Today on Kresta - June 22, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on June 22
Guest Host: Steve Ray

3:00 – Christians and the Holy Land
Amer Shehadeh is a Palestinian and an expert on the Holy Land. He has been the guide for Steve Ray pilgrimages to the Holy Land for years. Steve talks to Amer about being a Christian in the Holy Land, the political situation today, the experience of guiding and leading groups to holy sites, how we know the sites are authentic, and how people can experience the places Jesus walked for themselves.

3:37 – Catholic Scripture Study
We talk about the Catholic Scripture Study with Tami Palladino, a convert to the Catholic Church, youth minister, and a scripture teacher who uses the Catholic Scripture Study International program. CSS now has over 10,000 members in 40 countries — and growing.

4:00 – June 22, 431: Council of Ephesus Convenes
It was on this day in 431 that the First Council of Ephesus was convened at the Church of Mary in Ephesus, Asia Minor. The council was called due to the contentious teachings of Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople. St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, appealed to Pope Celestine I, charging Nestorius with heresy. The Pope agreed and gave Cyril his authority to serve a notice to Nestorius to recant his views or else be excommunicated. We talk about the Council and its content – including teachings on the dual nature of Christ, Mary as Theotokos, Pelagianism, and the Nicene Creed. Dr. Robert Fastiggi of Sacred Heart Major Seminary is our guest.

5:00 – The Year of the Priest
On March 16, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI declared a year for the priest in an effort to encourage "spiritual perfection" in priests. This announcement came during meetings with the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, and included the proclamation of St. John Vianney as patron saint of all priests. “The awareness of the radical social changes over the past decades must stir the best ecclesial energies to look after the formation of priestly candidates,” the pope said. Chief among all priorities noted by the pope was the “indispensable struggle for moral perfection which must dwell in every authentically priestly heart.” We talk with Msgr. Stephen Rossetti about the year of the priest.

5:37 – Ordained a priest…at age 75
On December 14, 2007, Bishop Robert Carlson of the diocese of Saginaw, MI ordained Deacon William Spencer as a priest. That event was made even more extraordinary by the fact that Fr. Bill Spencer is 75-years-old - the oldest man to be ordained for the Diocese and the first to have been married before following the call to Holy Orders. He was married to Margaret Mary "Peg" Spencer for nearly 45 years until her death to cancer in July 2004. Fr. Spencer is here to discuss marriage, fatherhood, priesthood, and the vocational call, all through the lens of this “Year of the Priest.”