Director of Radio Maria Malawi, Fr. Joseph Kimu has described a week-long International Congress of all Radio Maria stations in the world, which took place in Italy recently, as crucial for evangelisation and promotion of socio-economic development of Malawi.
Fr. Kimu, who attended the meeting together with his deputy, Fr. Charles Kaponya and president of Radio Maria Malawi, Nicholas Chonde, said the meeting, which attracted 80 delegates from other countries, was aimed at evaluating performances of Radio Maria stations in the past three years.
“The jubilee year of mercy, which starts from December 8 2015 to November 20 2016, which Pope Francis proclaimed also featured high during our discussions. We shared how we shall use Radio Maria stations in our countries to motivate people to live fully the forthcoming Holy Year of Mercy,” Fr. Kimu said in an e-mail from Italy.
He said during the meeting, delegates also elected a new president for World Family of Radio Maria and a new board of directors was instituted.
According to Fr. Kimu, they learnt a lot for the growth of Radio Maria Malawi.
He encouraged Malawian faithful and people of goodwill to take ownership of Radio Maria Malawi and support it at all times since it is not a commercial radio station and relies on well-wishers.
“Many reports from Radio Maria stations in Africa revealed that their listeners generously support the ordinary running of their stations. In Malawi, quite a good number of listeners do so, but we saw that they could even do better than they do,” he said.
While in Italy, Fr. Kimu also took time to visit and pray at the tomb of the late Bishop Alessandro Assolari, the first bishop of the Diocese of Mangochi, who also invited Radio Maria to Malawi.
The late Bishop Assolari died on April 13 2005 while on holiday in Italy after retiring as bishop of Mangochi Diocese and he is buried in his village, Tribulina in the City of Bergamo, North of Italy. n\
