Michael Sean Winters

The neofascist tendencies of Italy's new prime minister could be a headache for Pope Francis, says columnist Michael Sean Winters. He's also worried about the Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate.

After four years of a president who rejected American leadership and alliance building, it is comforting to have a president who engages the world again, and does so with America's best national dispositions on full display.

Trump's legal troubles continue to mount, and while none of it will matter to his acolytes, it is not shock at his outrageous behavior that will doom him. It is exhaustion. People are tired of the drama he brings.

In The New York Times, David Leonhardt looks at some of the reasons that Hispanic voters are less and less likely to vote Democratic than they were just six years ago.

Catholics in the U.S. are ensnared in a political binary, but as Cardinal Michael Czerny of the Vatican dicastery for integral human development explains, church teaching about the human person can show a way forward.

Columnist Michael Sean Winters had an eye on Queen Elizabeth's funeral, and he has special praise for one of the hymns sung during it.

Conscience and Catholic Education: Theology, Administration, and Teaching brings together essays that focus broadly on issues of conscience encountered in the educational field. The essays are uneven but important.

We are now less than two months from the midterm elections. The New York Times' polling genius Nate Cohn has started to zero in on the midterm polling, and he is flashing a big yellow caution light to Democrats.

The Washington Post reports on the collapse of Russia's military in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. It is stunning, writes Michael Sean Winters, and shows how stretched the entire Russian war effort is.

"Reports." The word almost smells boring and managerial. Yet, as the synodal reports come together, if you look closely, you see that many of them are rooted in a deep spirituality, notes columnist Michael Sean Winters.

The Trump supporters calling for a constitutional convention are not the Founding Fathers, says columnist Michael Sean Winters. Their idea is a truly horrible one.



 

No writer did more to keep alive an awareness of the indignities working-class people experience than journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.

The cultlike allegiance to Trump on the part of too many Americans — and Christians — not only threatens democracy, it is a perversion of the Gospel, writes columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Columnist Michael Sean Winters is following, among other things, the poaching of sea cucumbers — and he doesn't mean how to cook them.

In Rome, Michael Sean Winters spoke with visiting cardinals and curial officials. All agreed that speculation that Francis' tenure is coming to its end is misplaced. But there was a sense that the papacy has entered a new phase.

Did you know the law firm the represents the U.S. bishops' conference has been a key player in the effort to move the judiciary to the right? Columnist Michael Sean Winters shares links to this and other news.

After the consistory that included a new U.S. cardinal, columnist Michael Sean Winters thinks the U.S. church's future is looking brighter than it has in a long time.

While Michael Sean Winters is in Rome for the consistory, he's still keeping his eye on the political scene back home.

The consistory for the creation of 20 new cardinals on Aug. 27 showed that Pope Francis is firmly in control of the global church, and shows no signs of slowing down. It is clear as day that his vision for the Catholic Church is taking root.

Cardinal-designate Robert McElroy is one of the nation's leading experts on John Courtney Murray, says Michael Sean Winters, who can't think of a better time for a new cardinal with expertise in religious liberty issues.