Kresta in the Afternoon

While the prospect of a renewed Russian invasion in Ukraine is becoming a reality, the Vatican office which oversees Eastern Catholic Churches is considering a request that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church be given “patriarchal” status. The move would highlight the historical and contemporary importance of the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the Catholic communion. Archbishop Borys Gudziak was in Rome last week and he joins us.

Much has been said about the deep political divides in our nation, and Judge Michael Warren has a proposition for fixing them. Patriot Week renews America’s spirit by deepening the appreciation of the First Principles, Founding Fathers and other Patriots, vital documents and speeches, and flags that make America the greatest nation in world history. He joins us.

In the Nuremberg trials, held after World War II, guilty men and women were held accountable for their actions in the Holocaust. More importantly, the German people were forced to face what had happened. Decades letter, Germany is a model democracy. Such a moral reckoning never happened in post-Soviet Russia, which is part of the reason Putin has felt empowered to act in the way he does. We talk more with George Weigel.

Why do so many Catholics find themselves too intimated to share the Faith? After all, Jesus and the apostles didn't have social media, television or even radio broadcasts - and they changed the world forever. Karen Edmisten joins us with the evangelization tools that brought her from atheism and how she uses them today.

Rob Galea was a lonely, miserable teenager. He wanted to feel like he belonged, so he joined a gang. He went clubbing. He drank. He stole things. He lied. His reckless lifestyle ultimately led him to hide in fear for his life from other gang members. He was so desperate in those days spent in his dark bedroom that he contemplated ending his life. But a phone call from his grandmother led to him turning his life around. Fr. Galea joins us.

For fifteen hundred years, icons have helped Christians meditate and pray. Used in homes and public worship, these symbolic images represent the presence of Christ and the saints. Joseph Malham joins us for a self-guided tour of icons.

If someone had told Ralph Martin that one day a high-ranking Cardinal would publicly deny Church teaching on homosexuality, just after the German church voted overwhelmingly in favor of changing Church teaching, he would have called them crazy. But that’s just what’s been happening in recent weeks. What should we do? Ralph joins us.

News of a Eucharistic miracle has been circulating the web for the last several days. In 2006, a nun in Mexico said she saw a reddish substance similar to blood exuding from a consecrated Host during Mass. The Vatican is temporarily classifying it as a "Eucharistic phenomenon" until investigations are completed. Matthew Bunson joins us with this and other Church news.

"I know of no instance in which the Catholic Lite project has led to a vibrant Catholicism, doing the work that Pope St. John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council set before the Church: the conversion and sanctification of the world." So says George Weigel in a recent piece for First Things. Al shares some thoughts.

Police have begun arresting protestors in Ottawa after issuing warnings earlier this week that “action is imminent.” Trucker Harold Jonker joins us again.