Michael Sean Winters

How do we, as a Catholic Church, overcome the problems posed by social media? How do we create a culture that is more humane than the culture of social media?

Is social media evil? Catholics who take seriously the call to become missionary disciples need to pose the question and at least confront the ways social media frustrates efforts to spread the Gospel and build community.

How do we recover a shared sense of the moral order that is built into the universe? Michael Sean Winters says that dusting off the idea of a natural law might allow us to at least find a shared moral vocabulary again.

Pope Leo XIV is still keeping his cards close to his cassock, but people who have observed him over the years are helping fill in the picture of what is likely to shape his pontificate, writes Michael Sean Winters.

A pastor with a particular congregation that leans one way or the other does not need to mention a candidate by name to get the message out. Some pastors are only too happy to insert themselves into politics.

The Vatican's new document on implementing synodality acknowledges the energy and enthusiasm experienced by those who have already engaged in the synodal process, but it invites all of us to move forward.

We have come to recognize that the rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," which blended so nicely in abstract form upon the page, do not cohere so neatly in real life, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

It is doubtful any Democrat outside New York or San Francisco could win as a democratic socialist. The word socialist carries too much baggage. And if you have to explain it to people, it is time to get a better label.

If the Democrats and others opposed to authoritarian abuses of our constitutional order can show some message discipline, they now have a consistent line of criticism.

Taken together, the eight appointments signal a shift away from the opposition or indifference to Francis' reforms that has been too common among some bishops in the U.S., writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.

We strive for peace, but history teaches us that sometimes war is necessary. It is impossible yet to know if the Israeli and U.S. airstrikes obliterated Iran's nuclear potential. We can all hope it did.

"It is time we stop pretending that economic health can be measured by GDP," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold a Tennessee law that bans certain treatments for transgender minors was the correct legal conclusion, no matter what you think of the law itself, says Michael Sean Winters.

"The flames of indignation that Trump has whipped up may end up consuming him and his signature campaign to deport millions of our immigrant brothers and sisters," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.
 

If you don't like Trump, his military parade and sending of the National Guard are evidence of his yearning for dictatorial powers. If you do like him, they seem harmless and, with the guard deployment, necessary.

NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters admits he hurled a throwaway line at Bishop Robert Barron and he is a substantial person. "He deserves more than what reads like a Twitter rant," Winters writes.

Tensions between protesters and law enforcement in LA are ominous. Opposing indiscriminate raids on migrants is necessary and just, but people rightly fear President Trump is only looking for an excuse to claim emergency powers.

The new pope seems remarkably unflustered by his election, aware of the enormity of the change that has happened to him, but not the least overwhelmed by it.   

Many people have looked at Pope Leo XIV's discrete decisions as tea leaves about his pontificate. It is smarter to highlight things he has said in this first month that offer an inkling as to how he views his ministry.

Poles went to the polls and elected Karol Nawrocki of the conservative Law and Justice Party as Poland's president by the narrowest of margins. His election is a bellwether for populism, says Michael Sean Winters.