Michael Sean Winters

Pope Leo's new document, Dilexi Te, is an excellent summation of Catholic social teaching about the poor that reflects his commitment to the pastoral approach sketched by Francis.

 If President Emmanuel Macron calls snap elections, NCR's Michael Sean Winters writes, voters could turn to the extreme right-wing National Rally party.

The president's speech has rightly been lambasted for, among other things, his suggestion that the military should confront "the enemy within" and that America's cities be used as "training grounds" for the military.

Conservative Catholics had hoped that Pope Francis' reforms would follow him into the tomb, but they must reckon with the fact that it is they, not Pope Leo or Cardinal Cupich, who need a course correction.

The Democratic Party appears completely dysfunctional. Part of this is the price of being out of power. Still, the more important problem is that the party is fighting on terrain chosen and dominated by Donald Trump.

Historian Julie Thorpe's book catalogs the fruit of the work that went into a series of lectures that helped the church understand itself, and shares it in a compelling way with students of contemporary Catholicism.

Trump might soon use his power to enrich himself or his friends at the expense of the Puerto Rican people after firing five members of Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board last month.

I hope that in Poland, the church can find creative ways to align liberal democracy with the values believers bring to the table, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

If Kirk was a champion of free speech, than it seems the worst way to honor his legacy is to silence anyone for what they said about him, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Donald Trump still dominates the news cycle, but he isn't rounding the corner on any of the nation's problems. As the president gets desperate, voters get exhausted.

If Democrats and the left want to win elections again, they need to learn how to speak in language that does not make voters feel bewildered or, worse, inferior, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Some are campaigning for Coakley, but NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters hopes the U.S. bishops select a president in the center, someone as publicly committed to fighting abortion as he is to defending immigrants.

America's unwillingness to confront our cultural love affair with guns is difficult to fathom. It is like an addiction: It doesn't make sense from the outside but quitting is so hard to do.

NCR's Michael Sean Winters asks: If you style yourself a "social justice Catholic" and you do not avoid union-busting firms, isn't that hypocritical?

The mysterium iniquitatis, the mystery of evil, revealed itself Wednesday morning in a leafy Minneapolis neighborhood, not just lawlessness, but evil, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

It is shocking that so many people express deep concern about suffering in Gaza but do not apportion any responsibility for that suffering to Hamas. At the same time, Israel should not stand aside while people go hungry.

We can hope that the move does not undo one of the signature achievements of Pope Francis: He broke up the court atmosphere that surrounded previous popes, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters. 

Pope Leo XIV shared Sunday pranzo with a group of people from the Diocese of Albano. During the event, the diocesan bishop of Albano, Bishop Vincenzo Viva, spoke words that captured my attention.

On Aug. 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of several European countries came to the White House for a meeting with President Trump. It felt a lot like Yalta in 1945.

"Bad history and lousy civics," have enabled Trump's attack on the Smithsonian, argues Michael Sean Winters. Trump can rearrange exhibits, but he can't change history and the facts it contains in his push back on academics.