AFRICA/SUDAN - Christmas Eve first broadcast of new Catholic Radio Bakhita 91 FM, Voice of the Church, the first station of a network to serve every diocese in Sudan

Juba (Agenzia Fides)- The Catholic Church in southern Sudan has a new voice: a radio station named after the country’s first saint Josephine Bakhita. The headquarters of Radio Bakhita, 91 FM are situated in Juba, capital of the autonomous region of Southern Sudan. The radio started broadcasting on Christmas Eve with Midnight Mass, Christmas carols and messages from both Catholic and Anglican Church leaders.
The midnight Mass broadcast from Saint Teresa’s Cathedral, Kator, was presided by Archbishop Paulino Lukudo Loro of Juba, according to CISA news agency in Nairobi.
.Archbishop Loro welcomed with enthusiasm the beginning of Bakhita Radio and thanked the Comboni institutes for “the Christmas present to the Catholic Church in South Sudan.”
Bakhita Radio 91 FM, The Voice of the Church, broadcasts a daily programme of two hours. On Feb. 8, the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, it will be on air with transmissions in the morning and evening. The radio is the mother-station of Sudan Catholic Radio Network. The signal covers a 30 km-plus radius. It has a potential audience of more than 500,000 listeners. Sudan Catholic Radio Network is a joint venture of the Comboni Missionary Institutes. The network was set up to celebrate the canonization of St Daniel Comboni and was offered to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sudan. The network will have eight radio stations, one in each diocese in South Sudan plus the Nuba Mountains. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 8/1/2007 righe 26 parole 289)