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Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - February 12

Talking About the “Things That Matter Most” on February 12

From the Legatus Summit in Orlando, FL

4:00 – Kresta Comments: The Co-Responsibility of the Laity

4:20 – Preparing Catholics For the New America

In the article, “Catholics and the Next America,” Archbishop Charles J.Chaput O.F.M. Cap. delivers a prescient warning to American Catholics regarding a growing trend toward secularization in American culture, with Catholics facing dwindling relevance, threatening their ability to be heard. In response, the Napa Institute was formed to help Catholic leaders face the challenges posed in the “next America” — to continue the work of the Apostles and their successors, the Bishops, heeding Christ’s call for ongoing evangelization. Tim Busch, the man behind the Institute joins us.

4:40 – It Is Well - Life in the Storm

Chris and Angela Faddis were devout Catholics with two young children, who trusted in the Lord and His plan for their family. But the married couple's faith would receive an immense test on Easter Sunday 2011, when Angela was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. Angela died 17 months later, on Sept. 21, 2012, holding the hand of her heartbroken husband. One year later, Chris Faddis chronicles the inspirational journey he shared with his wife. "As you read this book you'll encounter the often harsh reality of the Christian journey," writes Catholic speaker and author Mark Hart in the foreword. "You'll experience both the splintered, bloody crucifix of Good Friday and the shiny, radiant cross of Easter Sunday. Chris will invite you behind the closed doors into the intimate exchanges and heaven-sent moments that should call us all to stop and survey our own lives. Do we wake up counting our blessings or our problems? That difference makes all the difference, as Angela demonstrated through her constant fidelity to God."Chris is here to tell the story.

5:00 – The Future of Catholicism

Michael Coren is a British-Canadian columnist, author, public speaker, radio host and television talk show host. Michael addressed Legatus on Saturday and joins us now to explore the themes of his books - Why Catholics are Right, The Future of Catholicism, Heresy: 10 Lies They Spread about Christianity, and more. 

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - February 10

Talking About the “Things That Matter Most” on February 10

Live from the Legatus Summit in Orlando, FL

4:00 – The Cause of Canonization for Archbishop Fulton Sheen Continues to Progress

Msgr. Stanley Deptula – Executive Director of the Fulton Sheen Foundation

4:20 – Pro-Life Movement Continues to Show Momentum

Marjorie Dannenfelser - President and Chairman of the Board of the Susan B. Anthony List

4:40 – The Francis Effect

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf – FrZblog.com

5:00 – One Lawyer - 2000+ Hours Fighting HHS Mandate

Erin Mersino – Attorney with the Thomas More Law Center

5:20 – The Slippery Slope the Euthanasia Battle

Rita Marker – President of the Patient’s Rights Council

Planned Parenthood to Pay $2 Million for Death in Botched Second-Trimester Abortion

By Kathy Schiffer

A $2 million settlement has been reached in the death of a young woman who obtained a second-trimester abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in downtown Chicago.  Besides Planned Parenthood, also included in the settlement agreement are Northwest Memorial Hospital and the Northwest Medical Faculty Foundation.

Tonya Reaves was in the second trimester of pregnancy when she sought an abortion at Planned Parenthood’s Loop Health Center, in downtown Chicago in 2012.  Late-term abortionist Mandy Gittler botched the D&E abortion, causing three major medical problems which resulted in the 24-year-old woman’s death:

• Pieces of placenta were still attached to the inside of her womb even after a second abortion done by Northwestern Memorial Hospital to remove fetal remains left by Planned Parenthood.
• She suffered a 3/16 inch uterine perforation near forcep impression marks.  D&E abortions involve dismembering the baby in the womb and removing the pieces with forceps.
• She suffered an “extensive” perforation of her broad uterine ligament with a possible severing of her left uterine artery as a result of her abortion.  This accounted for the internal bleeding that was discovered only too late by the hospital trauma team.

Tonya Reaves

The injuries sustained by Reaves during the botched abortion were, according to Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, survivable had she received immediate emergency care.  Instead, the Planned Parenthood clinic waited five hours to transport her to the hospital.  Additionally, they failed to report the incomplete abortion and uterine perforation–leaving the trauma team to solve the puzzle of her injuries while her life ebbed away.

Reaves left behind a one-year-old son, Alvin Jones III.  Payouts of the $2 million will not begin until 2029, when the son turns 18.

Walter Hoye, a pro-life leader who has closely followed the case, said, “In my opinion, Planned Parenthood is guilty of criminal negligence, depraved indifference, and gross medical incompetence.  Now that the case is settled, we will never know how a jury would have reacted.”

LifeNews has more details on the case.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - February 7, 2014

Talking About the “Things That Matter Most” on February 7

Live from the Legatus Summit in Orlando, FL

4:00 – Kresta Comments: Creation / Evolution / Young Earth. What is Compatible With Catholicism

4:20 – Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor: How I Discovered the Hidden Treasures of the Catholic Church

Tens of thousands of American adults join the Catholic Church every year. Why? What is it that attracts them to Catholicism? In Confessions of a Mega-Church Pastor, Allen Hunt unveils the treasures of Catholicism that many life-long Catholics are simply unaware of. At the same time he demonstrates the genius of Catholicism and encourages us to move beyond taking our faith for granted. With a personal touch that is profound and disarming, Hunt takes his readers on a journey that is sure to change the way we experience our faith. At a time when so many are disillusioned about where the Catholic Church is and where it is going, Allen Hunt brilliantly reminds us that personal holiness is the key to the bigger future God wants to leads us to both as individuals and together as a Church. Allen joins us.

5:00 – Kresta Comments: The ACLU and Its Public Consequences

5:20 – The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic

As human beings we are constantly engaging and disengaging in everything we do. We engage and disengage at work, in marriage, as parents, in our quest for health and well-being, in personal finances, environmentally, politically, and, of course, we engage or disengage spiritually. If you walk into any Catholic church next Sunday and look around, you will discover that some people are highly engaged, others are massively disengaged, and the majority are somewhere in between. Why? What is the difference between highly engaged Catholics and disengaged Catholics? Answering this question is essential to the future of the Catholic Church. If we truly want to engage Catholics and reinvigorate parish life, we must first discover what drives engagement among Catholics. Matthew Kelly explores this question with us today.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - Feb. 6, 2014

Talking About the “Things That Matter Most” on February 6

Live from the Legatus Summit in Orlando, FL

4:00 – Kresta Comments

5:00 – UN says Vatican 'systematically' allowed sexual abuse of children

Yesterday a U.N. human rights committee said that the Vatican "systematically" adopted policies that allowed priests to rape and molest tens of thousands of children over decades. The U.N. committee severely criticized the Holy See for its attitudes toward homosexuality, contraception and abortion and said it should change its own canon law. The Vatican promptly objected and its U.N. ambassador accused the committee of having betrayed the international body's own objectives by allowing itself to be swayed by pro-gay ideologues. He said it appeared the committee simply hadn't listened when the Holy See outlined all the measures it has taken to protect children. We talk to Matthew Bunson, author of Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal

5:20 – The Romance of Religion: Fighting for Goodness, Truth, and Beauty

C. S. Lewis said that Christianity works on us like every other myth, except it is a myth that really happened. Fr. Dwight Longenecker grabs this idea and runs with it, showing that the Christian story is the greatest story ever told because it gathers up what is true in all the fantasy stories of the world and makes them as solid, true, and real as a tribe of dusty nomads in the desert or the death of a carpenter-king. Fr. Longenecker calls for the return of the romantic hero—the hero who knows his frailty and can fight the good fight with panache, humor, and courage. Conflict and romance are everywhere in the story of Christ, and our response is to dust off our armor, don our broad-brimmed hats, pick up our swords, and do battle for Christ with confidence, wonder, and joy. Is religion no more than a fairy tale? No, it is more than a fairy tale—much more: it is all the fairy tales and fantastic stories come true here and now. We talk to Fr. Dwight.

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - Feb. 4

Talking About the “Things That Matter Most” on February 4, 2014

Live from Ave Maria, FL

4:00 – The Griswold Gambit?

In 1965, the U. S. Supreme Court, in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, ruled unconstitutional a 1879 Connecticut statute that outlawed the use of contraception. Although constitutional law scholars often discuss the case in terms of its logic and holding, they rarely do so with an eye toward the statutory language that the Court held was in violation of the Constitution. For this reason, these scholars, not to mention their students and their readers, often miss the underlying rationale of the decision, which may shed light on contemporary legal disputes about the same subject matter. Frank Beckwith helps us unfold that rationale.

4:20 – Do All Religions Deserve Respect?

Do All Religions Deserve Respect? This is a question recently posed by Joseph Trabbic, a Philosophy at Ave Maria University. He says a sound argument for religious freedom would not claim that all religions have a right to equal respect. Any argument that included a similar premise would be unsound and rightly ridiculed. Let us call this kind of argument for religious freedom a “universalist argument” since it says that all religions should be treated equally. Although a universalist argument for religious freedom might in many situations appear expedient, when truth is subordinated to apologetics the long-term effects (and often the short-term ones) can be quite harmful. But would any Catholic be tempted to make a universalist argument for religious freedom? He is here to answer that question and present his case.

5:00 – Kresta Comments

5:20 – Fighting Mad: Practical Solutions for Conquering Anger

How do you deal with anger and its emotional buddies? Parents, children, spouses, siblings, coworkers, even friends; we all struggle with situations where we experience feelings of anger. Dr. Ray Guarendi is here to cut through psychobabble to present a realistic picture of anger and other emotional issues, and then offers practical solutions for overcoming them. He presents a basic understanding of anger and clears up common misconceptions, and then focuses on different aspects of anger. 

Today on "Kresta in the Afternoon" - Feb. 3

Talking About the “Things That Matter Most” on February 3, 2014

Live from the Ave Maria School of Law

4:00 - Guttmacher Study Shows Pro-Life Success in Swing States

Earlier this month, the Guttmacher Institute released their 2013 state-policy review. The report indicates that pro-lifers continue to make very good legislative progress at the state level. In 2013, 70 state-level pro-life measures were enacted — making 2013 the second most productive year on record. The report specifically cites Texas, North Dakota, North Carolina, and Arkansas as being especially active in passing pro-life laws. Overall, according to Guttmacher, there have been more pro-life laws passed between 2011 and 2013 than in the entire previous decade. Pro-life writer Michael New is here to analyze why and the impact of these numbers.

4:20 – Kresta Comments: The Super Bowl / Phillip Seymour Hoffman / Pro-Life Impact and More

5:00 – Continuing to Follow the Ins and Outs of the Cases Against the HHS Mandate

As of last week, more than 50 briefs were filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Hobby Lobby Stores and the Green family, supporting their challenge to the HHS mandate. That case is one that the Supreme Court will hear in its next session, but many more challenges continue to wind their way through the courts. We talk to Gene Milhizer of the Ave Maria Law School.

5:20 – The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism

The central contention of the "New Atheism" of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is that there has for several centuries been a war between science and religion, that religion has been steadily losing that war, and that at this point in human history a completely secular scientific account of the world has been worked out in such thorough and convincing detail that there is no longer any reason why a rational and educated person should find the claims of any religion the least bit worthy of attention. But as Edward Feser argues in The Last Superstition, in fact there is not, and never has been, any war between science and religion at all. There has instead been a conflict between two entirely philosophical conceptions of the natural order. He joins us to make his case.

Abortion Rate Falls to Lowest Level Since 1973

By Kathy Schiffer

Pro-Life Protest in Detroit, Michigan

The number of abortions performed in America fell by 13 percent between 2008 and 2011, leaving the U.S. abortion rate at its lowest level since the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973.

That is the very good news in a national survey of abortion providers conducted by the Guttmacher Institute.  The report, which will be released on Monday, February 3, claims an abortion rate of 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 2011, well below the peak of 29.3 in 1981 and the lowest since a rate of 16.3 in 1973.

And that's not all--there's more good news for pro-lifers.  According to the Guttmacher Institute's website, there were more state abortion restrictions enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade.

Rachel Jones, lead author of the Guttmacher report, claimed that there is no apparent link to the reduced number of abortion practitioners.  Rather, Jones believes the decrease in abortions is the result of increased contraceptive use and lower rates of pregnancy.  

An early report on Yahoo! News quotes pro-life experts who believe the declining abortion rate is evidence of changing attitudes:

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, described the overall drop in abortion numbers as evidence that the anti-abortion movement's lobbying and legislative efforts were having an impact.

"It shows that women are rejecting the idea of abortion as the answer to an unexpected pregnancy," she said.

Americans United for Life, another anti-abortion group engaged in the efforts to pass restrictive state laws, said Guttmacher's numbers should be viewed skeptically because they are based on voluntary self-reporting by abortion providers. 

"It is impossible really to know the true abortion rate," said the group's president, Charmaine Yoest.

Read the rest here.