Vatican cardinal attends local celebration

By Tricia Hempel

ARCHDIOCESE — Within a few months, Sacred Heart Radio’s "Son Rise Morning Show" with Brian Patrick won’t be a privilege enjoyed only by Cincinnatians. Starting in January 2009, the show will be heard by a far wider audience — on 129 stations throughout the United States courtesy of EWTN and in cities throughout the world via SIRIUS satellite radio.

Patrick made the announcement Oct. 2 at a dinner marking the first anniversary of the radio program, heard daily 6-9 a.m. on 740 AM.

CT FILE PHOTO

Brian Patrick

Patrick and station manager Bill Levitt admit that the exciting news offers up some concerns. Sacred Heart is offering the program to EWTN at no charge, and an additional $175,000 in operating expenses will be needed to take the show national, primarily in equipment and staffing.

"But we have a higher power, higher than Wall Street and Congress," Patrick told the more than 400 guests who gathered at the Sharonville Convention Center to celebrate the show’s first anniversary. He noted that all in attendance have been "co-workers in the truth," helping the radio program spread the Good News on a daily basis and said that their support would be more critical than ever in the months to come.

The evening’s guest speaker, Cardinal John P. Foley, is the grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem but for 23 years headed the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The former editor of the Catholic Standard & Times in Philadelphia, Cardinal Foley recalled that his start in communications began in radio at the age of 14, when he wrote radio plays on the lives of the saints for a local station, WJMJ, that carried ethnic and religious programming.

Later he hosted a program called "Debate," where he once faced off against a then-unknown Arlen Specter. His stint followed a show titled "Bertie the Bunyip," about a mythical Australian creature, and the cardinal told the audience that while he has met a lot of people in his life who remember "Bertie," he’s yet to meet anyone who can recall "Debate."

CNS PHOTO

Cardinal John P. Foley

While "mainstream" radio at one time was required to make religious programming part of its offerings, that requirement disappeared with deregulation, Cardinal Foley told the audience. Small-town Protestant fundamentalist stations were all that remained of a religious presence on the airwaves, and he noted that the Christmas midnight Mass broadcast on NBC is the only sustained religious program in television at this time.

"The work of the media is extremely important," he said. "The media determine what people think; it’s the most pervasive influence. I’ve always encouraged schools to have media awareness programs, otherwise people become couch potatoes — passive recipients of whatever the networks want to communicate.

"But no one seems to want to analyze the media," Cardinal Foley lamented.

He added that Catholic radio has been and will continue to be a great blessing for the church. The medium has taken off in Latin America, in Africa and in Christian areas of Asia, becoming more prevalent than in Europe. "It’s a way of reaching out to those seeking the truth," he said.

Those interested in helping the "Son Rise Morning Show" as it moves to national syndication may obtain more information at www.sacredheartradio.com