Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - January 31

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Jan. 31

Live from the town of Ave Maria, FL

4:00 – Writing from Left to Right: Michael Novak’s Journey from Liberal to Conservative

Once a liberal writer and thinker, Michael Novak is here to shows how Providence (not deliberate choice) placed him in the middle of many crucial events of his time: a month in wartime Vietnam, the student riots of the 1960s, the Reagan revolution, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Bill Clinton's welfare reform, and the struggles for human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also spent fascinating days, sometimes longer, with inspiring leaders like Sargent Shriver, Bobby Kennedy, George McGovern, Jack Kemp, Václav Havel, President Reagan, Lady Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II, who helped shape—and reshape—his political views. Through it all, his focus on helping the poor and defending universal human rights remained constant; he gradually came to see building small businesses and envy-free democracies as the only realistic way to build free societies. Without economic growth from the bottom up, democracies are not stable. Without protections for liberties of conscience and economic creativity, democracies will fail. Free societies need three liberties in one: economic liberty, political liberty, and liberty of spirit. Michael joins us.
 

5:00 – Kresta Comments – ABC News: “Pope Francis Gladly Blesses Parrot Belonging to Male Stripper”

5:20 – Baby Munoz: A Thought Exercise in Catholic Moral Theology

Earlier this week, a Fort Worth hospital that kept a pregnant, brain-dead woman on life support for two months, followed a judge’s order on and removed her from the machines, ending her family’s legal fight to have her pronounced dead and to challenge a Texas law that prohibits medical officials from cutting off life support to a pregnant woman. The Baby Munoz case has raised questions about end-of-life care and whether a pregnant woman who is considered legally and medically dead should be kept on life support for the sake of an unborn baby. It also has gripped attention on both sides of the abortion debate and among Catholic Moral Theologians. We talk to Dr. Janet Smith about this case.