Michael Sean Winters

Republicans claim the FBI's search of Trump's estate shows the U.S. has become a banana republic. They are right, but this isn't the Justice Department's fault.

Did you read that column in The New York Times about conservative hipster Catholics? Michael Sean Winters did. Also: A pro-life win in Connecticut; Spanish flu and the post-COVID-19 landscape; Republicans vs. the FBI.

The annual gathering of conservative Catholics is full of whine and wine, notes columnist Michael Sean Winters. This year's doom-and-gloom preaching was offset by the excitement at the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision.

Links: Comments on The New York Times' piece on Biden and abortion, a Democratic Ohio Senate candidate's strategy, a Mass marking the 101st anniversary of a priest killed by the KKK, and more.

The Catholic Church spent millions in a losing effort to get Kansas voters to strip abortion rights from that state's constitution. The voters overwhelmingly choose not to do so. How should the church move forward?

Bishops need to approach "Laudato Si' " not only as teachers of the faith but as managers of physical plants with too-high utility bills. Installing solar panels with union labor is a twofer.

"A church that does not develop its thinking in an ecclesial way is a church that goes backward," the pope said on the flight from Canada to Rome. His talk during vespers in Quebec explains what he meant.

In his roundup, Michael Sean Winters is watching the secretary of state election in Arizona and notes columns about the pope's trip to Canada and a liberal Greek Orthodox archbishop.  

The Democrats' new spending bill, which advances popular policies and makes corporations pay a minimum tax, suggests that the party of FDR is back. Will working-class voters follow?

When the current political climate is as prone to wildfires as is the natural environment, helping get these extremist GOP candidates within striking distance is a risk that Democrats should not have taken.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Mitch McConnell's "historic miscalculation"; Megan McArdle and Meghan Clark on abortion; absurd Florida law targets felon voters; Boris Johnson's chums.

Michael Sean Winters: Pope Francis is not afraid of genuine contrition. And he delivered a master class in taking responsibility for the sins of the past during his meetings with Indigenous people in Canada.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: The U.S. bishops' own sensum fidelium; approaches to synodality in Australia and Germany; Abbott vs. O'Rourke; Trump vs. DeSantis; beauty from Bach.

Michael Sean Winters: The biography of groundbreaking Black Catholic journalist Daniel Rudd, whose birthplace was demolished earlier this year, challenges all of us to the work of racial justice and equality.

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

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.