Michael Sean Winters

Jason Blakely's Lost in Ideology: Interpreting Modern Political Life helps us better make sense of this crazy political world in which we live, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

A just society needs to enact laws that keep people from harming themselves and others, especially when such harm increases the likelihood that still more people will be harmed, writes Michael Sean Winters.

Going to areas that do not lean toward one's own party is healthy for the party, exposing its candidates to the concerns of people with whom they do not normally interact, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Catholicism is still the largest denomination in the country, but the ethnic and geographic distribution of the Catholic population has changed.

The Cook Political Report states that there are 11 toss-up races in which the Democrat is the incumbent and 11 in which the Republican is, notes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters. 

Michael Sean Winters has advice for U.S. bishops ahead of this year's elections: "Does what I intend to say or do help unite the Body of Christ? And if the answer is no, it is better to say nothing at all." 

By aligning itself with Trump, the pro-life cause finds itself in a long line of people and causes damaged irreparably by hitching their bandwagon to the former president, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

We are called to define our Christian ethical vision by looking above the belt and at the needs of our brothers and sisters, as well as considering issues of bioethical significance, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

The No Labels group suffered from magical thinking. They thought they could turn Americans' dissatisfaction with politics in general and with the 2024 candidates in particular into an opening for a third party.

Mainstream reporters who want to write about religion need to do better than traffic in ill-informed caricatures, says NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters. 

The Resurrection imparted a worldview to the early Christian community, and fidelity to that worldview remains a hallmark of the Catholic Church. 

We Christians may argue and disagree about certain scriptural passages. What unites us is this belief that the tomb was empty and, just so, that Jesus is himself the criterion by which we must judge ourselves. 

"The Good Friday accounts remind us never to be too confident about our assessments of what God demands," writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters. "Good Friday turned all human presumptions upside down. It still does." 

Former President Donald Trump's frightening remarks on March 25 after losing a court hearing must point us to action, says Michael Sean Winters: "This vindictive, unstable man ought not be invested with civil authority ever again." 

Part of "getting back to normal" means living in a country where politics doesn't dominate the culture. March Madness is a chance to set politics aside for three weekends in a row.

Severing the motivations of Catholic institutions from the actions they perform is an abstraction that doesn't hold up to scrutiny, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Some activists are "clueless about how extreme their positions can be, and how alienating to voters who entertain moral qualms about abortion," writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

The pope hopes that the synodal process will yield a church in mission, and that mission is proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"Gaudium et spes envisioned a more outward-looking and engaged church, responsive to the signs of the time, and committed to the well-being of the human family," Cardinal Wilton Gregory said in a recent lecture. 

We want a pope who articulates moral issues but no one wants a pope who advocates war or who chooses one part of the human family over another.