Today on Kresta - March 9, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on March 9

4:00 – 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.

4:20 – 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.

4:40 – 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.

5:00 – Kresta Comments: Ash Wednesday and The Journey Through Lent