Radio
Bakhita, first Catholic radio
station in Sudan
Juba, January 5, 2007 (Catholic
Information Service for Africa) -
The Catholic Church in South Sudan
has a new voice: a radio station
dedicated to the country’s first
saint, Josephine Bakhita.
Bakhita
Radio 91 FM, based in the South
Sudanese capital, Juba, went on air
on Christmas Eve with carols and
Christmas messages from Catholic and
Anglican church leaders.
At
midnight, it broadcast live from St.
Theresa’s Cathedral, in Kator, the
mass celebrated by Archbishop
Paulino Lukudo Loro of Juba.
Archbishop
Loro welcomed with enthusiasm the
beginning of Bakhita Radio and
thanked the Comboni institutes for
"the Christmas present to the
Catholic Church in South Sudan."
Bakhita
Radio 91 FM, The Voice of the
Church, broadcasts a daily programme
of two hours. On Feb. 8, the feast
of St. Josephine Bakhita, it will be
on air with transmissions in the
morning and evening.
The radio
is the mother-station of Sudan
Catholic Radio Network. The signal
covers a 30 km-plus radius. It has a
potential audience of more than
500,000 listeners.
Sudan
Catholic Radio Network is a joint
venture of the Comboni Missionary
Institutes. The network was set up
to celebrate the canonization of St
Daniel Comboni and was offered to
the Catholic Bishops Conference of
Sudan.
The
network will have eight radio
stations, one in each diocese in
South Sudan plus the Nuba Mountains.
Catholic Church's TV channel
For a long time, the Catholic Bishops
have been struggling to apply for
license to possess a television
channel in the country. Due to the
nature of the Islamic government in
Khartoum which is hostile to
church's growth, things are still
dimmer. In south Sudan were the
autonomous government is being run
by mostly Christian officials,
license for television channel is
most likely to be granted. Sudan's
National TV is Islamic dominated.
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