Kresta in the Afternoon

Something has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Social gatherings are accused of promoting Cultural Appropriation. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. But despite all these efforts to make students feel "safer," rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising—on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen? We talk with Greg Lukianoff.

What is beauty? Is it just a matter of opinion or in the eye of the beholder? How can the virtues help us to better perceive and enjoy beauty? We'll talk with John-Mark Miravalle

Any talk about apostates and former Catholics who persecute the Church is bound to grab attention, and Pope Francis’ Wednesday audience drew a reaction from some who wondered whether he had intentionally included the damned in the communion of saints. We look at this and other stories with Matthew Bunson

Tensions continue to rise in Ukraine as Russian troops amass near the border and US troops mobilize to nearby Poland. What is a morally justifiable response to the threat? The Church's teaching on Just War is deeply rooted in tradition and scripture. We examine it today with Peggy Stanton.

This week we are celebrating Catholic Schools Week. We can’t talk about the history of Catholic education in America without looking at the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who lived at a time when Catholics in America were viewed with suspicion. We look at Elizabeth’s contributions to Catholic education with Sister Betty Ann McNeil.

Some preliminary rounds of Olympic events are already underway in Beijing and the games will officially open tomorrow. With Western democracies staging a diplomatic boycott, the Games have given authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin even more time in the spotlight – just what he wants as troops gather near Ukraine. We take a look at the situation with James Carafano.

This week President Biden formally approved the deployment of 3,000 US troops to Poland, Germany and Romania, in a move to bolster NATO countries in Eastern Europe. This happens as tens of thousands of Russian troops amass along the Ukrainian border. Archbishop Borys Gudziak gives us a report from Ukraine.

You may recall the story of John Chau, a missionary who went to the isolated North Sentinel Island off the coast of India, hoping to evangelize a tribe there that has been out of contact with civilization for thousands of years. Chau was killed, and the way the West reacted to his death is a telling point on how our culture views Christianity and Evangelism. Ed Stetzer joins us to discuss this story and evangelizing in a new age of outrage.

Catholics all around the world have deepened their faith and grown in their devotion to Christ and His mother through Fr. Michael Gaitley's 33 Days to Morning Glory. Now, he invites you to take the next step with 33 days to Greater Glory. He joins us.

At every Sunday Mass, Catholics confess that Jesus came down from heaven “for us men and for our salvation.” But what does “salvation” mean? Michael Barber joins us with a thorough, deeply Catholic, and deeply biblical look at the Cross, the Church, the Trinity and Salvation.