Column Catholic radio and the choices we make
By JOAN CHITTISTER
Life decisions are never made once, my mother insisted. They are
made over and over again every day through every small thing we do. Sometimes
we get so tranquilized by life, however, that try as we might, we miss the
meaning of them. It just happened to me, for instance.
Just before I left for Africa, I read with interest the June 5
NCR article on the creation of the Catholic Radio Network. CRN, the
article reported, is Americas largest system of radio outlets with
a Catholic orientation. Operated by professionals, subsidized to the tune
of $57 million dollars by nationally prominent Catholics, situated
to begin in September in 10 major cities from New York to Los Angeles and
intent on reflecting an orthodox, conservative voice of Catholicism
in the United States, the operation promises to be an effective one.
It will, organizers say, concentrate on evangelization.
Catholicism, I could see, was joining the ranks of Radio-TV evangelists and the
1,240 stations that air religious content at a very sophisticated level. I was
impressed. Then, I came here. To South Africa. I began to think about all of it
again.
On a side street of Rustenberg -- the AIDS capital of South
Africa is how some describe this city -- there is a small cement block
building. From this spot Finbar Murphy of the de La Salle Brothers, an order
dedicated to the teaching of poor youth, and once a happy high school teacher
himself, also began to realize the value of radio.
In a population of squatter camps and far-flung tribal villages,
radio represents the one steady voice from the outside world. So Finbar opened
a radio station and a newspaper, too, as living witnesses to a new Africa and a
vocational education that plays for keeps. He hired young blacks and turned
them into radio announcers, business managers, reporters and publishers. They
transmit to an audience of 85,000 young people every day.
I walked through the stations bare rooms, saw the three
small computers theyd been using to put out their newspaper but which,
having been destroyed by a computer virus, were dark now. I saw the one small
production studio where a young African woman sat, earphones at the ready,
waiting to begin the next transmission. I sat at Finbars small wooden
desk in front of a stack of telecommunications bills that he hesitated to
open.
Murphy doesnt have the money to pay them until the next
handout comes from someone in some other part of the world, so why bother?
But I saw two other things, as well -- a mission statement mounted
on cardboard and a copy of the The Sunday Independent, one of South
Africas major newspapers. The mission statement of little Mafisa --
translated The Sharing Word -- spoke of another dimension of religious radio
programming. This statement says that the station will bring gospel
values to bear on issues of social justice.
To be specific, the statement goes on to announce that it will
break the culture of silence and question the status quo, which still
leaves the majority disempowered. The statement promises that Mafisa will
critique and evaluate the performances of public figures.
Those are big words for a small system, a poor station, but the
young African staff takes its mission seriously. In fact, they are leading
public opinion on what would otherwise be some very private oppressions.
The Sunday Independent confirmed the truth of Mafisas
mission statement. A major story in its July 5 edition was a story that had
been broken by Mafisa on one microphone and with one computer. A village woman,
a Jehovahs Witness, the story reports, has been confined to her house for
11 months because, as a Christian, she refuses to practice the tribal custom of
sprinkling herbs in her pathway each time she leaves her house as a sign of
mourning for her dead husband. The tribe holds her responsible for the present
drought and believes that her lack of fidelity to tribal customs threatens the
fertility of their livestock. They are against her religion, she
insists.
Mafisa insisted that this is a violation of human rights, a recent
concept in Africa. The womans case is now before the courts.
Finbar, meanwhile, expects a visit of protest from the local chief
of the 250,000-member Bakgatla tribe. But the miracle has already been
performed: A village widow is being heard by the world because a little radio
station has made itself the mouse that roared.
I couldnt help but wonder if all our millions of Catholic
dollars for Catholic programming will do as much, will do as clearly, will do
as well for the poor as they will for the pious or the disaffected or the
traditionalists or the moralists. I wondered if CRN will do the gospel while
talking about it.
Meantime, Mafisa is beginning to work on a series of reports that
will expose the effects of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
on South Africa and the region of their listenership. No doubt there will be
more visits of protest to Finbars office. But Mafisa does not mind. They
seem to know, too, that life decisions are never made just once, that they must
be made every day, over and over again in every smallest action.
Watching us develop communication centers the emphasis of which,
unlike that of Mafisa, is on dogma and doctrine in an age perilously close to
creating a permanent underclass even here, it makes me wonder what kind of life
decisions we ourselves are making in the name of the gospel.
Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, author and lecturer, lives in
Erie, Pa.
National Catholic Reporter, August 28,
1998
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