Michael Sean Winters

Distinctly Catholic: If the first campaign swing through Iowa was any indication, Warren seems to generate an enthusiasm for herself and her message that is palpable.

Distinctly Catholic: The hyperventilating coming from the White House and Fox News about the need for a border wall is only the most recent example of the oldest political trick in the book: When in trouble, find a scapegoat.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Roman Missal translator beseeched; "the wall" and evangelicals; Sen. Elizabeth Warren as a prairie populist; recommended reading on labor issues; carbon emissions follow prosperity

Distinctly Catholic: Democrats, even the newest members of Congress, need to exercise great discipline in the days and weeks ahead; they need to avoid thinking they can beat the president at his game.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Excessive compensation for health care execs; challenges of women presidential candidates; Trump's tax-cut betrayal.

Distinctly Catholic: As Republicans start to position themselves as being independent of President Donald Trump, they need to make a public showing that they are sorry about being wrong to support him in the first place.

Distinctly Catholic: What will 2019 bring in the life of the church? Will the U.S. church in the begin to confront how some of its ministries have become a counterwitness to the Gospel and others a mere extension of the Republican Party?

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Grocery chain failure shorts workers; Arroyo names Viganò best person of 2018; Lin-Manuel Miranda returns to Puerto Rico.

As early as February, the Mueller investigation into Russian interference could take center stage. The campaign for a Democratic presidential nominee will be a chaotic struggle between the neo-liberal wing and the populists. And pro-life Democrats will need to find a place in the party.

Distinctly Catholic: U.S. Catholic life in 2018 was marked by two major stories, one a reprise and the other just beginning, and one story that did not happen, the ecclesial dog that did not bark.

Distinctly Catholic: The president dominated the news cycle this year, all year, as he has for three years, and that makes 2018 a bad one.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Anti-Semitism on the left; Archbishop Gregory updates on sex abuse crisis; man fundraising for Trump's wall exposed as fraud; Illinois attorney general called out for grandstanding with abuse dossier; the cult of RGB

Distinctly Catholic: Human nature is changed and uplifted precisely because our God chose to don it. Human nature, you might say, was the first "gay apparel" of Yuletide.

Distinctly Catholic: On Christmas Day, Salt + Light TV will debut its new documentary "Magisterium of the People: The Story of the People's Pastoral from the Catholic Committee of Appalachia." I encourage everyone to watch this splendid film.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: moral inadequacy of carbon tax; judge who condemned Flynn is a hero; U.S. bishops conference on death of girl at border; Bishop Barron appears on right-wing radio show

Distinctly Catholic: If ever there were a time for patience, it is in the delivery of assessments about the trial of Cardinal George Pell. But the rush is on.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Penance for "little monsters"; taxes on nonprofit parking lots; Mulvaney's "odio a Puerto Rico"; Ratzinger on new evangelization

Distinctly Catholic: Fox News promotes social Darwinism when it refuses to offer human dignity to the refugees coming to the United States.

Distinctly Catholic: Bishop Robert Barron reportedly has 1.6 million Facebook fans and 130,000 followers on Twitter; his YouTube videos have 34 million views. I am not among the fans.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: More and more Pinocchios; investigating the Puerto Rico oversight board; Christmas memes; the cost of climate change.