Michael Sean Winters

Michael Sean Winters is the author of Left At the Altar: How Democrats Lost The Catholics And How Catholics Can Save The Democrats (Basic Books, 2008). His biography of the Rev. Jerry Falwell, God's Right Hand: How Jerry Falwell Made God a Republican and Baptized the American Right was published by Harper One in January 2012 to critical acclaim. 

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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stand at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as they arrive to attend an event marking the 10th anniversary of the dedication of memorial in Washington Oct. 21. (AP/Susan Walsh)

Links: Who shares fake news; Supreme Court vaccine decisions; and coach Brian Kelly’s crazy salary

Michael Sean Winters: Martin Luther King Jr. rekindles the promise of American democracy and taps into the moral force of our egalitarian ideals and articulates them in idioms that are necessarily religious but not sectarian.

Pope Francis speaks during his general audience at the Vatican Jan. 12. (CNS/Paul Haring)

What did Pope Francis really say about cancel culture?

The rush by certain conservative media to claim the pope was seconding their views on cancel culture is laughable, not least because conservatives have a long track record of cancelling things to which they object.

Partial walls of the Urakami Catholic Cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan, stand amid rubble a month after the U.S. detonated an atomic bomb Aug. 9, 1945. (AP/Stanley Troutman)

Archbishop Wester enriches church teaching with letter on nuclear disarmament

Michael Sean Winters: Archbishop Wester's new pastoral letter on nuclear disarmament is a teaching document that seems suited to a synodal church. It is an invitation to mutual reflection and conversation. 

Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri (Flickr/Office of Missouri Governor)

Links: Embassy priest in CatholicVote.org video; Western paganism; kudos for KC mayor

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Cardinal Pietro Parolin, call your office; Democrats should listen to Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas; Republican intransigence on D.C. court vacancies.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic poses with the Wimbledon trophy in London July 14, 2019, after defeating Switzerland's Roger Federer in five sets. (CNS/Reuters/Andrew Couldridge)

The politics of the pandemic may be shifting, but not the morality

Michael Sean Winters: We are not out of the woods yet and the lack of a spirit of social solidarity continues to stalk efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Even if the politics of the pandemic is changing, the morality remains the same.

Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Connecticut (Flickr/Krista)

Links: Francis' critics distort past popes; filibuster myths; praise for Merrick Garland

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Phil Lawler misquotes Benedict XVI; Fr. Robert Sirico's laughable take on Benedict and John Paul II; a journalistic mess; Connecticut wins best pizza.

People hold up candles during a candlelight vigil on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6. It was the first anniversary of the attack on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. (CNS/Reuters/Tom Brenner)

How dark money prostitutes the US church and distorts Catholicism

Michael Sean Winters: Brian Fraga's reporting on dark money funding some conservative Catholic groups shows how the culture wars have distorted Catholic teaching. This should give every Catholic leader nightmares.

An explosion caused by a police munition is seen while supporters of then-President Donald Trump gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (CNS/Reuters/Leah Millis)

Will US bishops find their voice and defend democracy?

Michael Sean Winters: Why have the bishops failed to sound the alarm for the "values and principles of our democracy" that continue to be threatened? Surely the sanctity of the vote is above partisan politics.

Links: JD Vance's Catholicism, Jan. 6 sentences and mezzo-sopranos

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Praying for columnist Michael Gerson; tracking the sentences of those convicted for the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol; nothing Catholic about bowing down before Trumpian idols.

People walk near St. Peter's Square on a foggy day ahead of Pope Francis' celebration of Mass marking the feast of Mary, Mother of God, at the Vatican Jan. 1, 2022. (CNS/Reuters/Guglielmo Mangiapane)

What stories about the Catholic Church will we be following in 2022?

Michael Sean Winters: Will the divergence between Pope Francis and the U.S. hierarchy grow in 2022? Or will the U.S. bishops at long last demonstrate an interest in following the lead of the Holy Father?

Electric vehicle charging station (Unplash/Michael Marais)

Links: Tim Busch on Roe; Cardinal Dolan on secularism; a plug for church charging stations

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Overturning Roe v. Wade "the wrong way"; new battleground districts in Michigan; let's put electric vehicle charging stations in church parking lots.

(NCR graphic; photo: Wikimedia Commons/Jnn13)

What to expect in the world of US politics in 2022

Michael Sean Winters: If last year began with the hope that normalcy might return, this year U.S. politics are marked by a fear that the signs of decline in the very fabric of our democracy might become dominant.

LaGuardia Airport's revamped Terminal B (Wikimedia Commons/Eden, Janine and Jim)

Links: Cincinnati Men's Conference; fragmenting Trumpism; airport design award

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Archbishop Schnurr, call your office; comparing Trumpism to the Reformation, and the Affordable Care Act to Build Back Better; VP Kamala Harris' home run.

Pope Francis poses with Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, Archbishop Allen Vigneron, vice president, and Fr. Michael Fuller, interim general secretary, Oct. 11 at the Vatican. (CNS/Vatican Media)

In 2021, it became obvious the US bishops and the pope are singing from different hymnals

Michael Sean Winters: The life of the Catholic Church in this country in 2021 was characterized by a culture war fit and evidence that Pope Francis will press forward with the reception of Vatican II in ways that will profoundly affect the U.S. church.

The gymnasium at Our Lady of the Rosary School in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, is seen in this undated photo. (CNS/Courtesy of Catholic Extension)

Links: Puerto Rico's energy grid; loss of Desmond Tutu; rising number of clergy quitting

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: The rebuilding of Puerto Rico's energy grid could serve as a model; Desmond Tutu was raised up to point the way for us; The Post on clergy who quit.

President Joe Biden meets with members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team from the White House in Washington Dec. 16, 2021, about the latest developments related to the Omicron variant. (CNS/Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)

In 2021, Biden's decency couldn't save democracy. The real test will come in 2022.

Michael Sean Winters: The principal political story of 2021 was President Biden's attempt, mostly unsuccessful, to get the U.S. back to normal. But the rhythm of the year was one of one step forward and one step back.

Members of United Mine Workers of America and other labor leaders bow in prayer while picketing July 28, 2021, outside BlackRock's headquarters in New York City as part of the union's strike at Warrior Met Coal Mine. (CNS/Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

Links: Evil in conservativism; unions are good for all; parody of wokeism

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Highlighting green jobs; the lionization of Kyle Rittenhouse; reasons for the labor shortage; self-parody from the Women's March; Mary's Magnificat.

Fr. Stephen Saffron, parish administrator, elevates the Eucharist during a Tridentine Mass at St. Josaphat Church in the Queens borough of New York City in this July 18 file photo. (CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)

US bishops should help Latin Massgoers understand purpose of Francis' new restrictions

Michael Sean Winters: The publication of responses to questions about Pope Francis' Traditionis Custodes added a bit more ammunition to those who insist on engaging in battles about liturgy. I wish they would stop. They won't.

An engraving of the Four Freedoms at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Wikimedia Commons/Another Believer)

Links: Expanding the Supreme Court; the 'Four Freedoms'; vaccine mandates

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Perils of packing the court; FDR's expression of democracy's values; League of United Latin American Citizens drops "Latinx"; the Blessed Mother in Advent.

Supporters of President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 6, after a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (CNS/Ahmed Gaber, Reuters)

Fox and EWTN make truth a casualty of the culture war

Some of the biggest stars of one of the nation's biggest networks, Fox, were proven to be dishonest about one of the biggest stories of the year and to have violated the first principle of journalistic ethics: Do not become part of the story. And the Catholic Church's largest media outlet is in bed with that network.

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