Kresta in the Afternoon

When discussing the immigration debate, it is common for Christians to invoke the Scriptures’ command to “Welcome the stranger.” But it’s not so simple as that, and we first need to understand what “the stranger” means. Al discusses.

A new study out of Italy claims it can date the Shroud of Turin to around the time of Christ, thanks to a new technique using x-rays. Edward Pentin explains how it works.

To become a follower of Jesus in the time the Gospels were written was to turn your life upside-down and risk everything for the sake of the One who gave everything. How does Mark approach these people? On his feast day we talk with Mary Healy.

Today it is widely accepted that Shakespeare was raised in a devoutly Catholic family at a time when the practice of the Faith was illegal. Blessed John Henry Newman wrote that Shakespeare had “so little of a Protestant about him that Catholics have been able, without extravagance, to claim him as their own.” As this week marks the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, death and baptism, we’ll take a look at how he expressed his faith. Joe Pearce joins us.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy has approved new norms for the formation of seminarians, which were drafted by the U.S. bishops’ conference in 2019, and have been under discussion between Rome and the USCCB since that time. We discuss it with Matthew Bunson.

This Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of the Divine Mercy. It has a special connection for Peggy Stanton, who was awakened from a deep sleep one night to paint the image of the Divine Mercy. She shares the story with us.

When most of us think of Benjamin Franklin, we think of flying kites in thunderstorms, Poor Richard’s Almanack, and his diplomatic efforts during the Revolution. But did you know he also published more works on religion than any other 18th-century layman? Though he abandoned the Christianity of his childhood for deism, his faith was more complex than that. We take a look with Thomas Kidd.

Were the Founding Fathers agnostic? Deist? Or something else? One thing we know is that their writings were heavily influenced by Scripture. Al looks at the religious lives of the founding fathers as we prepare to talk with Thomas Kidd.

A recent challenge facing our approach to public discourse has been a changing understanding to the meaning of Knowledge. What we can “know” has become limited to what we can scientifically verify. But that leaves a lot of gaps in our understanding of the world. Al discusses.

168 people were killed on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Anyone who knows the story knows McVeigh’s name, but few know the stories of his victims and their families – Bud Welch, who reached out to McVeigh’s father to find forgiveness and healing. Jeanne Bishop, who has seen her own family torn by violence, joins us with their story.