Michael Sean Winters

Today is Thanksgiving Day and like everyone I have many reasons to be grateful and recognize in gratitude the start of any authentic religious experience I hope you all like me will spend the day with loved ones enjoying the delights of table and conversation Suavitas disci not potest nisi del

Schadenfreude taking delight in the misery of others is a sin a grievous sin indeed one of the most grievous sins because it denies that essential sympathy with the human condition that is so obvious on virtually every page of the Gospels But in the realm of politics filled as it is with out-

Catholic bishops need to be a bit more careful about how they approach the media Not only are there real world consequences when they fail to understand how the media works but the media must become a tool for the bishops in evangelizing the culture and correcting the gross ignorance of and bias a

No one in America not even President Barack Obama is as compelling a figure in our nation rsquo s political life as Sarah Palin She twitters and they are talking about it on the news that night She shows up and the adoring crowds throng to see her The publishing industry is in free fall with

As we move into the final stage of negotiations and debate over the health care reform bill it is very important that we not get caught up in two related but counter tendencies the pass it at all costs or the defeat it at all costs mentalities that betray the triumph of politics over truth

There is much about the Senate rsquo s health care reform bill to commend it for passage It keeps costs lower than those anticipated in the House bill It raises taxes on rich people which is always a good thing raising the Medicare tax on those making more than 250 000 It reduces the federal d

I rsquo m opposed to the Stupak amendment Sen Claire McCaskill of Missouri told Politico com I think it goes too far It attempts to regulate private money in a private market I think we need to continue down the path of limiting taxpayer dollars for abortions but I don rsquo t think we sh

The shadow of Pope Benedict XVI was everywhere apparent at the first day of the USCCB meeting Except that it is not a shadow at all A shadow obscures the light making it more difficult to see The dominant theme of the meeting so far is entirely positive echoing the Holy Father rsquo s insistenc

The USCCB begins its annual plenary session today in Baltimore On the formal agenda the bishops will consider a proposed pastoral letter on marriage which they should scrap and start over and the final approval of Mass translations some are good some not so good but it is past time to fight ov

Democrats were quick to impute Torquemada-like attributes to the effort by social and other conservatives neo- and paleo-conservatives to back the candidacy of Doug Hoffman in the special election in an upstate congressional race over that of the more moderate Dede Scozzafava who had been selected