Today on Kresta - April 1, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Apr. 1

3:00 – Columns of Light: 30 Remarkable Saints
In this Lenten season, we try to perfect our lives, and turn them into lives full of grace. What better to strive for and emulate than the lives of the saints? Fr. John Jay Hughes gives us a lively and fascinating account of some 30 saints, many well known, some obscure, which brings them down from their stained glass windows and pedestals and presents them as real human beings, of flesh and blood. In their different ways they show that every saint has a past, every sinner a future.

3:40 – Kresta Comments - Descartes
On March 31, 1596, the French philosopher Rene Descartes was born. Though more famous for his saying, “Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), he followed that statement with a logical argument for the existence of God. In essence, he argued that the idea of God, a perfect being, could only be caused by that perfect God. Al looks at the life and thought of Descartes and his place in history and philosophy.

4:00 – TBA

4:20 – Humanae Vitae and Me: A Testimony
It was the summer of 1968, and the Humanae Vitae debate had hit the Church the world over. The small town outside London where Joanna Bogle lived was no different. Dissent from Humanae Vitae wasn't something remote and far away; it was written into the fabric of ordinary Catholic parish life. It involved popular priests and lay people who were active in many fields -- teachers, leaders of organizations -- and, from my recollection at least, it was mainstream. She says she doesn’t remember hearing anyone actively defending Humanae Vitae. Yet it dramatically impacted her life. She is here to tell us the story.

5:00 – Pro-Life Pastor Walter Hoye Now Serving 30-Day Abortion-Related Jail Sentence
A pro-life African-American pastor, Walter Hoye, has begun serving a 30-day jail sentenced for sharing a pro-life message outside abortion centers. Hoye was previously found guilty of violating what pro-life attorneys call an unconstitutional new city law designed specifically to target him. Oakland officials had enacted the law, which has been heavily criticized as curtailing free speech rights. The ordinance prohibits contact within eight feet of women entering abortion businesses without their consent. He is now serving the 30-day sentence and he will also receive three years probation, pay a $1,000 fine and a $130 restitution fee, and be ordered to stay 100 feet away from any abortion center in the city of the Oakland. His wife, Lori Hoye, is here to discuss his case and his witness.

5:20 – Bridging the Great Divide : Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post Conservative Evangelical Catholic
Fr. Robert Barron’s book “Bridging the Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Conservative Evangelical Catholic” represents a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic community. Today's faithful are searching for an expression of Catholic Christianity that is vibrant, colorful, provocative, counter-cultural, deeply rooted in the tradition, and full of the promise of the Good News. In this timely and prophetic book, Fr. Barron--himself a member of the younger generation--has minted a new vernacular and blazed a new way that bridges the great divide and gives voice to the concerns of post-liberal, post-conservative, evangelical believers.