The 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 as crucial in as far as evangelization and promotion of the socio-economic development of Malawi is concerned.
Fr. Kimu who attended the meeting along with his deputy, Fr. Charles Kaponya and President of Radio Maria Malawi, Nicholas Chonde said the meeting which attracted eighty delegates from other countries was aimed at evaluating how Radio Maria stations have performed in the past three year.
“The agenda was to look at the way Radio Maria Stations have performed in the past three years and plan for the next three years. The jubilee year of mercy which starts from 8th December 2015 to 20th November 2016 which Pope Francis proclaimed also featured high during our discussions. We shared how we shall as Radio Maria Stations in our countries motivate people to live fully the forthcoming Holy Year of Mercy,” said Fr. Kimu in an e-mail from Italy.
He said during the meeting, delegates also elected a new President of World Family of Radio Maria and a new board of Director was instituted.
“We were encouraged to start more Radio Maria Stations in Africa and Asia, to open a new web-radio in the Arabic language, to maintain the special Marian identity of Radio Maria and to motivate many listeners to help Radio Maria Stations in their ordinary running,” he said.
According to Fr. Kimu, by listening to how other Radio Maria Stations in the world are performing, Christians in Malawians should expect more good things in the future.
He said they learnt a lot for the growth of Radio Maria Malawi and as such there will be more new and interesting programs that will help Malawian listeners deepen their faith and especially appreciate the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Fr. Kimu 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 Station in Africa revealed that their listeners generously support the ordinary running of their Radio 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 off to visit and pray at the tomb of the late Bishop Alessandro Assolari who was the first Bishop of the Diocese of Mangochi and who also invited Radio Maria to Malawi.
Late Bishop Assolari died on 13th April, 2005 while on holiday in Italy after retiring as a Bishop of Mangochi and he is buried in his village, Tribulina in the City of Bergamo, North