Michael Sean Winters

Cardinal Robert McElroy is a scholar of American political history and its nexus with Catholic theology. The California native studied at Harvard and Stanford and brings pastoral experience at the San Diego border.

"I therefore encourage the rulers of countries with a Christian tradition to set a good example by cancelling or reducing as much as possible the debts of the poorest countries," said Pope Francis.

The words have great staying power, still affecting our existence in such a palpable way, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

The life of the church in 2024 was defined as much by what did not happen, as by what did. The most important thing that did happen was an event which was important at the tectonic level, deep underneath the surface.

Michael Sean Winters looks back on a year when it was tempting to write about unfolding events in politics as if it were the first chapter of the end of the American experiment. Still, that verdict seems premature.

There is no issue in American political life that is not leavened by an encounter with Catholic social teaching. The ability of Catholic thinkers to help the Democrats, however, is even more foundational.

Two prominent conservative journalists collaborated on the "College of Cardinals Report," which includes their 22 leading candidates for pope. The list of papabili doesn't just tilt to the right. It falls off the cliff.

Massimo Faggioli's book joins the esteemed canon of works that focus on questions about what a university should be, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters. 

"The Democrats need a populist economic platform that they can communicate effectively," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. They also need to "make economic populism the core of the party's identity." 

The idea that a person is a citizen of the place where he or she is born is a bulwark against any attempt to discriminate unjustly, says NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

Before we Americans can overcome the polarization that plagues our politics, we need to reawaken the moral sensibilities that keep us from reducing human tragedies to culture war talking points.

Democrats must acquire a more balanced sense of history, humility about their public policy goals, and a sense of humor about human life if they are serious about winning elections again, Michael Sean Winters writes.

The one thing Francis can do to ensure a smooth papal transition is to find an occasion to summon all the cardinals to Rome next year for a multiday gathering, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

The Supreme Court favors religious liberty, but the argument advanced by the U.S. bishops' conference will prove a bridge too far, says NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

If the Democrats want to reach working-class voters, they need to rework how they invoke science; be mindful of how scientism distorts public discourse; and restrict the listing of academic credentials to academic circles.

After a brutal election that sometimes felt like a civil war, this Thanksgiving may be harder for some more than others. For us Catholics, however, there is one thing that may help us.

What are Democratic Party leaders' deeper habits of thought that need to change? The first deadly habit the left has to forswear is its tendency to heresy-hunt, which ends up alienating people whose votes you need.

Two dogmas of our faith account for what must seem like a ghoulish fascination to non-Catholics.

NCR's Michael Sean Winters praises Bishop W. Shawn McKnight for reversing his decision to ban certain hymns from his diocese, publicly proposing a synodal process as a solution to a local, ecclesial problem. 

It isn't easy trying to make sense of Trump's Cabinet selections. But a kind of logic emerges as soon as you realize two things: Trump is someone who hires down and he thinks of politics as essentially performative.