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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Catholics join other religious organizations and groups near the White House in Washington Sept. 12 urging the administration to allow 75,000 refugees into the country next fiscal year. (CNS/Rhina Guidos)

Links for 10/16/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Limiting public assistance for legal immigrants and limiting refugees; Sen. Warren's heritage; looking for synod rules.

People wait in line to view court proceedings on the first day with newly sworn-in U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Oct. 9 in Washington. (CNS/Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

Midterm elections will be a referendum on Trump, not Kavanaugh

Distinctly Catholic: Anger over the nomination controversy may still motivate voters, but Democrats should be sowing doubts about Trump's elitism in working-class precincts.

Wuerl hounded from office for becoming face of abuse crisis

Distinctly Catholic: Cardinal Donald Wuerl was a link between the two scandals involving Theodore McCarrick and the Pennsylvania grand jury report. With his resignation, Wuerl is the last of his kind.

Links for 10/11/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: "Principled Entrepreneurship;" lessons to learn from winning union elections; Tokyo 2020 Olympics goes over budget

US bishops must recapture spirit of collegial governance

Distinctly Catholic: Pope Francis' order to investigate files on the McCarrick case signals that episcopal accountability, which has been the missing link in changing the clerical culture, is coming to the Catholic Church.

Lay-led reform raises question: Can Catholic Church be bought?

Distinctly Catholic: Two stories last week justified my caution about an increased role for the laity as a means to heal the church. The stories showed the ugly power of money that lay leadership entails.

Let's go a year in America without the elites

Distinctly Catholic: I have a modest proposal. Let's give the country a break from leadership by folks who came from the Ivy Leagues.

Links for 10/4/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Why Ben Wittes wouldn't vote to confirm Kavanaugh; pope's popularity drops; double lives of House Republicans

Kavanaugh hearings, reactions are moral reckoning, not 'national disgrace'

Distinctly Catholic: Judge Brett Kavanaugh called last week's hearing "a national disgrace." On cable news, moderate voices fretted that the U.S. had never been in such dire straits. Bosh.

Links for 10/2/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Kavanaugh's interpretation; Fr. Z's condemnation; gay bashing from the Catholic right; analysis about the pope's China deal

Pope Francis and Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput at the Vatican in 2014 (CNS/Paul Haring)

See nothing, judge everyone, act ridiculously

Distinctly Catholic: Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput is headed to Rome as a delegate to the Synod of Bishops on young people. He is not entirely happy to be attending the event.

Kavanaugh hearing signals a cultural shift moment

Distinctly Catholic: It is far from clear that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will ever make it on to the U.S. Supreme Court, but going forward, he will be the standard. Women are pushing back, and it will alter our political, social and cultural landscape.

Links for 9/27/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Representative's six siblings campaign for his opponent; historical fallacy of originalism; data on why some among working class vote Republican

Conservatives must face John Paul II's legacy in sex abuse crisis

Distinctly Catholic: This moment of the church's sex abuse scandal requires a moral reckoning that must be honest about the legacy of St. Pope John Paul II.

Links for 9/25/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Troubling pieces about Kavanaugh; Poll reveals voting complacency; Puerto Rico is still rebuilding; alarming study on global warming

US bishops won't restore trust with announced plans to stop abuse

Distinctly Catholic: If the steps they announced are any indication, the bishops have a long way to go before their efforts will heal the church from the abuse scandals and earn back people's confidence.

A slave auction is illustrated in the 1862 book Slavery in South Carolina and the Ex-Slaves by A.M. French. (New York Public Library Digital Collections)

Founders' ambivalence on natural equality gave way to white supremacy

Distinctly Catholic: In Self-Evident Truths, historian Richard Brown deftly catalogs the shift that led to the triumph of white supremacist views in the first half of the 19th century.

A man in San Juan, Puerto Rico, places a pair of sandals in front of the capitol building June 1 to represent those killed by Hurricane Maria. (CNS/EPA/Thais Llorca)

Links for 9/20/18

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Millennials form unions; reading the midterm tea leaves; "Saint Benedict XVI"; politics and Puerto Rico's death toll.

The words of the Declaration of Independence are seen in the interior of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Flickr/Sean Hayford Oleary)

Historian confronts complexities of early America's self-evident truths

Distinctly Catholic: In Self-Evident Truths, Richard Brown's examination of how religious equality manifested itself in the years after the Revolution is especially fascinating.

Not all church reforms are equal or advisable

The sex abuse crisis has exposed a real sickness in the church, and some combination of structural, cultural and spiritual renewal will be needed. 

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