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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. 

By this Author

A girl at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City watches her mother cast her ballot during early voting Oct. 29. (CNS/Reuters/Jeenah Moon)

Time to start from scratch with US bishops' 'Faithful Citizenship' document

Despite its name, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" minimizes the formation of consciences. Time for the U.S. bishops to start over, argues columnist Michael Sean Winters.

A view of Hartford, Connecticut (Unsplash/Balazs Busznyak)

Links: Antisemitism and Nostra Aetate; Maryland early voting; post-pandemic cities

Columnist Michael Sean Winters rounds up reading on antisemitism from the right and the left, and remembrances of the hurdles to Vatican II's Nostra Aetate.

Candidates for the upcoming 2022 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops presidential and vice presidential elections are shown in composite photo

Handicapping US bishops' races for president and vice president

Given the polarization in the U.S. bishops' conference, they would be smart to elect a new president and vice president who can help unite the group and the church, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.

 

J.D. Vance, Republican candidate for U.S. Senator for Ohio, appears at a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, Sept. 17. (AP/Tom E. Puskar)

JD Vance gives Catholicism a bad name

For all the worry about Biden's Catholic bona fides in some circles, Republican candidate J.D. Vance and his brand of Christian nationalism represent a far greater threat to Catholic identity, says Michael Sean Winters.

Scientist Chris Shitote examines a dry water hole in Kilifi, Kenya, Feb. 16. In recent years, nations have been quick to make pledges to confront climate change. Pledges, alas, need to be implemented and that has proven more difficult. (CNS/Reuters/Baz Ratner)

Links: Climate change action; radicalized white voters; midterm debates

Columnist Michael Sean Winters takes a look at radicalized voters, midterm debates and other political news.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput speaks from the floor during the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore Nov. 11, 2019. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Archbishop Chaput asks, 'Who am I NOT to judge?'

Archbishop Charles Chaput's recent comments about President Joe Biden and Communion show a profound disrespect for his fellow bishops—and a wrong view of the church, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.

U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan speaking with attendees at the 2019 Iowa Federation of Labor Convention hosted by the AFL-CIO at the Prairie Meadows Hotel in Altoona, Iowa. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

Links: 'Culture of death'; midterms polls; ranked-choice voting

As the midterm elections near, columnist Michael Sean Winters is following all the political news.

Man speaking in front of screen

4 reasons Catholic social teaching can't unite the US church

It would be nice to think that Catholic social teaching could unite a polarized church. Columnist Michael Sean Winters says that's unlikely, at least right now.

(Unsplash/Gayatri Malhotra)

What role should abortion play in the midterm elections?

Abortion is not the only issue Catholics should consider when voting, but columnist Michael Sean Winters is concerned about how both parties are using it in this year's midterms.

(Unsplash/Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona)

Links: Catholicism in The New York Times; swing state midterms; Sukkot

Columnist Michael Sean Winters agrees with Villanova's Massimo Faggioli on how The New York Times portrays Catholicism in its pages.

Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University speaks at an Oct. 13-15 conference at Sacred Heart University, "Vatican II and Catholic Higher Education: Leading Forward," which marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. (Sacred Heart University/Chris Zajac)

At Sacred Heart University conference, theologians reengage with Vatican II

A wonderful conference at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut is the latest in academic reengagement with Vatican II. Columnist Michael Sean Winters hopes to see more theologians seize that momentum.

People in Lilburn, Ga., attend a Latino voter registration event Dec. 7, 2020. (CNS photo/Dustin Chambers, Reuters)

Links: Latino voters; National Review on Vatican II; how war in Ukraine will end

The National Review's column on the 60th anniversary of Vatican II is worse than Ross Douthat's, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.

An image depicts burning royal carriages at the Chateau d'Eu during the French Revolution, c. 1848. (Library of Congress/N. Currier)

John McGreevy masterfully traces church history from the French Revolution to Pope Francis

A new history of the Catholic Church manages to avoid ideology lives up to its ambitions, according to columnist Michael Sean Winters' review.



 

Pope Francis celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 11, 2022, to mark the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Vatican II at 60: Is Pope Francis or Ross Douthat right?

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat has called Vatican II "a failure," but Pope Francis marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of the council with a homily challenging both the left and the right. Columnist Michael Sean Winters weighs in.

Ukrainian soldiers walk in Bakhmut, in Ukraine's Donetsk region Oct. 1, amid Russia's attack on the East European country. (CNS/Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)

Links: Kanye's anti-Semitism; desperate Russian attacks; Archbishop Broglio's problematic views on sex abuse

Columnist Michael Sean Winters worries that once Elon Musk takes over Twitter, anti-Semitic social media posts will no longer be pulled, as some recent ones by rapper Kanye West recently were.

Voters cast their ballots Sept. 23 in Minneapolis. With Election Day still more than six weeks off, the first votes of the midterm election were already being cast that Friday in a smattering of states, including Minnesota. (AP photo/Nicole Neri)

The key moral issues in the midterm elections (Hint: It's not the economy.)

Abortion, racism and denying election results are all moral issues facing voters this November. But columnist Michael Sean Winters wonders whether rising gas prices will sideline them all.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, greets Pope Francis before the morning session of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family Oct. 13, 2014, at the Vatican. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Links: Anti-synod arguments from Weigel and Müller; the Arizona gubernatorial race

Columnist Michael Sean Winters on anti-synodal takes from George Weigel and Cardinal Gerhard Müller.

Pope Francis greets immigrants at the port in Lampedusa, Italy, July 8, 2013. There he remembered African and Middle Eastern migrants who died when their boats capsized as they were trying to reach Europe.

The secret to healing the church is looking outward, not inward

It's not that internal church issues aren't important, argues columnist Michael Sean Winters, but that going to the peripheries will help fix those internal issues.

 

Waffle House sign (Unsplash/Nikhil Mistry)

Links: Runoff vote in Brazil; rewilding a river; Waffle House and Hurricane Ian

After Hurricane Ian we can learn much from a town that came through relatively unscathed and from Waffle House, says columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, holds a sign at the party's election night headquarters in Rome Sept. 26. Italian voters handed a victory to a coalition of center-right parties and set the stage for Meloni to become the next prime minister.

As Italy turns right, a reminder: Christian nationalism always turns out badly

What does the election of hard-right Giogia Meloni mean for an alliance with right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland? Or with a U.S. led in the again by Donald Trump or a Trump wannabe?

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