Pope Francis recently said that countries need to stop imposing their beliefs and values on others, especially without consideration of another country's religions, cultures, and history.  Al explains why this is common sense and more thoughts on Afghanistan.

Today, a heartbeat bill took effect in Texas after the Supreme Court declined to take action to stop it. Although 11 states have recently passed heartbeat bills, this is the first to go into effect. It could prevent an estimated 85% of Texas abortions from taking place. Michael New has more.

Michael New is visiting assistant professor at Catholic University of America and an associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute. Michael New is visiting assistant professor at Catholic University of America and an associate scholar at Charlotte Lozier Institute.

The chaplains of Harvard University elected an atheist as the president of the chaplaincy there.  This is foolish, even if the role is purely administrative.  Al shares his thoughts.

Back in 2015, as ISIS ravaged its way across Iraq and Syria, Graeme Wood authored an extensive piece examining what the terror group wanted to achieve. The essential point to understand is that ISIS and other terror groups seek to establish a caliphate - and only one can exist at a time. The so-called Islamic State may be virtually destroyed but its influence remains, as we saw when ISIS allies conducted a suicide attack in Kabul last week. What does ISIS want now and how will the Taliban respond? Graeme Wood joins us.

Graeme Wood is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State. You can follow him on Twitter @gcaw.

In 2005, the relatively new European Union proposed a new constitution for Europe. The problem was that in its preamble where it discussed Europe’s long history, there was no mention of Christianity anywhere. (George Weigel details this in his book The Cube and the Cathedral.) Kishor Jayabalan director of the Acton Institute’s Rome office, Instituto Acton, joins us to talk about Pope Benedict XVI and what is Europe.

This interviewed aired during the first episode of Kresta in the Afternoon that aired on EWTN Radio.

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 3 JANUARY 2006

Dr. Michael Behe of Lehigh University was one of Richard Thompson’s witnesses in the Dover case. He joins us to discuss the debate between creationism and intelligent design.

This interviewed aired during the first episode of Kresta in the Afternoon on EWTN Radio.

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 3 JANUARY 2006

Al takes your calls on the top Catholic news stories of 2005.

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 3 JANUARY 2006

We can thank the Catholic Church for baseball and Babe Ruth. On January 3rd 1920, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Mike Gibbons was the head of the Babe Ruth museum and he joins us to discuss the Bambino’s contributions to America’s pastime.

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 3 JANUARY 2006

Hwang Woo-suk and the ethical problems of cloning and stem cell research. In 2004, Hwang made headlines for claiming he cloned two human embryos. He then claimed he was able to derive a line of stem cells from them for use in medical research. However, as Al explores in this commentary, Hwang was charged by the journal Nature for having committed serious ethical violations by using eggs from his graduate students and from the black market.

ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 3 JANUARY 2006

Christians may not have the social influence we once did, but in all areas of life you can still find Catholics who are committed to integrating their faith and their everyday life. One example is Dan Weingartz, whose commitment to his faith led him to join the fight against the HHS Mandate. He joins us to discuss integrating his faith and work life.

Dan Weingartz is the president of Weingartz and a member of Legatus. Visit weingartz.com.