Today on Kresta - May 10, 2010

Talking about the Things That Matter Most on May 10

4:00 – Kresta Comments:

4:20 – Historical Distortions and the Templars
On this day 700 years ago, 54 Knights Templar were burned alive in Paris. The Church created the Templars to protect Holy Land pilgrims from bandits, but the knights' quick rise in power and wealth made them unpopular. Philip the Fair of France against them trumped up charges of blasphemy and homosexuality to convince Pope Clement to disband the order and persecute its members. We talk about the history of the order, and common misconceptions about the Templars with medieval scholar Sandra Miesel.

4:40 – Elena Kagan Chosen by Obama for Supreme Court: The Politics of the Choice
President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court this morning, declaring the former Harvard Law School dean "one of the nation's foremost legal minds." She would be the court's youngest justice and give it three female members for the first time. The nomination to replace liberal retiring Justice John Paul Stevens set the stage for a bruising confirmation battle, though mathematically Democrats should be able to prevail in the end. At 50, Kagan is relatively young for the lifetime post and could help shape the high court's decisions for decades. If confirmed by the Senate, she would become only the fourth female justice in history. Political scientist Paul Kengor joins us.

5:00 – The Minority Court
Those who founded our nation would certainly have been surprised by much of what goes on now at the Supreme Court—free-speech cases about online child pornography, search-and-seizure disputes involving thermal-imaging devices, and so on. Even more surprising to them than the Court's work, though, would have been the Court's current makeup. Its nine members include two Jews and six Roman Catholics. And Justice John Paul Stevens, the Court's lone Protestant member, recently announced his plans to step down. We look at how Jews and Catholics came to own the bench. Rick Garnett is our guest.

5:20 – Kresta Comments – JPII and Immigration
John Paul II referred to the nations of South, Central and North America as "America", singular. What did he mean? In his Ecclesia in America: The Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation was he vying to be the poster child for "Open Borders". No, but he did expect Catholics to hear him as they think about immigration and international relations within this hemisphere. During this immigration debate, Catholics, lay and ordained, would do well to read JPII. Some basic priorities need to be maintained. Al has the commentary.

5:40 – Archbishop Fulton Sheen – Born May 8, 1895
In the years since Fulton J. Sheen’s cause for canonization was opened in 2002, the Church has reviewed in depth the teachings of this great preacher and evangelist. Sheen’s reputation for personal sanctity and pastoral zeal is skillfully catalogued here as the author delves into ten areas in which Sheen, through his writings and his talks on radio and TV, has left the world a spiritual legacy of incomparable worth. Thomistic philosopher and professor at the Catholic University of America, prolific writer and pioneer in the use of the media, convert-maker and head of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and Bishop of Rochester in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, Sheen lived in the religious spotlight for most of his life. What he taught so clearly, he also lived in a remarkable fashion as these pages so carefully document. Father Charles Connor’s scholarly and balanced insight allow Sheen and his spiritual legacy to live on and influence many for the good in the present day and age.