Editorial

In the pastoral plan of the Archdiocese of Malta, 1986-1991, we find a wish being expressed for the Church to have its own radio and television stations. In March 1991, the Church was offered a radio frequency. Wide and deep consultations were carried out on an inter-diocesan level in an effort to adopt a model for the radio's programme content.

Two models were presented: Radio Maria, a strictly religious station in which devotions and liturgy are given prominence, and Radio Renascenca of Portugal, which based itself on the theology of the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes. In the case of the latter, emphasis is laid on the communication of the Gospel at the service of the human person, first, and, secondly, at the service of the needs of the Church as an organisation.

The second model was unanimously accepted. At its launch, the Archbishop said that the radio station should give priority to the various needs of the human person, its schedule to be varied, informative, educative and to include entertainment. RTK has since been a Christian sound in the secular airspace for its listeners, providing a Christian view of the various aspects that touched their lives and discussion programmes on the social teachings of the Church.

Apart from RTK, with its substantial share of the audience, a number of community radio stations also operate in Malta and Gozo. Church-related groups, eight of them in Gozo, own 11 of the 20-odd community channels available and broadcast Mass, holy rosary and other devotional programmes, but no discussion programmes that have a basis in the social teachings of the Church.

Radju Marija, which can only increase its audience share at the expense of RTK, falls under the latter category. It has recently started using the wave-length of the now defunct Calypso Radio. It plans to broadcast along religious and devotional lines. RTK operates in the world without being of the world. The two stations follow different theological tendencies.

The decision to raise Radju Marija to the level of a national station has its opponents. These are asking why the decision taken more than 10 years ago to build a station with its basis in Gaudium et Spes has been diluted by a nod in the direction of Radju Marija, which now assumes national status.

One can only wonder whether the matter had, in fact, been discussed. What happened over the last decade to change the Curia's mind and cause it to go along with the idea of two Church stations tugging in directions that are, if not opposed to one another, occupying different ecclesial, some say theological, spaces? As things have turned out, the two stations cannot fail to infringe on each other's very different modus operandi.

Those who favour RTK as a national radio station engaged in the world argue that Radju Marija offers an alternative that is too pietistic for the modern world and fails to address problems of the latter. Those in favour of Radju Marija hold there is room for its programmes in a world that is forgetting all about prayer and devotion.

If this demonstrates anything, it is a tension between two ecclesiological views of the world. Radju Marija devotees can argue that there is space for both in a pluralist world but that space already existed. By raising the status of Radju Marija, the Church may have undermined RTK's pastoral theological model, which it formally sanctioned a decade ago, and its economic base.