Kresta in the Afternoon

The Texas abortion law has energized pro-abortion supporters all over the nation, and they will be gathering for nationwide protests on October 2. Monica Miller joins us to invite you to a counter-protest.

Dr. Monica Miller is the Director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and the author of many books including The Authority of Women in the Catholic Church, Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars, and Theology of the Passion of the Christ. Check out prolifesociety.com and nationaldayofremembrance.org

In our discussions on the New Evangelization much has been said about how the Clergy can lead and the laity can take co-responsibility for the Church. But what of the deacons? Deacons occupy a special place in the Church and are in a unique position to evangelize. How can they, in the words of St. John Paul II, be “apostles for the New Evangelization?” We talk about it with Deacon Steve Hilker.

Deacon Steve Hilker serves at St Mary Catholic Church in Williamston, MI. Deacon Steve retired from the State of Michigan after 37 years in various executive positions. He answered the call to serve the church as a Deacon on June 30, 1990, after three years of Diaconal studies with the Diocese of Lansing. He was ordained by Bishop Kenneth Povish. He and his wife Nancy have nine children.

Raised in a loving home, Claire Culwell always knew she had been adopted and when she reached adulthood she decided to meet her birth mother. And that’s when she got the shock of her life. Claire learned that she was a survivor of a botched abortion. Not only that, she had an unborn twin whose life was terminated that day. And the story doesn’t end there. She joins us.

Claire Culwell is the author of Survivor: An Abortion Survivor’s Surprising Story of Choosing Forgiveness and Finding Redemption. Visit her at claireculwell.com

It’s easy to look at the state of Mass attendance and yearn for the “Good old days” when Church life was a regular part of everyday life. But where do we take it from there? Some like to point at Vatican II as the cause of our problems, but that is missing a larger point. We’ll talk more about it with Fr Joseph Krupp

Fr Joe Krupp is the pastor of Holy Family and St Mark’s parishes and the author of Smart Answers and Bad Jokes from a Priest who Proves that God has a Sense of Humor. Join him and Al on the 2022 Good News Marriage Cruise!

CS Lewis dedicated the first book in his beloved Chronicles of Narnia to his goddaughter, Lucy, writing "I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again..." Critics look at works such as Narnia or Middle-Earth as mere fairy tales fit for children or simple-minded adults, but they are so much more. Joseph Pearce joins us to follow Aslan's invitation to travel "Further up and further in" to Narnia.

Joseph is Director of Book Publishing at the Augustine Institute and the author of several books including Further Up & Further In: Understanding Narnia.

Prayer, in marriage, is more than checking off a box. It is time spent in the presence of the Author of love himself. Every time we pray for and with our spouse, God gives us greater insight into what it takes to love each other better more deeply, more honestly, more authentically, and more passionately. Every time we pray for and with our spouse, we open our hearts to a love that can satisfy our deepest longings and allow our marriage to be a light to the world. We'll talk with Dr. Greg Popcak.

Dr. Gregory Popcak is the director of The Pastoral Solutions Institute, a Catholic tele-counseling practice providing marriage & mental health counseling services to Catholics worldwide. Together with his wife Lisa Popcak, he is the author of over 20 books on relationships and spirituality. You can hear Dr. Greg and Lisa each weekday at 10am E/9C on their radio program More2Life, which is produced by Ave Maria Radio and carried by the EWTN Radio Network.

According to CS Lewis’ diary, he completed his journey to Christ on September 22, 1931. Throughout his career, Lewis drew from the structure, themes and narrative details of Dante's Divine Comedy. We'll talk with Marsha Williamson with a look at how Dante's work appears in Narnia, the Space Trilogy and other works.

Marsha Williamson is the author of Reflecting the Eternal: Dante’s Divine Comedy in the Novels of CS Lewis. She is Professor Emerita at Spring Arbor University where she taught English for over twenty-five years and won numerous teaching awards. She serves as translator for the Preacher to the Papal Household, and has translated sixteen books from the Italian as well as publishing over forty articles, profiles, and reviews. She has presented at the International Congress on Medieval Studies eight times in the past ten years and has been a member of The Dante Society of America for over fifteen years.

On September 26 we celebrate the feast of Cosmas and Damien, patron saints of surgeons and physicians. In the tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Christ commands his apostles to “heal the sick and say to them, ‘the kingdom of God has come near to you.’” They were supposed to heal the sick even before they preached the Gospel. Mike Aquilina takes a look at this healing imperative and how it ushered in the world of modern medicine.

Mike Aquilina is the author of more than fifty books, including the best-selling The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers; The Mass of the Early Christians; and How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, With Hymns, In Hymns. His reviews, essays, and journalism have appeared in First Things, Touchstone, National Catholic Register, and elsewhere. Visit fathersofthechurch.com

On his papal flight back from Slovakia and Hungary, Pope Francis told reporters that bishops should be “pastors, not politicians” when it comes to the issue of Eucharist for pro-abortion politicians. But as Monica Miller points out, one cannot desecrate the bodies of the unborn while receiving the body of Christ. She joins us.

Read Monica's article here: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/cutting-throats-burning-at-the-stake-and-excommunication-the-pope-and-eucharistic-incoherency

Dr Monica Miller is the Director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and the author of many books including The Authority of Women in the Catholic Church, Abandoned: The Untold Story of the Abortion Wars, and Theology of the Passion of the Christ. Check out prolifesociety.com

Ulf Ekman is no stranger to controversy. As a Lutheran priest in Sweden, he was a leader of a student revival that resulted in his very public separation from the Church of Sweden. He founded Word of Life, a large Pentecostal church that became the first "mega-church" in the country, and he became Sweden's most prominent Christian leader. But now he and his wife Birgitta have come into full communion with the Catholic Church. They tell us how.

Ulf Ekman founded a large Protestant church in Sweden, which Ulf served as pastor for thirty years. During that time, he travelled extensively in the former Soviet Union, teaching and preaching. He has written more than thirty books, translated into many languages.

Birgitta Ekman founded a humanitarian work for needy children in India and has written five books for children