Today on Kresta - Oct. 20, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Oct. 20

4:00 – Health Care Debate Hits 5th Gear – Will Babies and Consciences Be Protected?
The intricate process of turning two very different health care bills into one will continue tonight, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hosts Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Max Baucus (D-MT), and a number of high-level White House officials in his offices tonight. What does the process of unifying these bills entail, and why is the process so secretive? US Rep. Thaddeus McCotter is here to answer these questions, as well as whether babies and consciences will be protected.

4:20 – Pontiff to permit Anglican communities to join Catholic Church
Pope Benedict is promulgating an apostolic constitution that will permit Anglican communities whose members wish to be received into the Catholic Church to do so as communities. The papal document allows for the creation of "personal ordinariates" to be headed by formerly Anglican priests, providing a structure within the Catholic hierarchy to supervise the pastoral care of Anglicans who have become Catholics. These "personal ordinariates" would be integrated into national episcopal conferences, but encouraged to preserve the distinctive aspects of the Anglican tradition. We talk with Damian Thompson of the London Daily Telegraph and Editor-in-chief of London’s Catholic Herald.

4:40 – The Marriage Index: A Proposal to Establish Leading Marriage Indicators
Family scholars from six major universities and four leading research institutes have launched a U.S. Marriage Index, the first attempt to track, with a clear, accessible measure, the health of marriage in America. The 2009 Index, based on five indicators—shows a dramatic decline in the health of marriage in recent decades, especially. We talk with David Lapp of the Institute for American Values.

5:00 – Kresta Comments

5:20 – Mary, Mother of the Son (Part 2 of 3)
Mary, Mother of the Son takes the reader on a tour de force exploration of the Marian dimension of Catholic thought, life, prayer, and practice. In Volume One: Modern Myths and Ancient Truth, we discover the fascinating way in which Mary emerges with profundity, beauty, and love from the pages of Scripture in the light of apostolic teaching. We probe how the gospel of Christ crowns and perfects, not only the Old Testament, but the deepest insights of the great non-Christian philosophies, religions, and myths. We learn how to read the Bible as the earliest Christians did and find out how Mary safeguards the deepest truths about Christ and his Church. Mark Shea, author of the trilogy is here for part two in our three-day series on Mary, Mother of the Son.

5:40 – Healthcare and Catholics: True and False Arguments
Healthcare reform – it’s one of those causes almost everyone favors, but which almost automatically produces sharp arguments when we ask what it means and how it might be realized. You would have had to be living in a cave for the past eight months to be unaware that Americans are deeply divided on this matter, and that the division runs clean through the middle of many communities. That includes Catholic America. Sam Gregg looks at healthcare and Catholics: true and false arguments.