Michael Sean Winters

The only way to prevent further tragedies like the horrific killing of Renee Good is to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box. And that requires consciously reaching out to those voters who backed him.

Last week, Pope Leo XIV gave two talks, one at a weekly general audience and the other to cardinals, that focused on the Second Vatican Council. His words need to take root in the words and deeds of all Catholics.

Bishop Robert Barron's criticism of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inaugural address evidences a mendacity unworthy of a minister of the Gospel. Also, will someone remind the bishop that his diocese is in Minnesota?

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker's and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's arguments for their states' respective assisted-suicide laws misunderstand the situation of a gravely ill person and reveal a deeper problem with moral libertarianism.

There is one agent of unity in our Catholic faith that the secular culture lacks: the bishop of Rome, says NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

If the political landscape in 2025 was grim, prospects for 2026 do not appear much better. And the dominant figure in the new year will still be Donald Trump, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Pope Leo's midnight Mass sermon was beautiful and it was similar to what we Catholics have been hearing at Christmastime from our popes for decades. But it isn't just us Catholics who take note of Leo.

Arguably, the biggest story for the U.S. church this year was not the selection of Pope Leo XIV so much as the selection of new archbishops, which began when he was still a cardinal leading the Dicastery for Bishops.

As the year ends, much of American democracy seems to be in ruins with self-inflicted devastation, writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. 

"Only God's grace can close the infinite distance between us and God, and that is precisely what God did at Christmas," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.

When you think about the needs of the Archdiocese of New York, and the enormity of the task of leading more than 2 million Catholics, Bishop Ronald Hicks seems tailor-made to fill that niche.

The Catholic Church, especially its insistence on human dignity, is a bulwark against the ambitions of tyrants. Catholics across the political spectrum should embrace religious liberty as the foundational right that it is.

John Gehring addresses the ways conservative Catholics crafted a coalition with various conservative political forces, sometimes in ways that deeply compromised their faith.

Recent controversy highlights sectarian sensibilities of many lay faithful in the U.S. church, the lack of imagination among some hierarchs and the perennial difficulty in drawing lines between the sacred and the profane.

Vatican II is still an ongoing project as we all dig deeper into its treasures, hold ourselves accountable for any misreadings we once foisted upon the texts, and let its teachings seep into every nook and cranny of our faith.

"No one has the right to inhibit the right to association of donors with organizations they favor by threatening subpoenas that would disclose their personal information," writes Michael Sean Winters.

Cardinal Christophe Pierre starts by recognizing that, whatever their differences, both "woke culture" and "post-liberalism" arose from a dissatisfaction with the classical liberal project. 

Pope Leo XIV's first foreign trip evidenced profound echoes of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Still, we are also starting to see points of difference emerge as well. Leo is not Francis 2.0. Leo is Leo.

Advent is the time of preparation to receive the grace of Christmas the only way we Christians can truly prepare: clinging to the cross and begging for mercy for our sins, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Anti-Catholicism was not a central force driving the colonists to revolt, but it played a role, shaping their political beliefs in profound ways, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.