Radio Maria’s Mission (Annamaria Carrozza

Radio Maria’s Service A radio that is always attentive to the calls of the Church

More and more bishops are asking to be able to bring Radio Maria to their dioceses.

Jean Paul Kayihura

WFRM Africa Continental Representative

Many African bishops have a great appreciation for the Radio Maria Project, which can be summed up in the statement given by Bishop JeanPierre Kwambamba Masi of Kenge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): We must be very grateful to the one who founded this radio so that Mary might find the place that she deserves in our lives and so that her honor might be promoted throughout the Church and the world. In this dynamic of ideas, we can say with absolute certainty that Radio Maria is indeed a gift from our mother Mary. It is a blessing for the Church and for humanity… It is proof of Mary’s nearness to us, an ex-

pression of the concern she has, always attentive to our needs. It seems that, through our radio, she continues to tell us: ‘Here I am, beside you.” Without a doubt, Mary’s loving presence and our joyful and interactive style makes Radio Maria the form of mass media that is closest to the African culture. According to Archbishop Séraphin François Rouamba of Koupéla in Burkina Faso, the World Family “supports us and shows that we are a family”. Thanks to the many pastoral fruits that Radio Maria has borne, there are many African bishops requesting to achieve two goals: evangelization and the promotion of a culture of peace. To cite two examples: Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi in Kenya requested Radio Maria be established there because, he stated, Radio Maria can speak to the faithful using a language that reaches the heart and knows how to Mgr. John Baptist Odama - Archbishop of Gulu (Uganda) evangelize deeply. The Conference of Bishops Archbishop Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso of Kaof Sudan and South Sudan and the Nigerian duna in Nigeria asserted: “I think that having a raBishops want Radio Maria so that it can pro- dio station like Radio Maria here in Kaduna … with mote peace in their countries. its message of peace, a message of healing and reconciliation, will be a great good for us.” Along the same We can distinguish three types of request for lines, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Radio Maria, however: some come from the Archbishop of Abuja in Nigeria believes that, countries’ Bishops’ Conferences, others from once Radio Maria is established, it will allow the individual bishops who want to change their Church to more easily communicate with the diocesan radios into Radio Maria, and some re- Nigerian population, especially regarding “docquests are made by bishops or cardinals whose trine and the most developed and practicable and ideas on diocese does not yet have a radio station for cooperation as well as inter-religious dialogue and how to evangelization. live together in peace through inter-ethnic relations”.