Kresta in the Afternoon

Richard Hutchinson came into the world four months premature, weighing less than one pound and small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. He just celebrated his first birthday, is learning how to crawl, and has been recognized as the most premature baby to survive. His mother Elizabeth joins us to share the family’s story.

Elizabeth Hutchinson is the mother of Richard Hutchinson, who was born last year four months premature and has been recognized as the most premature baby to survive. She and her husband Rick are posting updates of his progress at the Baby Richard facebook group.

The Democratic Party was once the home of most American Catholics, especially in the working class. But over the last 40 years, the Party's wholehearted embrace - and now championing - of values antithetical to Church teaching leaves Catholics in a difficult spot. As a pro-life, Catholic member of Congress, Dan Lipinksi had to work through these issues. He joins us.

Dan Lipinski is a former Congressman who served 8 terms as the US Representative for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. He distinguished himself in Congress as a champion of the middle class and earned a reputation as a commonsense legislator who brought people together to solve problems. He served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Dan authored numerous laws on transportation, research and technological innovation, the promotion of American manufacturing, restoring fiscal responsibility, and honoring America’s veterans and seniors. He was the Democratic Chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and the Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus. Every year during Catholic Schools Week he introduced a resolution honoring the contributions of Catholic schools to America. He recently joined the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in an advisory role for the group’s advocacy and outreach efforts in Chicago.

Yesterday, Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  In this type of situation though, where everyone knows what happened, nobody wins.

The narrative of the so-called “Great Apostasy” goes like this: just a few centuries after Christ’s death, around the time the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, the true Faith suffered a catastrophic falling-away. The simple truths of the gospel became so obscured by worldliness and pagan idolatry that Christianity required a complete reboot. Millions today profess a faith built on the assumption that the early Church quickly became broken beyond repair, requiring some new prophet or reformer to restore the pure teaching of Jesus and the apostles. This theory is popular... but it’s also fiction. Rod Bennett is here with the truth.

Rod Bennett is the author of several books including The Apostasy that Wasn’t: The Extraordinary Story of The Unbreakable Early Church and Bad Shepherds: The Dark Years in Which the Faithful Thrived While Bishops Did the Devil’s Work. His articles have appeared in Our Sunday Visitor, Rutherford Magazine, and Catholic Exchange; and he has been a frequent guest on EWTN television and Catholic Answers radio. Rod lives with his wife and two children on the 200-year old family homeplace in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Peter, our first Pope. In many ways the papacy is Catholicism's defining doctrine but also its most divisive. From medieval pontiffs who acted like princes to a modern pope whose every casual statement sets off a social-media firestorm, there has been plenty for non-Catholics to criticize and for the faithful to feel anxious about. How can we strengthen our belief in the papacy in the face of these challenges? Joe Heschmeyer joins us.

Joe Heschmeyer is the author of Pope Peter - Defending the Church's Most Distinctive Doctrine in a Time of Crisis. He works as a religious instructor for the Holy Family School of Faith in Kansas and was previously a litigator in Washington DC and a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Kansas City. He blogs at Shameless Popery and co-hosts The Catholic Podcast. He is also the author of Who Am I, Lord?: Finding Your Identity in Christ. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and daughter.

A new study from Pew reveals something that shouldn't surprise anyone - acceptance for cohabitation, even for couples who don't plan to get married, is at an all-time high. The practice is widely accepted among self-identified Catholics; nearly three-quarters of those surveyed said they don't have a problem with it. What is the pastoral approach to this matter? We talk with Greg Popcak.

Dr. Gregory Popcak is the director of CatholicCounselors.com, 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.

Before his radical conversion experience on the road to Damascus, St Paul - then known as Saul - was a strict follower of the Jewish faith. How did he view his Judaism after he became a follower of Christ? Brant Pitre joins us.

Brant Pitre is Distinguished Research Professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology and the author of many books, including Paul, a New Covenant Jew: Rethinking Pauline Theology, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, and the co-author with John Bergsma of A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament.

After the Jacob Blake shooting last summer, we spoke with his mother’s pastor, James Ward, who is becoming an important voice for greater racial justice and healing. As he has pointed out, we have a “sin problem, not a skin problem,” that stops us from achieving peace. He joins Al again to discuss his work and what it means to have a “zero victim” mentality.

James Ward is a pastor, author, and entrepreneur who speaks nationally and internationally on leadership development, and cultural and spiritual issues. He has been seen and heard on television and radio, both as a host and guest on numerous programs and networks. As a speaker and Bible teacher, James emphasizes Christian character development and spiritual awakening, while challenging listeners intellectually from God’s Word. In his book, Zero Victim: Liberate Yourself from the Mentality of Defeat, James shares universal principle that has fueled his success in every area of life—the development of a Zero Victim mindset. James is pastor and founder of INSIGHT Church in the North Chicago suburb of Skokie. He and his wife Sharon have been married for twenty years and have two wonderful children, Hannah and Jonathan.

After 9/11 a new wave of combative atheism emerged, claiming to have a more enlightened and accurate worldview than that of historic Christianity. How do we respond to these claims? We put atheism on trial with Louis Markos.

Louis Markos is the author most recently of Atheism on Trial: Refuting the Modern Arguments against God. He's a professor of English and scholar in residence at Houston Baptist University and has delivered hundreds of lectures worldwide on topics such as apologetics, CS Lewis, and Dante. His many other books include Apologetics for the 21st Century.

Catholic schools across the country worked hard to keep their doors open this past academic year, even as many public schools remained closed. But now, with the coronavirus pandemic in retreat and nearly all schools returning to in-person classes this fall, a dozen Catholic dioceses across the U.S. are launching permanent online schools. Lytia Reese, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Raleigh explains more.