2014-07-22 15:22:00

Allow Radio Ecclesia nation-wide coverage - Nuncio appeals to Angola


(Vatican Radio) The Apostolic Nuncio to Angola, Most Rev. Novatus Rugambwa has lamented delays by the Government of Angola in allowing the Catholic radio station, Radio Ecclessia, permission to extend its radio coverage to the whole country. The Catholic radio station’s broadcasts are confined, by the Angolan Government, to the capital city of Luanda and not to the rest of the country. The radio broadcasts on the FM frequency to Luanda for 24 hours a day and for only one hour a day throughout Angola, on short wave.

On a recent pastoral visit to the Diocese of Benguela, in Angola, the Apostolic Nuncio to Angola expressed the view that “the people (of Angola) have a great need to benefit from the radio’s socio-development and spiritual broadcasts”.

Radio Ecclesia has had  a history of differences with the Government of Angola. It has fought many battles against Government censorship. The radio is often criticised by Government officials for its outspokenness.

Founded in 1954, Radio Ecclesia was nationalised and taken over by the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) Government in 1978. MPLA had just claimed victory from the Portuguese to form the first independence Government of 1975.

It took almost twenty years of negotiations for Radio Ecclesia to be  returned to the control of the Angolan Episcopal Conference, in 1997.  Nonetheless, Radio Ecclessia  is still not allowed to broadcast to the whole country as the Church in Angola would wish the radio station to do.

Just before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI’s to Angola in 2009, Angolan Catholic Bishops appealed to the Republican President, José Eduardo Dos Santos, to allow the radio station broadcast its radio programmes country-wide. The request was not granted.

Judging from the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa’s recent sentiments, the issue of national coverage for Radio Ecclesia is still very much alive in the hearts and minds of Catholics in Angola.

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va








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