Kresta in the Afternoon

Al shares his thoughts and analysis on Monsignor Jeffery Burrill's resignation as general secretary of the USCCB amid allegations of serial sexual misconduct by the priest.  

BREAKING TODAY: Monsignor Jeffrey D. Burrill, the general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, resigned hours before a report by the Pillar was published detailing serial sexual misconduct by the priest.  Burrill was the highest ranking member of the USCCB who was not a bishop.  Matthew Bunson, executive editor and Washington bureau chief of EWTN News joins us to discuss this breaking story.

Fr. David Meconi, SJ joins us to discuss the first 500 years of Jesus' life.  Plus, how J.R.R. Tolkien led an atheist to the Catholic faith.

Our culture has a fascination with the paranormal. But how do we distinguish between reality and unreality when it comes to these things unseen? Dr Richard Gallagher is a psychiatrist who has devoted his career to investigating possessions, diabolic attacks, and the paranormal. He joins us with what he has discovered over the last 25 years of looking at demonic foes.

Dr. Richard Gallagher is the author of Demonic Foes: My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks and the Paranormal. He's Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at New York Medical College and a faculty member of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Columbia University. Dr. Gallagher is the longest-standing American member of the International Association of Exorcists since its founding in the early 1990s. For a number of years, he served as scientific adviser on its governing council as the only layman and sole psychiatrist. He has also helped train major groups of exorcists in the United States in distinguishing possession cases and other diabolic attacks from medical and psychiatric pathology.

Early in Mark's Gospel Jesus calls us to repent - or, in the Greek, metanoia. But the word "repent" doesn't capture the full meaning of metanoia - because it isn't a one-time event. It's an ongoing process that takes our entire lives to complete. We'll talk about living metanoia in our daily lives with Fr. Dave Pivonka.

Fr. Dave Pivonka is the author of Living Metanoia: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in Christ. He's the president of Franciscan University of Steubenville and has been a spiritual director and retreat leader for more than 30 years. He also created a 10-part video series on metanoia, which can be viewed at his website thewildgooseisloose.com

Steve Karlen never expected to find himself debating the most contentious moral issue of our age – especially when there was a ball game on. But when a friend found herself facing a crisis pregnancy, he was launched into the center of a statewide firestorm. Since then, he’s joined forces with 40 Days for Life and will be in Ann Arbor this week. He shares his story with us.

Steve Karlen is the campaign director for 40 Days for Life and the author of This is When We Begin to Fight. He edits the Day 41 magazine and co-hosts the 40 Days for Life Podcast. Visit 40daysforlife.com and learn more about his Ann Arbor visit by contacting Sandie Weathers at [email protected]

In a tweet earlier this year, PETA brought attention to another alleged stain on our society – speciesism; in other words, favoring the human race over animal “races.” PETA claims that this is manifested in our everyday language; when we say a sloppy person is a “pig” or a treacherous politician is a “snake,” we are practicing speciesism. Al shares some thoughts.

“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." So said Justice Anthony Kennedy in the 1992 Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v Casey. This viewpoint that defines humans by their capacity to choose is pervasive in American law and policy, but it disregards a stubborn fact - we are naturally limited to be dependent on others. Carter Snead has more.

Carter Snead is the author most recently of What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics. He directs the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also a Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of Political Science. He's a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a Fellow of the Hastings Center

Al shares how a Nathaniel Hawthorne short story relates to our Catholic faith.

This week we've been broadcasting and speaking from Boyne, Michigan, where we have met with several students in the FOCUS Summer Program. We'll talk with a Focus Missionary, Megan Ferowich, about the work FOCUS is doing.

Megan Ferowich is training to be a FOCUS missionary. Learn more about their work at FOCUS.org and on Facebook and Twitter by searching for FOCUS Catholic.