Today on Kresta - April 13, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on April 13

4:00 – Yesterday: 150th Anniversary of Start of Civil War / The Civil War As A Theological Crisis
Yesterday we commemorated the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Today Mark Noll argues that the War was a major turning point in American religious thought. Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe that God ruled over the affairs of people and nations, but they were radically divided in their interpretations of what God was doing in and through the war. Catholics in Europe and Canada saw clearly that no matter how much the voluntary reliance on scriptural authority had contributed to the construction of national civilization, if there were no higher religious authority than personal interpretation regarding an issue as contentious as slavery, the resulting public deadlock would amount to a full-blown theological crisis. Mark is here to talk about the Civil War as a theological crisis.

4:40 – Abuse allegations: true, false and truthy
It was one of the more searing allegations in the recent Philadelphia grand jury report on clergy sex abuse: A Bristol Township man killed himself after the Archdiocese of Philadelphia refused to believe that a priest had molested him when he was an altar boy. Reeling from criminal and civil allegations of sexual misconduct by priests and church officials, the Archdiocese said a month ago that it would reopen 37 cases of possible child sexual abuse cited by a local grand jury. But Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons says a number of important questions need to be addressed in regard to the allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviors against minors by 21 priests from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who were placed on administrative leave on Ash Wednesday. This would include the process of further evaluation of priests previously evaluated and found to be innocent. Fitzgibbons is here to make his case.

5:00 – Lost in Translation: Publisher Yanks Book Implying Vatican OKs Condoms / Vatican Announces Feast Day for Blessed John Paul II
The feast day of Blessed John Paul II will be marked Oct. 22 each year in Rome and the dioceses of Poland. When the Vatican made the announcement this week, it also said Catholics throughout the world will have a year to celebrate a Mass in thanksgiving for his beatification. Meanwhile, an Italian publisher has yanked copies of a book on Catholic Church teaching after a translation error implied the Vatican approved of contraception. Vatican correspondent Joan Lewis joins us to explain.

5:20 – The 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster and it’s relevance to the current crisis in Japan
As we prepare to commemorate the Chernobyl disaster later this week, Japan has raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis to the highest, matching the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, after increasing radiation prompted the government to widen the evacuation zone and aftershocks rocked the country. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised the rating to 7. The accident at the Fukushima plant previously was rated a 5 on the global scale, the same as the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Dr. Alex Sich, the only U.S. scientist allowed access to the Chernobyl blast zone, joins us to remember Chernobyl and apply it to the current crisis in Japan.

5:40 – The Patron Saints Handbook
Who was St. Genesius, and why is he the patron saint of actors? Why is St. Therese of Lisieux, who was a cloistered nun, the patron saint of missionaries? Is there a patron saint for automobile mechanics? How about for the athletes? Best-selling Catholic writer Mitch Finley answers these questions and more in a delightful book of one hundred saints and the occupations, groups, or causes they are associated with. In each short section, Finley describes the life of the saint and why he or she has been selected as a patron. Mitch is here to talk about these patron saints.