Michael Sean Winters

Michael Sean Winters: David Gibson provides balanced analysis of allegations against Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI; James Martin warns about taking delight in others' suffering; the Post reports on a smart Dem tactic in Ohio.

Michael Sean Winters: Appointing someone who has experienced the law outside of a classroom or a courtroom would add something to the court's deliberations that does not currently exist.

Michael Sean Winters: The writer Timothy Snyder's words resonate as we watch Russia inch toward war with Ukraine: Beware the moral danger of being a bystander.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Vaccine misinformation in San Francisco; Supreme Court case could weaken the Clean Water Act; Ohio's midterm elections; the unemerged Democratic majority.

Michael Sean Winters: A federal bankruptcy court finalized the largest public debt restructuring deal in Puerto Rico’s history. Thanks to religious leaders, the plan includes protections for programs that help the poor and for workers' pensions.

Michael Sean Winters: Millionaires flood Senate races with campaign contributions; Garvey's attack on scientism is ridiculous; the International Olympic Committee overlooked this hurdle for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Michael Sean Winters: Regrettably, more in sadness than in anger and with a heavy heart, it is time for another installment of Catholics Behaving Badly.

Michael Sean Winters: The politics of abortion are in great flux. But liberal Catholics should cling to the consistent ethic of life, the only intellectually and morally serious ground upon which to stand when assessing the morality of abortion.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Host David Gray disparages the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; the U.S. health care crisis is being caused by greed, nurses say; Jan. 26 panel to discuss Pope Francis and schism.

Michael Sean Winters: Republicans are playing with fire, because if they allow the extremists to dominate their primaries, you will not end up with strong candidates, you will end up with Trumpian sycophants.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?