Al Kresta is a popular Catholic radio host, journalist and author. Spirit Catholic Radio recently brought him to Nebraska for presentations in Lincoln and Grand Island. While here, Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, interviewed him for the Southern Nebraska Register about his perspective on the Catholic Church. An edited version of that conversation follows.
Dennis Kellogg, Southern Nebraska Register: You work at the intersection of the Catholic Church and culture. What is it out there right now that worries you in relation to the Church?
Al Kresta, Catholic Radio Host/Journalist/Author: I wrote a book a few years ago called “Dangers to the Faith,” which looked at a lot of the ideological, external dangers to the Church. And if I ever had to do that book over again, I would focus on the internal problems of the Church, because we are, without doubt, our own worst enemy.
I think the first problem is that many people who bear the name Catholic, really don’t know what the Church teaches, and they don’t seem to care what the Church teaches. I think the Church needs to be more intentional about helping people come to a place of encounter with Christ. We are really gifted for that, because of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, where people can, in fact, in a very concrete and tangible way, encounter the risen Christ. I think the upcoming Eucharistic Revival is a good step towards that.
I think the second thing would be to take seriously adult catechesis again. We’re much better off today than we were 25-30 years ago. The amount of great catechetical materials that are available now. They’re colorful, they’re grounded in Scripture, in the apostolic tradition. They’ve got articulate and winsome presenters. But again, it’s got to get outside the normal zone.
There’s a nice subculture of committed Catholics—they read books from Ignatius Press. They listen to Ave Maria Radio or EWTN Radio. They go to Steubenville. They go to Ave Maria University. And we’re doing great at reaching those people. But we’re not great at getting outside those boundaries.
(And we need to) let people know that they are also called to serve. They’ve all been gifted spiritually, and proper catechesis should include taking an inventory of one’s spiritual gifts that they received by virtue of Baptism and Confirmation so that people can be equipped to go out and build up the body of Christ.
So those three things are critical—encounter with Christ, right catechesis and discipleship, and inventory spiritual gifts. There are all the hot button issues we’ve got now with trans-ideology, and all of that stuff. But if we’re doing those three things, it’s not going to be hard to deal with these other ideologies.
We may not win, and this is what’s important for us to recognize. We may be up against a stone wall and there may be a blocked future for the Church in America, or even in Western culture. The future of the Church may be elsewhere. But we should never think that we lost. The truth is our society lost. They turned away from Christ. Our elites don’t show much respect for the Christian faith. So we should not see that as our loss. If we’ve been being faithful, we’ve been trying to live out our faith, that’s not our loss. That’s their loss. And I think that we should not be blaming ourselves all the time for not winning on this issue or that issue.
I’m one who actually thinks America has rebirthed itself. John Adams said that this Constitution was for religious people and is not suitable for any other. George Washington when he gave his farewell speech, he said religion and morality are two indispensable supports for a free people. That’s no longer the case. It used to always be thought our winning of political freedoms and personal freedoms, we won those in order to do the good, to do what one ought. We now define freedom as doing what one wishes. And that’s not a mere political problem. That’s a deep cultural problem.
The earlier American culture that believed that virtue and freedom are indispensably linked, that culture is gone. And now American popular culture is basically, “It’s my life, and I’ll do what I want.” In a society like that, we can’t expect to have big social victories. The ground is not plowed properly. We have to remember that what’s important is that we are faithful to Jesus through all this and let the circumstances fall as they will. But don’t be blaming ourselves. Let’s do what we’ve been called to do. And let God have the final word here.
SNR: What are you most optimistic about then, when it comes to Catholicism?
Al Kresta: I’m optimistic that this generation of Catholics coming up behind me, I think the volume is smaller, but they’re on fire. They’re committed to the faith. They’re active. And they’re trying to find their way. I believe that if we are intentional about raising a family, creating domestic church, a family culture, and we actually realize we can’t do it just on our own. We need to be part of a village or a tribe or a number of households. If we go about doing that, I think we’re going to see great things. The American way, though, is for everybody to go off and kind of do it on their own...
I looked around at (my son’s) wedding and I saw all the groomsmen were enthusiastic about going to Eucharistic Adoration before the Mass and these are young men in their 20s, 30s. One of the young men actually composed a special Ave Maria for the Mass.
There are wonderful things that happen. Your great success in life will be your family. Make that the priority. So when you say, “What am I excited about?” I’m excited about seeing Catholic families be really Catholic, and do what God has called them to do. Doesn’t mean you have to have lots of kids, I’m just saying, you’re going to see probably more families of larger (number of) kids like years ago we used to, but honestly, the opportunity in the joy that comes from seeing the faith passed on to the next generation, there’s almost nothing that can compare with it. I see it happen, so it’s a real thing. It’s an empirical fact, I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it. I know it happens.
SNR: You talk with so many different people in your profession, day after day about Catholicism. What do you take away from those conversations?
Al Kresta: There are Catholics everywhere. We don’t have controlling and creative influence in many of these large institutions. We are in all of them. And you can go to the World Health Organization, or you can go down to Ford Motor, you’ll find Catholics everywhere, but we don’t seem to be exercising much creative control or influence there. And I’m not sure that can change given the flow of our culture and society.
I take a look at what corporate America is doing now. They’ve bought into this whole woke culture and it often will work against them, too. I think they’ll wake up eventually, they’ll realize they’re not really woke at all, they’ve been asleep. But it is a shame to see how quickly corporate business America decided to buy into this. So we have to live our life in support of those institutions which fight for our freedom to do so. That’s going to remain a major issue for us. We have to make sure we have men and women on the frontlines fighting—Becket Fund, the American Freedom Law Center, Thomas More Society—that are out there using the Constitution that was founded at a different period in American history, but can still be used to maintain our way of life. But it’s going to be a Catholic way of life. It will be increasingly different from the American way of life.
To watch the full unedited version of this interview with Al Kresta, watch below or go to the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel.
