Today on Kresta - Sept. 23, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Sept. 23

3:00 – Feast of St. Padre Pio
Today is the feast of one of the most popular modern saints in the Church. We talk with Frank Rega about Padre Pio and America. He tells the story of the fascinating life story of Padre Pio, with emphasis on his life as a seminarian, young priest and his early decades at San Giovanni Rotondo. Incredible is the number of times the Capuchins sent him home sick unto death while a seminarian and young priest and how he was finally sent to remote San Giovanni Rotondo "for a couple of weeks of mountain air." He never left!

3:40 – Rifqa Bary Case Sheds Light on Islam to Christian Conversions
At a juvenile court hearing Monday afternoon, a judge ruled that Rifqa Bary, the Ohio teen who ran away from home out of fear she would be physically harmed for converting from Islam to Christianity would remain in Orlando for now. There are two ongoing cases regarding Rifqa Bary's dependency: one in Florida and the other in Ohio. The parents of the 17-year-old filed a motion Monday for a dependency hearing seeking jurisdiction of the case to be moved from Orlando to Columbus. An Ohio judge has set a hearing for Oct. 27. Right now Florida has an emergency temporary jurisdiction but the Orlando court judge said he wants to speak with an Ohio judge to determine who has jurisdiction. We talk with Tom Trento who has done extensive research and has been at all of the hearings in this case.

4:00 – Kresta Comments

4:20 – Violence Against Christians in Pakistan Rooted in Long History of Blasphemy Laws
The latest spate of violence against Christians in Pakistan vividly illustrates the difficulty that faces the religious minority in a country where blasphemy laws give Muslims a powerful weapon to use against Christian neighbors. Allegations that Christians have given offense against Islam regularly provoke violence, and create the climate of tolerance for that violence. Two bishops are now – at great risk to themselves - demanding the repeal of the blasphemy laws that encourage the persecution of the nation’s Christians. Meanwhile Church leaders are also speaking out against the imposition of the jizya, a tax on non-Muslims, in remote regions of Pakistan abutting Afghanistan, where the Taliban exercises considerable de facto power. Paul Marshall, America’s foremost expert in religious freedom joins us.

4:40 – Why All the Fuss? Because America Remains a Center-Right Christian Nation
On November 4, 2008, a largely conservative Christian American electorate elected an extremely liberal American president. And now that that president is governing from the extreme left, a sizable portion of that electorate is in revolt. It’s that simple. Is America losing its Judeo-Christian identity and shifting left, or is something else at play here? Paul Kengor has the analysis.

5:00 – Notre Dame President Fr. Jenkins Announces New Pro-Life Initiatives: Do They Go Far Enough?
Last week the president of the University of Notre Dame, Father John Jenkins, C.S.C., announced a new Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life to “consider and recommend to me ways in which the University, informed by Catholic teaching, can support the sanctity of life.” Father Jenkins also pledged to attend the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., on January 22. These are welcome steps in the right direction—the sort of activities that Catholics should expect from any Catholic college or university—but Professor Charles Rice says it’s not enough and there are serious steps that Notre Dame should take immediately to atone for its shocking betrayal of the U.S. bishops and the Catholic Church last spring. We talk to Professor Rice and David DiFranco of ReplaceJenkins.com.

5:20 – A Catholic View of Literary Classics – Part 1 of 10: Frankenstein
Today we begin a 10-week series examining Classic Literature from a Catholic perspective. Acclaimed literary biographer Joseph Pearce is the editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions and will be our guide. We will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer choice, enabling educators, students, and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism. Today, we examine Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.