National Catholic radio host Al Kresta visits Indianapolis

Al Kresta, left, host of the nationally syndicated Catholic radio talk show “Kresta in the Afternoon,” talks on the air with Robert Teipen, chairman of the board of Catholic Radio Indy 89.1 FM on Sept. 10 at Catholic Radio Indy’s studios in Indianapolis. Teipen is a member of St. Lawrence Parish in Indianapolis.

By Sean Gallagher

Al Kresta is the host of a nationally syndicated Catholic radio talk show, “Kresta in the Afternoon,” which is broadcast weekdays from the studios of WDEO in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Following the lead of other talk show hosts who take their program on the road, Kresta went on a tour of the Midwest in September to visit Catholic radio stations that broadcast his show.

He visited and broadcast his show from the studios of Catholic Radio Indy 89.1 FM on the northwest side of Indianapolis on Sept. 10.

Other stops on his tour included Fort Wayne, Ind.; Louisville and Lexington, Ky.; and Cincinnati, Canton and Steubenville, Ohio.

When Kresta began his work in Catholic radio a decade ago, such a tour would have been a real challenge because he said there were only about four Catholic radio stations in the country, located in Ann Arbor; Jacksonville, Fla.; Reno, Nev.; and St. Louis.

Now there are more than 100 radio stations across the U.S. broadcasting Catholic programming.

“It’s very gratifying because it’s good, slow, solid growth,” said Kresta. “It’s hard to find stations that have failed.”

Kresta often says on the air that his program focuses “on the things that matter most.”

He frequently discusses with guests and listeners who call in how the Catholic faith intersects with various political and cultural issues of the day.

Earlier on the day that he broadcasted from Indianapolis, Gen. David Petraeus gave his long-awaited report on the war in Iraq to members of Congress.

“What’s the future of the proclamation of the Gospel in Iraq when all this is done?” Kresta asked on the air. “We will know sometime in the next two years or so whether … we have a better environment in which to preach the Gospel and to establishment the right worship of God or if we have a more difficult environment in which to do that. At the present time, of course, it’s more difficult.”

Kresta has been carrying on discussions like these for decades. For 10 years before moving into Catholic radio, he worked at a Christian radio station in Detroit. For much of that time, he was away from the Catholic faith of his childhood, but he returned to it in the early 1990s.

In February 2003, conversations of a national scope took a back seat. At that time, Kresta contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a rare disease where flesh-eating bacteria can quickly kill the person that it has infected.

In order to stop the spread of the disease, Kresta’s left leg had to be amputated above the knee.

“I was unconscious for about five days after the surgery,” he said. “When I came back [into consciousness], my daughter, Alexis, was there as well as my son, James.

“… Alexis was very quick to talk to me about how many people were praying for me. From that moment on, I had this sense of being lifted up, buoyed up by the prayers of God’s people. It was palpable.”

Many of those prayers came in response to appeals for spiritual help for Kresta that went out nationwide by radio and the Internet.

Some two decades earlier, Kresta was hospitalized on two occasions for clinical depression. Many of his friends and family members feared that this depression might recur as a result of his amputation.

It didn’t.

“I really believe that the reason it didn’t happen is because I was being held up by so many people in prayer,” Kresta said. “I received hundreds and hundreds of cards and e-mails from people. It was most astounding.”

Kresta’s illness confirmed for him the positive influence that Catholic radio can wield in individual lives.

But he also knows from experience that there are divisions among Catholics in the United States about the role that Catholic radio plays in the Church here.

“I think that there are many people who would benefit from Catholic radio, but somehow feel alienated from it because they see Catholic radio as too politically conservative,” Kresta said. “And the reason for that is that we’re very comfortable dealing with abortion as a primary issue.

“I think those who are more explicitly committed to issues of poverty, immigration, race and the environment don’t hear enough of their agenda being put forward on Catholic radio. And that’s a matter of patience on everybody’s part.”

Despite this difference of opinion, Kresta said he works hard to discuss a wide variety of issues on his two-hour show, which is broadcast Monday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. eastern time. In Indianapolis, only the second hour is heard.

“I tell people we deal with AIDS, war and peace, gender, dissent, old age and New Age, heavy metal and light eating. And we deal with life, death and God. We cover the whole range of things.”

Whatever the timeline might be for resolving the debate about the role of Catholic radio in the Church in the United States, Kresta believes God’s grace has had a part in its continued growth.

“I think there’s something very special going on,” he said. “I’m always very reluctant to try to attribute causes within history to God.

“[But] there’s a strong sense of Providence about it. The endurance rate of the stations is great when you consider how many new businesses and apostolates just collapse. These [stations] just keep going.” †