Michael Sean Winters

Distinctly Catholic: "The Birth of a New Aristocracy" is easily the most important and challenging essay published this year — it's and uniquely challenging to U.S. Catholics. Are we really working toward the common good?

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Toll of hurricanes is still felt in Puerto Rico and in Houston's poor neighborhoods; the importance of unions; "Watergate Babies."

Distinctly Catholic: Matthew Stewart's story on the rise of the new American aristocracy says you might be among the 21st century's version of viscounts or barons; the danger in meritocracy is that it's too easy to conflate material success with moral superiority. 

Distinctly Catholic: When the news broke that the pope reportedly said, "God loves you like this," to a gay man, one of the sex abuse survivors with whom he met, I knew papal critics would have a field day.

Distinctly Catholic: Two recent press releases highlight the fact that the nation's bishops, as a body, still have not figured out how to deal with the presidency of Donald Trump, nor accurately weighed the values at stake in this fraught political moment.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: A symposium on Catholic political thought; Republicans wrestle with immigration issue; how the pro-life movement turns off people it should attract

Though the Vatican has offered proposals to create a specific body charged with hearing cases of episcopal negligence or malfeasance regarding clergy sex abuse, there still remains no clear process — and indeed no clear authority — to assess these charges.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Why Democrats shouldn't be counting chickens; scary takes on Puerto Rico and on sea levels; Gaza analysis falls short.

Distinctly Catholic: With three tweets, Donald Trump displayed the quintessence of his political psyche: unhinged from reality, unbounded by concern for veracity, and petulant.

Distinctly Catholic: Economics is not liberated from the inquisitorial eye of religion, Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones insists, rather authentic liberation must always develop within ethical principles, not with ethics as an add-on.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Catholic colleges could step up and offer free legal help to the estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants who likely qualify for legal status but do not know or can't afford to pursue it.

Distinctly Catholic: Recent appearances of Benedict in print and Francis on camera give insight into how, in different ways, they have avoided the strangeness of Vatican culture.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: AT&T CEO calls hiring Cohen "big mistake"; Catholic University of America professor on saving the university; Alternative ways to evaluate colleges

Distinctly Catholic: In certain circles of the left, there is a reluctance to celebrate Israeli independence, and a hostility to our sister democracy that is difficult to explain.

Distinctly Catholic: Do you find yourself some nights, after the news, not only angry at all the wicked things President Donald Trump is doing but also simply exhausted from the seemingly endless cavalcade of drama surrounding this administration?

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: New text from Pope Benedict XVI; West Virginia and Indiana primaries; Trump's decision to leave Iran deal; Clergy sex abuse scandal in three minutes

Distinctly Catholic: As young people leave religion, the right is more likely to be guilty of turning them away by hypocrisy, the left more by failing to come to religion's defense.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: What influence do the Koch Brothers buy; Asylum seekers' families separated; Democratic congressional candidates who will not support Nancy Pelosi; Happy birthday to Harry S. Truman

Distinctly Catholic: A cardinal will be facing a secular jury without a peep of protest from the Vatican. At long last, they realize there are things more important than independence.

Spring Fund Drive: Like most jobs related to the Catholic Church, we journalists do not come to our vocation to get rich. Your gifts are used to make sure Joshua J. McElwee is on the papal plane or to send Heidi Schlumpf and me to the meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.