Michael Sean Winters

"Vatican II did not drop out of the sky," writes Michael Sean Winters. "There were three essential precursors to St. John XXIII's decision in 1959 to announce he was calling an ecumenical council."

Michael Sean Winters hopes that all Catholics will take a moment and hear what Pope Leo is highlighting for us. These short catechetical reflections invite us to become a part of the renewal to which Vatican II pointed.

"Trump is a poseur, and his most essential pose is that he cares about anyone but himself," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. "That is the kind of framing that will help voters understand what Trumpism is really about."

"In our time, people are positively eager to claim the mantle of prophecy," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters. "They think it absolves them from the need for careful moral argumentation."

The professional wrestling match, I mean the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi, was a series of nasty verbal insults and partisan attacks that did nothing to advance the cause of justice.

One of the things that defines a culture is what it will not tolerate in its leaders. In U.S. history, our nation has handled scandals differently and also changed what does, and does not, constitute a scandal.

Catholics believe that the church should engage in moral reformation as a means of preaching the saving grace of Jesus Christ — though, in our day, the tendency on left and right is to overprioritize moral reformation.

  "Elections are supposed to be about voters picking politicians, not the other way round," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters.

"Moral considerations must determine political ones," writes NCR's Michael Sean Winters, "and for Christians, our moral claims are rooted in a dogmatic claim: The human person is made in the image and likeness of God."

"Who is my neighbor?" Jesus is asked in the Gospel of Luke, prompting the Lord to answer with the parable of the good Samaritan. This is a question that the church must constantly pose to itself and to the wider culture.

Five American prelates joined the public discussion of foreign policy in recent days. Gudziak, Broglio, Cupich, McElroy and Tobin remind us of what remains visible beneath the new narratives.

The retirement of a self-described "church bureaucrat" isn't the kind of thing that would normally warrant much in the way of commentary. But when the bureaucrat in question is John Carr, people should stop and take note.

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.