.

Cryptocurrency (Unsplash/Quantitatives)

Federal Reserve should steer clear of cryptocurrency and its charlatans

Michael Sean Winters: Why should taxpayers' dollars go to offer a shred of protection to anarcho-capitalists and those they duped? Let them enjoy their libertarian paradise, and enjoy the consequences, good or bad.

A delegate carries a bowl of incense during a prayer walk at a pre-synodal assembly in the sixth-century monastic site of Clonmacnoise in Ireland June 18. (CNS/Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne)

Links: Irish synodal process; Democratic presidential hopefuls; gerrymandering

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Fr. Gerry O'Hanlon on Ireland's pre-synodal assembly; praise for Garvey ignores predecessor; tougher approaches to Russia; codependency as a "toxic myth."

From left: Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas, in a 2018 photo; Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, in a 2020 photo (CNS photos/Tyler Orsburn/Paul Haring)

It's past time for the Vatican to investigate these two Texas bishops

Michael Sean Winters: "Houston, we have a problem." Tom Hanks' memorable line in the movie "Apollo 13" seems like an appropriate starting point to consider the ecclesiastical situation in the great state of Texas.

President Donald Trump, right, walks on stage before delivering remarks during a Latinos For Trump campaign event at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Doral, Florida, Sept. 25, 2020. (CNS/Reuters/Tom Brenner)

Links: Supporting Ukraine; Bannon offers to testify; Latinos and the GOP

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Essay backs Ukraine's war of self-defense; Family Research Council applies to be a church; Republican inroads among Latinos; Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

U.S. Supreme Court (Unsplash/Ian Hutchinson)

Is the Supreme Court in danger of abandoning its own legitimacy?

Michael Sean Winters: No one wants a Supreme Court with its finger to the wind, but the current conservative majority seems to enjoy thumbing its nose at the American people.

President Donald Trump speaks at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland Jan. 20, 2021, ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. (CNS/Reuters/Carlos Barria)

Why is it so hard to force Donald Trump off the political stage?

Michael Sean Winters: Critics of Merrick Garland fault him for not being more aggressive in prosecuting Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election. But where would anyone find a jury willing to convict him?

A rail line in Brush, Colorado (Unsplash/Mars Plex)

Links: Anti-Catholic bigotry; Colorado River drought; passenger rail

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Chicago religious leaders condemn anti-Catholic bigotry; Gloria Purvis on abortion and Black women; listen to B+ Catholics; reflecting on the good Samaritan.

Two members of the Congolese community in Rome present the offertory gifts to Pope Francis during Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican July 3. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Pope Francis' new apostolic letter is about more than 'liturgy wars'

Michael Sean Winters: In a letter on the liturgy, published last week, Pope Francis, in line with Vatican II, again invites all Catholics to drink deeply from the wellspring of our faith, the paschal mystery.

A local resident walks in a front of a building destroyed by a Russian military airstrike in a photo taken June 17 in Lysychansk, Ukraine. (CNS/Reuters/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Links: Sobriety about the war in Ukraine; union hotels; beautiful cathedrals

Michael Sean Winters: Foreign Affairs authors make the case that the response to the war in Ukraine is the "last best hope" for Western powers to create a rules-based international order; only patronize hotels that do this.

(Unsplash/Jim Strasma)

This July Fourth, let's celebrate our dependence on one another

Our independence succeeds only to the extent it is balanced by societal interdependence, by bonds that might restrain our independence and freedom but that do so in pursuit of the common good, by mutual dependence.

Australian Cardinal George Pell is seen at a cafe near the Vatican in Rome Oct. 4, 2020. (CNS/Franco Origlia)

Links: Trump fatigue; artist Sam Gilliam dies; meet and greet two cardinals

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Michael Gerson is passionate without being tendentious; why we need to overcome Trump fatigue; $50,000 to meet Cardinal Pell, $20,000 to meet Cardinal Sarah.

The Supreme Court is seen Nov. 4, 2020, in Washington, with the U.S. Capitol in the distance. (AP photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

How will the Supreme Court's decision on abortion affect the midterm elections?

Michael Sean Winters: The Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and that "the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives" throws a curve ball into this autumn's midterm elections.

Abortion demonstrators are seen near the Supreme Court June 24 in Washington, as the court overruled the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision in its ruling in the Dobbs case on a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. (CNS/Tyler Orsburn)

Links: A 'bitterly polarized' America; Cardinal Müller's interview; GOP's future

Michael Sean Winters: Politico offers roundup of responses to Roe v. Wade being overturned; Cardinal Gerhard Müller should be advised against giving interviews to LifeSiteNews; is Gov. Ron DeSantis the future of the GOP?

Pope Francis arrives to open the World Meeting of Families in the Paul VI hall June 22 at the Vatican. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Pope gives master class in ministry at World Meeting of Families

Michael Sean Winters: This World Meeting of Families is not the spectacle we saw in previous years. It has gained in depth anything it lost in breadth, mostly because of what Pope Francis said at the event.

Fourth-grader Richard Blount works on a social studies assignment at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Massapequa Park, N.Y., Jan. 14, 2004. At the time, more than 2.5 million students were enrolled in 8,000 Catholic schools in the U.S.

In praise of the Supreme Court's decision that religious schools can get tuition aid

The U.S. Supreme Court correctly ruled that Maine cannot exclude religious schools from tuition assistance programs. The ruling is not a step toward religious establishment, prohibited by the First Amendment.

Pope Francis greets people during his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican June 22. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Links: Hoping Francis never retires; GOP primaries; Catholic journalism

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: An evangelical Protestant's view of Pope Francis; Republican Party's post-primary weirdness; people in the ideological center; the Rural Indexing Project.

Pope Francis greets people as he arrives for his general audience in St. Peter's Square June 15 at the Vatican. (CNS/Reuters/Yara Nardi)

Understanding the pope's reforms: Making the church Christocentric

Michael Sean Winters: Pope Francis issued a rescript requiring local bishops to get approval from Rome before giving their blessing to a diocesan religious order. How does this fit in with his call for increased synodality?

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