Today on Kresta - March 16, 2010

Talking about the Things That Matter Most on Mar. 16

LIVE FROM AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY IN AVE MARIA, FL

4:00 – Clergy Sex Abuse Scandals Rock Europe
In an unusual interview on March 13, a key Vatican official described in detail the steps taken by the Vatican to confront priestly sex abuse since 2001, the year the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under then-Cardinal Ratzinger, laid out strict new norms for processing such cases. The official, Msgr. Charles Scicluna, a doctrinal congregation official from Malta who deals directly with cases of priests accused of abuse of minors, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the allegation that Pope Benedict had covered up sex abuse crimes was "false and calumnious." We look at the growing number clergy sex abuse claims in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and more. Veteran Vatican journalist John Allen is with us.

4:20 – TBA

5:00 – Health Care’s Final Push: Will the Pro-Life Democrats Hold Strong?
President Barack Obama may have delayed his trip this week to Asia pending a vote on health care reform, but it's Congressman Bart Stupak who might be taking insurance reform by way of Shanghai. Five months after the House passed a slim 220-215 vote to pass their version of health care reform, three months after the Senate gritted through a pre-Christmas 58-39 tally, the state of reforming the American health care system largely resides upon a two-page document authored by the Democrat representative from Menominee. The Stupak Amendment — authored by the namesake Democrat from MI — that requires women to purchase an additional insurance rider under the House bill has ignited a nationwide debate about whether federal tax dollars would be allowed to fund abortion under health care reform. We talk to Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List.

5:20 – Pope 'distraught' by German sex abuse scandal
Pope Benedict XVI is distraught by news of a scandal involving allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany according to Germany's highest-ranking prelate. Freiburg Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of a conference of German bishops, discussed the scandal in a meeting with the pope last week. The archbishop said he did not believe that priests' celibacy caused the sexual-abuse problem. The pope later reaffirmed his support for priestly celibacy as well, telling a separate group that "it is an expression of the gift of the self to God and to others." Zollitsch's meeting with the pope unfolded against the backdrop of a growing scandal involving sex-abuse allegations in Catholic Church institutions across Europe. Nearly every day since the end of January, people have come forward to report cases of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. We talk to Kishore Jayabalan in Rome.

5:40 – Kresta Comments - Shaken by Scandal, Sickened by Sin, Shocked by $1 billion price tag