Kresta in the Afternoon

In his essay “Philosophy of Composition,” Edgar Allan Poe writes that “the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world.” Just a year after he penned these words, his young wife died of tuberculosis. While there is no evidence Poe ever considered converting to the Catholic faith, one can still find Catholic influences on his writings – especially when it comes to suffering. We’ll talk more about it with Dr. LuElla D’Amico.

The Spanish Inquisition is among the most misunderstood events in Medieval history, and many people simply associate it with the Monty Python sketch – “nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” Well, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition to show wise restraint in dealing with witchcraft—unless somebody has heard of Alonso de Salazar Frías, ‘The Witches’ Advocate.” Sandra Miesel joins us with his story.

Today many Protestant churches celebrate, or at least observe, Reformation Day. Catholics certainly don’t celebrate it – so how should we feel? Would the Leaders of the Reformation think it was a success? Al has some thoughts.

The Church simply cannot reach its full apostolic effectiveness unless each of the baptized effectively discerns his or her personal vocation. And that vocation goes far beyond just discerning if we are called to single, married or ordained life. How do we go about doing this? We talk with Fr. Brent Bowen.

George Orwell once observed that “At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question.” What does this “orthodoxy” look like today? What so-called truths are we all supposed to accept? Al discusses.

A recent law change in Berlin will allow women to swim topless at public pools, just as men do. The media celebrated this as some great victory for women's equality. What lessons can we learn from that about the state of our society? Al discusses.

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

On Wednesday the Vatican issued a letter to the Church asking Catholics to take an active role in the “Discernment and decision making” of the Church. Matthew Bunson joins us with more.

On October 28 in the year 312, the forces of the Emperor Constantine won a battle at the Milvian Bridge over the forces of Maxentius. The night before, Constantine had a vision which led him to fight under the protection of the Christian god. We learn more about the events of the battle and Constantine’s vision with Thomas Madden.

On this day in 1998, President Clinton signed the International Religious Freedom Act, a bill that prioritized religious freedom in US Foreign policy. Dan Philpott join us with more and also looks at how Just War theory applies to the Israel war.