Michael Sean Winters

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Medicaid in Puerto Rico; social psychology and religion; New York Times flag redesign contest is a bad idea; three libertarian archbishops in Australia.

Michael Sean Winters: The stakes could scarcely be higher, and the principal responsibility for saving the country from a Trumpian future and the end of liberal democracy lies with Republican leaders.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Down the GOP rabbit hole on claims of fraudulent elections; surprise change at America magazine; profile of Rep. Ritchie Torres; redistricting in Texas.

Michael Sean Winters: Raymond Arroyo's weekly "The World Over" began airing on EWTN in September 1996. It served to extend the kind of conservative Catholic conversations found on the network's "Mother Angelica Live" into the realm of politics. Now network leadership should think seriously about its role in the church.

Distinctly Catholic: The building crisis at the border threatens to dominate all other news stories as graphic, heart-rending images of desperate people hiding under a bridge or crossing a desert lead the news. President Joe Biden needs to reset his approach to immigration and he can start by leaning into his Catholic faith.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: One of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump will not seek reelection; midterm races may be predictive of Trump's residual electoral strength; Jonah as a prophet for our time.

Distinctly Catholic: Now is the time for Democrats to seize the populist narrative around economic issues and make that, again, the defining hallmark of liberalism in the United States.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Canadian bishops' one-page guide for voters; The Tablet defends sanctity of life; a warning to Democrats; French piques; trade unions of the 12th century.

Michael Sean Winters: After Democrats spent much of the past six years worrying about democratic norms, we cannot simply look away when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, might have violated those norms. 

Michael Sean Winters: After a year of heated debate about denying Communion to pro-choice pols, the bishops need an offramp. Cardinal Blase Cupich's five-point proposal for a eucharistic revival could save the bishops from themselves. 

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: A look at approval ratings and how presidents recover from disaster. El Paso has done far better getting vaccinated than other jurisdictions.

Distinctly Catholic: If critical race theory calls us to embrace legal ideas such as affirmative action, sign me up. However, readers and students deserve better than the ideology on display in "The 1619 Project."

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Good news about Trump's fans; argument for bishops to stop criticizing Biden over abortion stance; Georgetown law professor looks at racial divides in housing policy.

The memorials marking the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, could not be more appropriate to the memory of what happened there two decades ago, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Michael Sean Winters: Early critiques fretting about the Vatican's new document on synodality cite "unpredictability" and "confusion." But, at base, they reject the call to conversion and repeat criticisms of Pope Francis and his reform agenda.  

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: Faggioli on Traditionis Custodes; workers try to unionize at Starbucks; changing ways people think about work; a poor county's vaccination success story.

Michael Sean Winters: This was supposed to be the summer when the U.S. defeated the COVID-19 virus. But we have not defeated it. Therein is the cultural lesson for the American psyche that our Catholic faith can impart.

Michael Sean Winters: New book by minister counselor for economic affairs at the French embassy to the United States provides an optimistic view of the latent strengths of U.S. democracy. Will Americans find within themselves the intellectual and moral resources to mount such a revival?

Distinctly Catholic: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the anti-abortion bill into law in May, has spent most of his tenure and all of the summer showing that fetal heartbeats are the only heartbeats he cares about.

Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: No more Trump, no more gorging on news; Biden and Afghanistan; MSW defends the faith and Pope Francis; a Verdi flash mob; tune in for Labor Day Mass.