Michael Sean Winters

Bernie Madoff would have to live to be 221 years of age to complete the prison term to which he was sentenced yesterday There is a cold comfort not to be confused with schadenfreude in the thought that he shall never again know what it is to be a free man The difference lies in the simple justic

Cardinal Sean O rsquo Malley the Archbishop of Boston announced on Friday that he was vetoing a planned joint venture between the Catholic health care provider Caritas Christi with a non-Catholic provider Centene Corporation Part of the venture was to include an insurance program that made the

Rarely is cynicism an appropriate moral stance But now is one of those rarities Yesterday afternoon the important news about developments in Iran where some analysts believe elements of the Republican Guard have effectively taken over control of the country from the mullahs one analyst used th

Michael Peppard recently graduated from Yale Divinity School and assuming his post as a professor of theology at Fordham has a must-read article in the current issue of Commonweal magazine Back in December Peppard wrote an article about reports of religious abuse at Guantanamo Bay Now with the

Pope Benedict XVI will receive President Barack Obama in audience at the Vatican on July 10 Let the gnashing of teeth begin Admit it wasn rsquo t your first impulse to call Dr Mary Ann Glendon and ask If you were still the ambassador would you show up or would you boycott The Cardinal Newma

Yesterday at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Cardinal Theodore McCarrick led a conference call to release a document called Respecting the Just Rights of Workers Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions For several years McCarrick led a working group on the tex

July 1 is the date in the Archdiocese of Washington when the re-assignment of pastors and associates come into effect So it is also a time when you encounter a new preaching style from the new arrival At my church we are losing a curate who attended Mt St Mary rsquo s in Emmitsburg and receivi

Last week Dr Mary Hunt of the Women rsquo s Alliance for Theology Ethics and Ritual took issue with an earlier post of mine about Frances Kissling rsquo s attack on President Obama rsquo s selection of Alexia Kelley to an important post at the Department of Health and Human Services Kissling o

This morning rsquo s Washington Post has an article on the dearth of Lutherans in Wittenberg as that city approaches the 500th anniversary of Luther rsquo s revolt The article is interesting if you wish to see what a post-Christian culture looks like But it also provides a chance for Catholics to

Same-sex marriage may be the new third rail in the culture wars Touch it at your peril Emotions understandably get worked up very quickly on all sides It is difficult to tell someone who is in a long-term committed same-sex relationship that you value their relationship differently from the wa