Today on Kresta - June 22, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on June 22

4:00 - Kresta Comments – Every Sheepdog Needs a Shepherd

4:20 – “Leonie”
In late 1800s France, Leonie Martin is a young bourgeoisie woman with a difficult nature who causes great emotional stress and suffering for her mother Zelie. Leonie wreaks havoc with the religious superiors in the monasteries she tries in vain to enter. Her extreme emotional outbursts and stubborn nature begin to ease when she meets and befriends a caring younger nun Sister Jeanne Marguerite. It’s the story of the sister of St. Therese and is now a feature film. Executive Director Barb Middleton is here to discuss it.

4:20 – The Future of Catholic Press in America
Just two weeks after his election as the president of the Catholic Press Association for the next two years, Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) president and publisher, Gregory Erlandson, was officially introduced this week in his new post at the Association's annual meeting in Pittsburgh. Greg joins us from the convention to discuss these challenging times for the Catholic press, many of whom are diocesan newspapers seeing budgetary pressures force staff cuts, reduction of publication frequency, and in some cases, complete closing of their doors. But, Greg says, where there's a challenge, there's also an opportunity for a rethinking of Catholic communications strategies, in which print continues to play an important part - even if not the exclusive one it has enjoyed for many decades."

5:00 – Meditations on the Priesthood
Following the events of the last 5 days, we take time to look at the theology, the history, and the glory of the Catholic priesthood. At ordination, a priest becomes another person, commissioned not simply to act in the name of Christ, but to be another Christ, an alter Christus. This teaching was not an original insight of the Second Vatican Council. It is the traditional teaching of the Church. In his book, Meditations on the Catholic Priesthood, Father Charles Connor helps the priest to see once again, in fresh terms, that this is truly the essence of the priesthood. He shows how, in the Eucharist the priest finds his raison d'être for being a priest, the source of all his strength in the ministry, the summit of all his prayers. The role of the Cross and suffering in the life of a priest is one of the highlights of this book. Yet the suffering of a priest is tinged with joy because he suffers along with Christ, bolstered by Jesus himself. Fr. Connor joins us.