World Family Radio Maria News - 03 ENG

Radio Maria’s help to the Church Year 1 – Issue 3 – November - December 2013

Periodical of the World Family of Radio Maria Association

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Take the Good News to the “existential peripheries” following Pope Francis’ example he statue of Our Lady of Fatima carried in procession by the members of Radio Maria is the best memory of the Marian Day held in St. Peter’s Square, on 12th and 13th October and transmitted by the radios worldwide.

close to those who are experiencing difficult situations, including prisoners.

Precisely in this issue we will explain the mission that Radio has been carrying out with Italian prisons for more than fifteen years.

“Mother of Mercy” is the name of the project which offers prisoners support in association with the chaplains of the almost 200 prisons throughout Italy.

For Radio Maria this event has represented recognition of the service it offers to the Church worldwide through the announcement of the Good News.

For several years, a digital transistor radio in the A radio close to all those shape of a small Statue of who are “thirsty of God” Our Lady has been given and to all those trying to to prisoners. find a meaning in life. Our radio has always also been Daniele Trenca

MARIATHON 2014

THE ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT a pag. 18

Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima, with renewed gratitude for your maternal presence we join our voice to that of all the generations who call you blessed.

Pope Francis St. Peter’s Square 13th October 2013

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The solidarity race starts again

he Consistory will meet on Monday 30th September when Pope Francis will announce the canonisation date for the two Pontiffs.

Blessed John XXIII (aka Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) was elected Pope on 28th October 1958, his pontificate lasted 5 years. In 1962, he started the

works for Vatican Council II. He was beatified on 3rd September 2000.

Blessed John Paul II, (Karol Wojtyla) was elected on 16th October 1978, his Pontificate lasted more than 26 years.

He was the first Polish priest.

He was beatified on 1st May 2011, just 6 years after his death.

PRISONS

The “Mother of Mercy” project

MARIAN DAY The story of the event in St. Peter’s Square

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PHOTO GALLERY Radio Maria at “Marian Day”

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“Mother of Mercy”

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2013

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Radio Maria and its almost twenty year commitment to Italian prisons t is a beautiful which helps not to enter A small statue of “Our thing to go into a process of from cell further deterioto cell and see ration” comLady” for all prisoners the prisoners m e n t e d

who use your gifts. I don’t know how to thank you: it is encouraging to know that we are not alone in this delicate pastoral work”. Don Alessandro D’Elia, spiritual assistant in the prison of Lecce, is one of the 160 religious who have become acquainted with the Radio Maria volunteers responsible for the “Mother of Mercy” project (in the photo at the side, Mrs. Giò Carrozza) invited to the national conference of prison chaplains held at Sacrofano, close to Rome, from 21st to 23rd October. For the past 18 years, our association has been supporting the pastoral ministry of chaplains of over 200 Italian prisons, in which Radio Maria volunteers organise live link-ups for the Holy Mass and the Hour of spirituality - on average one a month - and give priests the Rosary beads, prayer books, images and above all the transistor radios, which are highly sought after by prisoners, who since 2011 have been reproducing a stylised effigy of the Virgin. These instruments, designed specifically to respond to the prison needs, allow many brother prisoners to pray, drawing close to or drawing back to faith.

A commitment which is also appreciated by the heads of the Italian Church: “It is a type of work to be encouraged, because signs like this in the closed world of prisons - take on a worth

Monsignor Mariano Crociata, General Secretary of Cei (photo at the c e n t r e ) .

“Up to now we have succeeded in supporting 120 chaplains in their pastoral work by sending them books, transistor radios and Rosary beads for the prisoners, made specifically for the prisons following the rigid requirements of the prison - said Vittorio Vic-

cardi, vice-president of the Radio Maria Association -. We periodically receive many testimonies on the good which this programme is doing” like that of a brother prisoner in Frosinone who recently wrote to us saying: “I have put your image of Our Lady in my cell: just looking at it fills my heart with peace, joy and tranquillity, emotions and feelings which I haven’t felt for too long. Other prisoners, who used to make fun of me because of my faith, look at the face of the Queen of Peace and send her a kiss or make the sign of the cross. All this is magnificent”.

Andrea Rottini

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his radio was set up with two goals in mind: to allow the voice of Radio Maria to be heard in the best possible way with a product which is state-ofthe-art and to remember the image of Our L a d y with the y o u n g Jesus in her Womb, creating identification with the listener. Consequently, a transistor radio was designed which would remember the concept in a stylised manner and which could be easily positioned, held and handled.

Thanks to a careful design, we were able to obtain a digital radio with state-of-the-art features that works with low consumption batteries or with an external power supply unit and a small extractable whip antenna, to listen to through the integrated loudspeaker or headpho-

nes which are supplied with it. Stable and precise tuning can be adjusted easily and the frequency can be controlled on the front display. The reception is amazing: placed on the dashboard of a car, it rivals the radios on board! Lastly, to allow its use in prisons, it has been necessary to remove the whip antenna potentially useable for improper uses and design an equally efficient antenna to place internally.

After a long commitment we have also been able to achieve this goal and Radio Maria has also entered prisoners’ cells.

What are our upcoming goals? An AM/FM version to receive the analogue signals anywhere in the world, and a model to receive the DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) standard.

Claudio Re

Marian Day in St. Peter’s Square

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2013

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The Holy Father received the gift of the World Family Yearbook

he Pontifical Council for promoting the New Evangelisation has appointed an integrated committee for different Marian movements and associations, to which Radio Maria has also been invited in order to organise a celebration dedicated to the Virgin Mary during the year of faith.

The celebration was held on 12th and 13th October, two days which included the presence of the original image of Our Lady of Fatima.

On Saturday 12th, the image of Our Lady of Fatima arrived to St. Peter’s Square, which was crammed with the faithful, carried by the members of Radio Maria (photo below) on a palanquin; it was an emotional entrance for both the thousands of white handkerchiefs waiting to greet it and for the clear manifestation of how Her image, lifted up by the members of the Radio, has made us discover that Mary succeeds in reaching the entire world through Her Radio, which was present at that moment to serve the multitude of people originating from the five continents.

Once the image was placed beside the altar, Pope Francis delivered a beau-

The Pope’s words

Entrustment to the Virgin Mary

Blessed Mary Virgin of Fatima, with renewed gratitude for your maternal presence we join our voice to that of the all the generations who called you blessed.

tiful catechesis, basing himself on the question: “What is Mary’s faith like?” He answered, highlighting three elements: Mary’s faith unties the knot of sin; it gives human flesh to jesus and the faith of Mary as a path.

The Holy Mass on the 13th was very special for me, so much that in the days preceding the celebrations, I had received a phone call from Fr. Alejandro Diaz Garcia, representative of the Pontifical Council, who informed me that he would add me, on behalf of Radio Maria, to the group that would personally greet Pope Francis during the celebration on the 13th October.

That Sunday celebration was full of blessings: the fact of being able to celebrate the

image of Our Lady of Fatima with Peter’s successor ensured that the square was filled to the brim with the faithful.

Having reached the end of the Holy Mass, we approached Pope Francis to greet him. During the vespers, I had reflected on the many things to say and ask the Holy Father, to thank him… everything had been considered until the moment in which I found myself face to face with him, as I shook his hand, a moment in which all I was able to say was: THANK YOU POPE FRANCIS, for you testimony and devotion. I bring the devotion of all the Radio Maria stations worldwide and of all our listeners’ prayer (I said, while I handed him the 2013 Yearbook). With a firm shake of both hands, the Holy Father communicated not only the communion of Radio Maria with Peter’s successor but also transmitted the missionary spirit on which his pontificate is based.

At the same time he assured me that he would have greeted everyone in his name, greetings which I send to you through this testimony.

Father Francisco Palacios

We celebrate in you the works of God, who never tires of looking down with mercy upon humanity, afflicted with the wound of sin, to heal it and save it.

Accept with the benevolence of a Mother the act of entrustment that we perform today with confidence, before this image of you that is so dear to us.

We are certain that each of us is precious in your eyes and that nothing of all that lives in our hearts is unknown to you.

We let ourselves be touched by your most sweet regard and we welcome the consoling caress of your smile.

Hold our life in your arms: bless and strengthen every desire for good; revive and nourish faith; sustain and enlighten hope; awaken and animate charity; guide us all along the path of holiness.

Teach us your own preferential love for the little and the poor, for the excluded and the suffering, for the sinners and the downhearted: bring everyone under your protection and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

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PHOTO GALLERY

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2013

Pope Francis

RM members who carried the statue

RM in St. Peter’s Square

Pope Francis receives the WF 2013 Yearbook

The statue of Our Lady of Fatima in procession

RM volunteers in St. Peter’s Square

RM volunteers interviewed in St. Peter’s Square

NEW WF INTRANET

WORLD FAMILY RADIO MARIA news periodical of the World Family of Radio Maria association a pag. 18 Editorial office: P. Francisco Palacios;

Stefano Chiappalone; Raffaele Galati; Daniele Trenca

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