Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - January 10, 2014

Talking about the "things that matter most" on January 10

4:00 – Kresta Comments

4:20 – CDC: U.S. Fertility Rate Hits Record Low for 2nd Straight

Year; 40.7% of Babies Born to Unmarried Women

The fertility rate of women in the United States fell to a record low for the second year in a row in 2012, according to data released last week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also for the second year in a row, 40.7 percent of the babies born in the United States were born to unmarried mothers. Steven Mosher from the Population Research Institute is here to help us understand the gravity of these numbers.

4:40 – Christian martyrdom nearly DOUBLED in 2013

It’s an astonishing statistic - nearly twice the number of Christians were martyred for their faith in 2013 than the previous year, according to a new study by an organization monitoring global religious persecution. The World Watch List, issued by Open Doors USA each year, documents oppression of Christians throughout the world. Based on data from the past year, it ranks the 50 countries that are home to the worst treatment of Christians. Along with the release of the 2014 report, Open Doors USA also offered information about global Christian persecution, explaining that it had gathered evidence of 2,123 Christians who were killed for their faith in 2013, up from 1,201 such martyrdoms in 2012. Robert Spencer of jihadwatch.org explains what is happening.

5:00 – Is There A “Catholic” Way to Overcome Depression

Countless Christians -- including scores of saints -- have suffered profound, pervasive sorrow that modern psychiatrists call "depression." Then, as now, great faith and even fervent spiritual practices have generally failed to ease this wearying desolation of soul. Catholic psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Kheriaty is here to review the effective ways that have recently been devised to deal with this grave and sometimes deadly affliction -- ways that are not only consistent with the teachings of the Church, but even rooted in many of those teachings. We’ll come to know how to identify the various types of depression and come to understand the interplay of their often manifold causes, biological, psychological, behavioral, cultural, and, yes, moral.