Catholic Ministry of the Airways Supported in Argentina
Thursday, February 20, 2014

Success Story

Father Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of ACN, had many ingenious ideas for bringing the Church to those who could not get to church themselves. There are many reasons why people cannot go to church, and one is when people live in regions where there are no churches and where priests can only rarely visit. 

One response was to make the Gospel more mobile, so Father Werenfried funded chapel trucks and later Chapel boats, churches on wheels and floating churches, to bring church to the people when the people could not get church. But still many faithful were not being reached. That is why the media apostolate, and especially the radio apostolate, was an idea dear to his heart.

Cheap transistor radios are affordable and obtainable almost throughout the world today, and in this way the Good News can penetrate even into those regions that are difficult if not impossible of access. Sometimes, where the Church has such radio-based missions, even in the steppes of Central Asia, one can see nomads, sitting around the radio in the evening, praying the Rosary. And there are many others for whom a radio apostolate can be a true source of inspiration and a way of complementing more traditional methods of pastoral ministry.

The realization that radio can be a kind of "pulpit" from which the Word can go out to millions is something well understood by Pope Francis as well. When he was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he established the communications center of Our Lady of Lujan.

For Argentina, too, has its remote and impoverished regions where it is not physically possible to provide an adequate pastoral ministry to the faithful and where, there are also many people who, while formally belonging to the Catholic Church, have little understanding of it and do not go to church. These people cannot be reached by usual parish ministry efforts.

And no one can fail to have noticed the increasing anticlerical tendencies in society that are attacking Christian values and the culture of life. In order to help the Church in these many challenges that are facing her in Argentina, ACN is supporting this Catholic ministry of the airwaves with a contribution of $11,000. A heartfelt thanks to the benefactors who made it possible for us to support Catholic radio in Argentina.

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