Kresta in the Afternoon

What is Christian conversion? What leads a soul to return to God, reject sin and accept God’s Divine Mercy? And is there a “second conversion” that happens after the original decision to repent? We’ll look at the phenomenon of Christian conversion with Fr. Donald Haggerty.

The idea of religious liberty is founded on a simple, essential truth: that religious faith is an inward disposition of the mind and heart and therefore cannot be coerced by an external force. Contrary to popular belief, this idea can be traced back far beyond the enlightenment to the earliest centuries of the Church. We look at the Christian foundations of religious liberty with Robert Wilken.

There’s no shortage of graces available to us as followers of Christ, but we don’t always know how to access them. It is here that we can turn to Mary, who is the perfect model for disposing ourselves to God’s grace and to responding to that grace. On this feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, we talk with Fr. Quan Tran.

A study from the University of Texas at San Antonio suggests growing up in a religious household can be a mixed blessing. The findings show that children raised in religious families tend to have enhanced social and psychological skills, but may perform less well academically, compared to their non-religious peers. Greg Popcak joins us with more.

The Church simply cannot reach its full apostolic effectiveness unless each of the baptized effectively discerns his or her personal vocation. And that vocation goes far beyond just discerning if we are called to single, married or ordained life. How do we go about doing this? We talk with Fr. Brent Bowen.

For more than 250 years, Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s Abandonment to Divine Providence has inspired those plagued with doubt, anxiety, and fear. Fr. Jeffrey Kirby has firsthand experience with Fr. de Caussade’s spiritual classic and he joins us with his own meditations that can help you let go of what you can’t control and discover a place of deep serenity in God.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein has claimed that a movement is not only out to destroy Benedict XVI’s life and work but also views the recent accusations of mishandling abuse as an opportunity to erase him from the official memory of the Church. We look at this story with Matthew Bunson.

It’s easy to feel agitated about what is going on in the Church and world. But there is a love that keeps us rooted and sane. From the standpoint of eternity, this is what we strive for. Al discusses.

Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from The View last week after she made the claim that the Holocaust was not based on “race” because it was a matter of one group of white people killing another group of white people. The comment may seem wildly misguided. And it is. But she’s not alone. Her comment betrays a widespread misunderstanding about the history of racism. Richard Weikart joins us with more.

"You will find you are most fulfilled and most joy when you are rooted in your purpose." NFL star Cooper Kupp has had a great season, but that's not where he finds his reward. Al discusses the story and has a few other thoughts on this weekend's Super Bowl.