Today on Kresta - March 2, 2001

Talking about the "things that matter most" on March 2

4:00 – First Hand Report on the New Zealand Earthquake
The massive 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand last week has resulted in 160 deaths thousands of injuries and countless homes and businesses destroyed. Christchurch retail spending has almost halved and the central city is in lockdown as many retail and office buildings there were destroyed. Thousands of residents have fled the city for a while and those there have focused on supporting their families, relatives and friends in the aftermath of the devastation. We talk with Christchurch resident Emily Matthews about the day of the earthquake and the aftermath.

4:20 – Christians Out as Foster Parents in UK?
A British court has ruled that a Christian couple can no longer care for foster children because of their opposition to homosexuality. Eunice and Owen Johns provided foster care for nearly two dozen children in the 1990s — but after Great Britain instituted equality laws, they were banned from the program in 2007. Social workers red-flagged the couple during an interview when they explained that they did not approve of homosexuality because of their Pentecostal faith. Judges at London’s Royal Courts of Justice determined that laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination take precedence over the couple’s religious beliefs. We talk about this case with Peter LaBarbara of Americans For Truth about Homosexuality.

4:30 – Crisis Pregnancy Centers In Danger in NYC
Today, New York’s City Council will vote on a bill that tries to dictate what privately funded, pro-life pregnancy centers say to their clients. The bill demands that pro-life centers insert boilerplate language promoting abortion and contraception into their ads, and even into their conversations with pregnant women. Pro-life leaders charge that the bill violates New Yorkers’ right to free speech, and is designed simply to hamper the operations of pregnancy centers and increase the number of abortions in the city. Chris Slattery, founder of Expectant Mother Care in NYC is here.

4:40 – Westboro Wins at US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court ruled this morning that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who mount anti-gay protests outside military funerals, despite the pain they cause grieving families. The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church, upholding an appeals court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment to the father of a dead Marine who sued church members after they picketed his son's funeral. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the court. Justice Samuel Alito dissented. We talk to Kevin Govern of Ave Maria Law School about this decision.

5:00 – From the White House to Ave Maria University: Jim Towey Takes the Reins
The former head of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and president of Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., has been named president and CEO of Ave Maria University. Jim Towey will begin his new position on July 1 and will succeed Nicholas Healy. Towey is also assuming the role of CEO, in the place of Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan, who will continue as just the chancellor. Towey, who also served as the attorney for Mother Teresa of Calcutta for 12 years, joins us to talk about his accomplishments, his plans, and the future of Ave Maria University.

5:20 – Why Two Judgments? The Individual’s Reckoning at Death Fulfills God’s Justice Only in Part
Stretching out across the altar wall of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel is Michelangelo’s magnificent fresco “The Last Judgment.” Homilies about Judgment Day are rare these days, so even Catholic visitors to the Chapel may sometimes puzzle over the arresting images. In particular, Catholics often wonder why the Church teaches we will go through two judgments after death. We talk to apologist Paul Thigpen about why the two judgments.

5:40 – The Last Acceptable Prejudice Rides Again
Anti-Catholicism has long been a feature of both the high and the low culture in America. From the nineteenth-century to the middle of the twentieth-century, it was out in the open: many editorialists, cartoonists, politicians, and other shapers of popular opinion in that era were crudely explicit in their opposition to the Catholic Church. But then, in the latter half of the twentieth-century, anti-Catholicism went relatively underground. It still existed, to be sure, but it was considered bad form to be too obvious about it. However, in the last ten years or so, the old demon has re-surfaced. We talk about it with Fr. Robert Barron.