The social relevance of Church-owned radio
By Isabel Templo
For 37 years, DZPA, an radio station on the AM band owned and run by the Diocese of Bangued, had been operating alone in Abra—until the 1990s, when another AM station ventured onto the airwaves. Unable to compete with DZPA, however, the new station closed after only a few years’ operation.
“Dito sa Abra, ‘pag media, DZPA (Here in Abra, when you say ‘media,’ it’s DZPA),” says Arnel Adriatico. Adriatico has been working at DZPA for close to 10 years now. To him, the work of a Church-owned radio station is different from that of a commercial radio station, especially in the province. “’Yung interest dito, to spread the Good News, maging arm para sa media apostolate (The interest here is to spread the Good News, to be an arm for the media apostolate),” he says.
The role of Catholic radio today may not be as dramatic as that of Radio Veritas in the events that led up to and during the 1986 People Power Revolution. But it is nonetheless important.
Proof of this can be found in far-flung areas of the country. Catholic radio thrives here — in the remote barrios, in the mountains, by the sea. “We are in areas where angels dare not tread,” says Fr. Francis Lucas, president of the Catholic Media Network (CMN). Commercial stations would not even think of setting up in areas where there are no roads, no electricity, and no cell sites or mobile phone signal. But these are precisely the communities that Catholic radio aims to serve.
CMN has 28 AM and 20 FM member stations in 35 provinces, including its flagship station, Radyo Veritas — the local counterpart of what is now Radio Veritas Asia after the original Veritas’ domestic and foreign services were split up. Of these members, 12 were the pioneers in their localities, and five are still broadcasting alone. Their presence in the most out-of-the-way places is the Church’s ace in its service to the poor. It was also a feather in the cap of broadcast giant GMA Network when it partnered with CMN for its coverage of previous elections. This was a victory of sorts for Catholic radio. “Napansin kami (We were noticed)!” Lucas says, almost in disbelief. An even greater victory it was for the communities represented by CMN member stations, whose voices are rarely heard in mainstream media.
Social communication
Religious broadcasters have long recognized the mass media as effective tools for their ministry. Through the mass media—radio, television, print—various religious denominations reach more people than they normally would from the pulpit. But what makes the Catholic Church different in this regard is that it is a large and influential force with the Vatican at the helm, capable of mobilizing followers to abide by Church policy and disseminate it to the community. This is where the roots of Catholic radio lie.
The rationale for setting up Church-owned radio — and other forms of media, for that matter—is rooted in Church documents. The first of these is the Inter Mirifica, or the Vatican II Council’s Decree on the Means of Social Communication, dated December 1963 — the first Vatican document on mass communication written by an international council.
The Inter Mirifica marks the first time the term “social communication” is used in Church documents. Fr. Franz-Josef Eilers, SVD, former secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference Office for Social Communication (FABC-OSC), notes that terms such as “mass media” or “audiovisual communication” are not enough to express the Church’s concerns. “Any public communication in human society is social communication,” he explains. “It’s not just press, radio, television — it includes dance, theater, tsismis (gossip), all these things.”
The Inter Mirifica asserts “the Church’s birthright to use and own” any form of media to fulfill its mission of preaching the gospel. But the heart of the document is in this statement: “All members of the Church should make a concerted effort to ensure that the means of communication are put at the service of the multiple forms of the apostolate without delay and as energetically as possible, where and when they are needed.”
The Communio et Progressio is a follow-up to the Inter Mirifica, completed in 1970 and approved in its entirety by Pope Paul VI in January 1971. Though considered “the ‘magna charta’ of Christian communication”, it is not meant to be the last word on the subject, given the fast-changing world of communication. Its significance lies in describing the use of the means of social communication as a responsibility — no longer as a right, as in the Inter Mirifica. By focusing on the duties of Catholics working with each medium, the document lays down ethical standards. It states, “The total output of media in any given area should be judged by the contribution it makes to the common good.”
[…] category were the semi-legal and underground newspapers, news dispatches and magazines published by Church and human rights groups as well as by the armed resistance movement led by the Communist Party of […]