Vatican Radio/PBS accord brings Pope’s voice closer to people of Malta

(Vatican Radio) Vatican Radio has signed a radio production and broadcasting agreement with Malta’s Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), the EU country’s national radio and television broadcaster. Vatican Radio’s Director General, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi signed the accord last week in Valletta together with PBS Board Chairman Tonio Portughese . The agreement between the two long-time members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will permit technical cooperation, the exchange of programming and archive material, and the training of personnel in the field of broadcasting and telecommunications.

Vatican Radio, Portughese recalls, is currently the coordinator of the smaller states like Malta that are members of the EBU and works on behalf of their interests and rights in a milieu of more imposing European broadcasters with much bigger portfolios.

Though a small country, Malta’s population of 420,000 is overwhelmingly Catholic. Their connection with the Vatican and the Pope is essential for them, Portughese says, “there are very close relations…it’s a very active Catholic country.” He adds there are “high expectations” that Pope Francis will pay a visit to Malta, following in the footsteps of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI as well as of St. Paul who brought the faith to the island nation after his shipwreck there almost two thousand years ago.

While the Maltese wait to see whether a papal visit will be in the cards, the accord with Vatican Radio, says Portughese, formalizes an important collaboration that has been on-going for some time, bringing the Pope’s voice closer to the people of Malta.

Listen to Tracey McClure’s interview with PBS Chairman Tonio Portughese:


The PBS Chairman says “The agreement is already yielding results because every Sunday at noon we are transmitting the live broadcast from St. Peter’s of the Angelus by Pope Francis. And this is very well considered by a wide cross-section of Maltese people, people in old peoples’ homes, people in hospitals, but also in private residences. So this is one step already which is very important for us to have this live transmission every Sunday.”


“Another area which is important to us as well is the possibility to have access to the eighty year old archives of Radio Vatican. This is a gold mine for us and a fact, also here we have a first important result through this collaboration: Radio Vatican has just passed on to us the Radio Message of July 1964 by Pope John XXIII addressed to the Maltese people” on the occasion of celebrations marking the 19^th centenary of St. Paul’s shipwreck on Malta. “And this includes an exhortation,” Portughese adds, “an appeal to the Maltese people to protect and nurture their Christian faith and also a blessing in the Maltese language. This is an historical document which we are already using on Radio Malta, also analyzing it, having comments both by our Archbishop Msgr. Paul Cremona and by the Vicar General…So this is again another important point.”


“The third aspect,” Portughese continues, “ from Monday through Friday at 8:05 o’clock on the Radio Malta, the national radio station, we broadcast what is called Vatican View Point (produced by Vatican Radio’s English Service). Normally at 8:00 punctually, we broadcast from London live, the BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation’s international news from London. And this is now being followed immediately by the Vatican View Point which is a high-level program, addressing various topics, various challenges related not only of interest to the Catholic Church but I would say to various aspects of our life: social, political and cultural life.”


“Besides the Holy See and Malta, other small state members of the EBU include Cyprus, Monaco, Andorra, (San Marino) and Iceland… We are really small… we don’t reach (a) one million population amongst us. So there is the risk that the small nations are a bit ignored. So there, we have to lobby and in effect, we had a very interesting discussion in the last General Assembly last December in Geneva also regarding the financial contribution of the small states which for us, every year …has an impact on our budget. For large countries, this can be of secondary importance. So in the last General Assembly, together with Radio Vatican and the other small states, we embarked on a lobbying campaign not to continue penalizing the small states. I have to say there were also larger countries from the Mediterranean, including Italy and France who are understanding these positions (of) these small television or radio stations; in our case we have three radio stations, two television stations and an internet. Expenses are going up for everybody.”


The social and charitable work of the Catholic Church, present for hundreds of years in Malta, make important contributions to the archipelago, Portughese says, and are highly appreciated by the Maltese.


“Obviously the Church has a big following in Malta not only through church ceremonies and masses… but also the moral and authoritative standing that the Church has. Also its big activity in education, there are a lot of Catholic schools in Malta… The Catholic Church was the first here to have orphanages and institutions for old people, for sick people and in recent years, Caritas has been very, very active especially in the recovery of drug addicts. So the Church has not only a religious leadership, more and more, educational, social and philanthropy.”


Pope John Paul II visited Malta in 1990 and 2001 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. The PBS Chairman says the Maltese enjoy “very close relations” with the Popes and the Church in Rome because “it’s a very active Catholic country.”


“Obviously the Pope is very popular. Everybody has been asking Fr. Lombardi whether Pope Francis will visit Malta. Because after three visits by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict, everybody here is waiting for this – high expectations for another visit, by Pope Francis. That is not yet on the cards but it can happen in the future – we hope it will happen. It would be the nicest news for the Maltese people.”