Vatican Radio at 80

I've been listening to Vatican Radio since I was a mere lad, for well over 50 years. I can remember searching the short-wave bands on my older brother's Zenith Transoceanic radio for English-language stations and stumbling across a Vatican Radio broadcast. It must have been in 1957 or thereabouts. After that first experience I was hooked. In fact I wrote to Vatican Radio and requested their broadcast schedule, which they kindly sent me, so I could listen to the station each evening. Although I no longer listen to the Vatican's shortwave broadcasts as I once did, I do the next best thing. I regularly visit their website on which you can listen to programs live or on demand. But for those without internet access, Vatican Radio continues to broadcast worldwide in dozens of languages, bringing the Church to many who might otherwise have little or no opportunity to attend Mass or deepen their faith through catechesis. It's also a wonderful way to stay abreast of all that's happening in the universal Church.

Yesterday Vatican Radio turned 80 years old. Encouraged by Pope Pius XI, Guglielmo Marconi (photo left), the Italian inventor who is credited with inventing the first practicable radio transmission system, started Vatican Radio in 1931. The station's first broadcast was made on February 12 of that year and consisted of an address by the pope in Latin.

To visit Vatican Radio's website, click here: Vatican Radio.

The following two videos provide a bit more detail on that first broadcast as well as a little of Vatican Radio's subsequent history.