Remembering Al Kresta
"With the New York Times in one hand and the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the other..."
This weekend, Catholic radio host and my former employer, Al Kresta passed into eternity. I will be reading an obituary for him and an inspiring reading on the Resurrection by St. Paul on my radio program Michigan Mornings™ on Monday.
I was one of Al’s producers for his daily radio show Kresta in the Afternoon during my time working at Ave Maria Radio. It was a job that I enjoyed, and I took pride in sharing the Gospel with listeners across the country.
Al was also formative in the maturation of my Catholic and political beliefs. I was fresh out of college when I began working for him and, perhaps as a reaction to the generally progressive policies of the Catholic school I attended, I tended to skew in the right.
I regularly viewed things happening in the Church and in the world through a political lens. I’d complain about this bishop on the right or this bishop on the left; this is a distinction that I have tried to eradicate from my own thought and on my newsletter, The Purple Catholic. In part, it is because of Al Kresta. What Al taught me was that we ought to look at life through the lens of scripture and the teaching of the Church.
My political lens of the Church and life was not unique. We often received calls from listeners wanting to talk about conservative bishops or liberal priests. We would frequently receive calls from listeners complaining Al’s political views were too far to the left. Not five minutes later, we’d get a call from someone complaining Al was spending too much time defending the right.
Al clearly wasn’t that; he was Catholic. Saying someone was on the left or right is contrary to the proper lens we ought to view the world: Scripture and Tradition.
Al was very well-read. Well, that is a bit of an understatement; his personal library filled a three-car garage. He would read just about anything that was sent to our office regardless of the political or religious slant. But because he was also steeped in the scriptures and the teachings of the Church, Al could properly discern and critique publications that drifted away from the Magisterium and praise works that reinforced it.
The best example of this is his thousands of hours of interviews on the radio. In my opinion, Al was one of the last great interviewers. Without using clichés like “going behind the headlines” or “getting to the heart of the matter,” I want to share with you three interviews that I think best demonstrated Al’s ability to ask probing questions and share the Gospel. The lens of Scripture and the teaching of the Church guided these interviews and brought intellectual and spiritual fruit to those who listened.
First is an interview that I helped Al record over Zoom with the late Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell was falsely accused and convicted for sexually assaulting a boy after a Mass in the sacristy of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. The High Court of Australia later overturned his conviction unanimously since exculpatory evidence was not properly received by a lower appeals court.
Cardinal Pell had spent over a year in prison in which he kept a diary that was later published by Ignatius Press. Upon his acquittal, Cardinal Pell retired to the Vatican and spoke to Al Kresta on Kresta in the Afternoon.
What Al accomplished that other interviews with Cardinal Pell didn’t was helping listeners understand the spiritual anguish one feels when they have been imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit. Cardinal Pell was not vengeful against those who put him in prison, rather he shared that he regularly prayed for them. It is not a perspective that you would have heard on the television.
The second great interview dates back to 2020. Jimmy Lai was on trial for violating the new Hong Kong security law by holding a public prayer service. Lai is a billionaire Catholic who ran the last pro-Democracy newspaper in the region until it was shut down by the government in 2021.
We had the opportunity to interview Lai and had to record it late at night to accommodate Lai’s schedule. If I recall correctly it was after one of the presidential debates that year. As you might recall, those debates were awful. We were drained, we weren’t particularly looking forward to it, but at the end, I found Mr. Lai’s passion for his homeland and fight for democracy inspiring.
Al is not the only one to give voice to Jimmy Lai here in the west. He was recently honored by the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan for his support for democracy. Al, however, was one of the only people to give voice to his Catholic faith. Lai shared that his belief in Jesus was one of his drivers to push back against the oppressive Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong even though it put himself at risk. Jimmy Lai remains in prison in Hong Kong.
Finally, the third interview I want to point you to shows Al’s skill in debate. The interview itself dates back 2011. Father Alberto Cutié, as he was then known, had an EWTN Español program, a Telemundo program, and was a syndicated self-help columnist. By all accounts he was very popular.
That was until 2009 when he was photographed making out with a woman on a public beach in Florida. He later asked the Archdiocese of Miami for a leave of absence which was granted. The wider world didn’t seem to understand the scandal. He was interviewed by CBS’ The Early Show and Univision where he announced that he was thinking of leaving the Catholic Church so he could be a married priest in the Episcopal Church.
He was quickly welcomed into that communion and most of the public forgot about the scandal of a celibate priest groping and kissing another woman.
Catholics didn’t forget, however, especially when he published his book Dilemma: A Priest's Struggle with Faith and Love. In his book, he claimed that the Church really didn’t want him as a priest anyway which is why he was removed from the priesthood. He likened the situation to being close to jumping off a cliff and instead of a helping hand, the Church gave him a push. Al points out in his interview with Cutié that he wasn’t about to jump and that it was a false equivocation.
I share this interview because of how Al was able to break down nonsensical arguments stemming from people’s feelings about the Church live on the radio. He also did it in a way that was honest and Christian.
Cutié saw himself as a martyr for being excommunicated from the Catholic Church after his affair went public. Al pointed out, however, that, unlike the actual martyrs, Cutié saw himself as a hero, not as someone taking joy in dying for Christ.
I heave heard from many listeners who testify that Al’s radio program was one of the reasons they came back to the Church. He regularly would share testimony stories to inspire listeners, and he would speak to some of the most intelligent theologians of the world today, and (most importantly) he preached the Gospel of Jesus.
The slogan at Ave Maria Radio is “Build the Church, Bless the Nations.” Not only is that a command, it is a way of living out our Catholic lives. We cannot hope to bring people to Jesus unless our own house and our own souls are in order and oriented to the one who created us.
I owe a lot of my views on the Church and the world to Al Kresta. Al impressed upon me, both as an employee and as a listener of his program, that we must look at all of life – politics, family life, Church life, etc – through lens of the Scriptures and the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Al has provided a clear example for modern-day, Catholic evangelists and we would do well to imitate his heroic virtue.
Al Kresta, requiescat in pace.
Matthew Handley is the host of Michigan Mornings™ on Ave Maria Radio and the editor of the Purple Catholic newsletter (PurpleCatholic.Substack.com).
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