Here in the heart of America’s wine industry, the Napa Institute brings together a few hundred Catholics in the company of many of the faith’s senior prelates and a raft of the country’s Catholic public intellectuals. The beautiful Meritage Resort is full, and the winery tours and golf are wedged in between various seminars, keynote addresses and a Mass schedule designed to please even the most rigorous monk or nun — and there are quite a few religious in attendance.

The conference theme of “The Next America” has the attendees looking far forward on topics of religious freedom, Catholic higher education and Catholic evangelization, but the presidential campaign is the buzz of the cigar and wine gatherings that begin late and go later. The Aspen Institute may have better mountain views, but the Roman Catholics know their viticulture and their Cohiba from their Romeo y Julieta.