Michael Sean Winters

In an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation, speakers Michael Knowles and Jay Richards looked to overturn the liberal inheritance of the Founding Fathers by manipulating the history of the nation.

The book's indictment of the sociopathic behavior of some of the ultrarich may ignite the fire to force a renegotiation of the social contract, writes Michael Sean Winters.

"The rule of law has not prevented a massive concentration of wealth nor has it inhibited the growth of an AI industry that is largely free from any form of regulation," writes Michael Sean Winters.

Just war theory is back; not that it ever really left. But in recent years, writes Michael Sean Winters, there has been an effort to replace it as the principal means by which the church addresses issues of war and peace.

Competition seems an indelible mark of humanity, and far better it be directed into sporting rivalries than to military ones, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters reports back from the annual Way Forward gathering of bishops, theologians and other church leaders, who this year considered the challenges posed by social media and AI.

"The appointment of Archbishop Gabriele Caccia as apostolic nuncio to the United States brings to a close the tenure of one of the most significant papal nuncios in the history of the Vatican's relationship with the U.S., that of Cardinal Christophe Pierre," Michael Sean Winters writes. 

NCR's Michael Sean Winters would be surprised if the Democrats pick up the Texas Senate seat in November.

"Vatican II did not drop out of the sky," writes Michael Sean Winters. "There were three essential precursors to St. John XXIII's decision in 1959 to announce he was calling an ecumenical council."

Michael Sean Winters hopes that all Catholics will take a moment and hear what Pope Leo is highlighting for us. These short catechetical reflections invite us to become a part of the renewal to which Vatican II pointed.

"Trump is a poseur, and his most essential pose is that he cares about anyone but himself," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. "That is the kind of framing that will help voters understand what Trumpism is really about."

"In our time, people are positively eager to claim the mantle of prophecy," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. "They think it absolves them from the need for careful moral argumentation."

The professional wrestling match, I mean the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi, was a series of nasty verbal insults and partisan attacks that did nothing to advance the cause of justice.

One of the things that defines a culture is what it will not tolerate in its leaders. In U.S. history, our nation has handled scandals differently and also changed what does, and does not, constitute a scandal.

Catholics believe that the church should engage in moral reformation as a means of preaching the saving grace of Jesus Christ — though, in our day, the tendency on left and right is to overprioritize moral reformation.

  "Elections are supposed to be about voters picking politicians, not the other way round," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.

"Moral considerations must determine political ones," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters, "and for Christians, our moral claims are rooted in a dogmatic claim: The human person is made in the image and likeness of God."

"Who is my neighbor?" Jesus is asked in the Gospel of Luke, prompting the Lord to answer with the parable of the good Samaritan. This is a question that the church must constantly pose to itself and to the wider culture.

Five American prelates joined the public discussion of foreign policy in recent days. Gudziak, Broglio, Cupich, McElroy and Tobin remind us of what remains visible beneath the new narratives.

The retirement of a self-described "church bureaucrat" isn't the kind of thing that would normally warrant much in the way of commentary. But when the bureaucrat in question is John Carr, people should stop and take note.