VATICAN RADIO CELEBRATES 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF FOUNDING

VATICAN CITY, FEB 13, 2001 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received the staff of Vatican Radio, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the radio station's foundation. On February 12, 1931, Pope Pius XI inaugurated the first world-wide radio broadcast.

After thanking all those who have collaborated in the daily work of Vatican Radio over the years, and with special prayers for those who have died during this time, the Pope reminded those present that: "Your primary mission is to spread the teaching, word, and voice itself of the Successor of Peter; to make known through your antennae the vitality of the Church, her charitable initiatives, her joys, her sufferings, her hopes. In this unique ecclesial mission continue to dedicate yourselves with your best energy for the good of the entire Christian people."

"To evangelize through the radio," the Holy Father continued, "means offering professionally excellent information which, through implicit and explicit commentary on the facts, becomes a daily catechesis connected to the life and experience of the listener. This evangelizing action requires the continual effort of adapting, of updating, but also a solid human, cultural, and professional formation, united to steadfast spiritual and missionary motivations."

John Paul II went on to affirm that "the Pope counts greatly on your help to carry out his Petrine ministry, and asks you to make yourselves disseminaters each day of the truth which sets us free."

"Do not be discouraged by difficulties, the limited resources and your own limitations. Do not be disturbed by the ever more rapid change of scenery, structures, methods and ways of life. 'Duc in altum! - Put out into the deep!' In the service of the faith and of the unity of Christians, ... you are not alone: you are in the heart of the Church. You are present also in my solicitude and my daily prayer."

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