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Rome Journal - April 26 The Pope's Radio Tuesday, I went to Vatican Radio to express my gratitude for its work and to introduce Voice of the Faithful. The offices of Vatican Radio are at the opposite end of Via della Conciliazione from St. Peter's Basilica, while the tower and technical headquarters are inside the Vatican City State. The tower, named for Pope Nicholas V, juts above the beauty of the sculptured Vatican gardens. It is one of the only marks that distinguish the walled city from looking differently than it did in the Middle Ages. This radio station is famous not only for its daily broadcasts in 40 languages to 61 countries but because it was established in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio. I began my professional life in radio and have a soft spot for it. It's an intimate medium, easily accessible, and for all the wonders of television, when you listen to the radio the images are your own. Vatican Radio employees 450 people (200 of them are journalists) from 59 nations. Eighty-seven percent of them are lay people. The station is managed by the Jesuits. Pope Pius XII's installation in 1939 was the first to be broadcast on Vatican Radio. It came at a time when popes wore crowns and were carried aloft on a chair as though floating above the crowd. Between then and the 26-year reign of the globe-trotting Pope John Paul II, hallmarks of Vatican Radio include its importance to resistance movements during World War II and the information link it established between families and prisoners of war. Over 1.2 million messages were conveyed in that period. During the Second Vatican Council in the papacy of Pope John XXIII, Vatican Radio produced more than 3,000 hours of coverage. Vatican Radio is the repository of the archives of the papal voice. All papal discourses since 1931 have been recorded by it. Where the pope goes, Vatican Radio goes. Vatican Radio was on the move for more than 100 trips during the reign of Pope John Paul II. They may get a rest. Pope Benedict hinted during his address to the German audience on Monday that he most likely will not travel as much as Pope John Paul - and besides, he's getting a later start. Since the Archangel Gabriel is the patron saint of Vatican Radio, you might expect a pair of angel wings over the front door - but this is not the case. There is a small sign that says “Radio Vaticano” and not much else to distinguish it from the other buildings nearby. My request to speak with a representative of the English section is accommodated in short order. Sister Janet, who is a native of the United Kingdom, offers me a gracious welcome. This is her second tour of duty at Vatican Radio. Her first was in 1998 following an assignment in Zambia. The mention of Zambia provides me with common ground to start a conversation. I have the privilege to know the Rwandan community in Dayton - now one of the largest, if not the largest, in the United States. Many of the Rwandans spent years in refugee camps in Zambia before coming to the US. I ask about her knowledge of the Rwandan genocide. She speaks with compassion about the horrors and the almost incomprehensible number of deaths - nearly one million people died at the height of the killings. Killing almost sounds sanitized when used to describe hacking to death by machete. We move from Rwanda to Pope Benedict XVI. She has just received an email from a canon lawyer in New York who relates that on a trip to Rome he was in need of a pair of shoes. Cardinal Ratzinger instead of telling him where to go accompanied him to the shop to buy them, she says. “Quite remarkable,” she adds, with the lilt of Queen Elizabeth in her voice. Later I think about what a Church might be like when cardinals going out of their way to aid and assist would be the norm and not the subject of surprise. About Pope Benedict, she speaks bluntly about both the negative and positive comments in the press. She adds her admiration for the new pope – he is vulnerable in the wake of the negative comments and he can’t predict the reactions to his public appearances. I turn the conversation to the sexual abuse scandal and express Voice of the Faithful's concern that it is not taken seriously enough at the Vatican. Sister Janet says she has no first-hand knowledge but to hear tell from acquaintances in a religious community of men, the issue is money. As you can imagine, this is a red flag for me. I explain as patiently as possible that suing the Church was the last way victims had to get the Church's attention. They went this route, I tell her, when the direct approach to bishops and chancellors, asking for the removal of the priest perpetrators and action to ensure that this never happened again, failed miserably. She listens intently. I tell the story of three years of scandal in the United States with little change in the reaction to victims, and our feeling that when cases to defrock priests arrive in Rome, the decision process is very, very slow and it adds to our lack of confidence that the problem will be resolved. I provide her with written information about Voice of the Faithful and she gives me a book about Vatican Radio. Besides that, we exchange contact information and each welcomes the other to use it often. Before we part I have a small - perhaps not so small - success. Sister Janet offers an exchange of website links - Vatican Radio's website www.vaticanradio.org would appear on Voice of the Faithful's website www.votf.org and vice versa. Stay tuned. |
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