Fr. Charles is the new director of Radio Maria Canada. On his first transmission he greeted his listener with this message: “Greetings from your new director, at Radio Maria Station – Canada! Fr. Charles Michael Grech ofm a Franciscan friar, from St. Paul the Apostle Province Malta) currently assigned with the Immaculate Conception Province (Unites States) as Associate pastor at St. Jane Frances de Chantal a Franciscan Parish. As the newly appointed Director of Radio Maria Canada, I am thrilled to work with the staff and volunteers who earnestly put all their energy in going out of their way to ensure the station runs smoothly and provides you our listeners, a good service across Toronto and Montreal, Canada.

In Evangelii Nuntiandi, Pope Paul VI urged the laity to fulfill their baptismal responsibility by working together with the Church to spread the Word. This evangelical mission is everyone call. Our century is characterized by the mass media or means of social communication, and the first proclamation, catechesis or the further deepening of faith cannot do without these means, as we have already emphasized. When they are put at the service of the Gospel, they are capable of increasing almost indefinitely the area in which the Word of God is heard; they enable the Good News to reach millions of people. The Church would feel guilty before the Lord if she did not utilize these powerful means that human skill is daily rendering more perfect. It is through them that she proclaims, “from the housetops”[Cf. Mt 10:27; Lk 12:3.] the message of which she is the depositary. In them she finds a modern and effective version of the pulpit. Thanks to them she succeeds in speaking to the multitudes.

Nevertheless, the use of the means of social communication for evangelization presents a challenge: hrough them the evangelical message should reach vast numbers of people, but with the capacity of piercing the conscience of each individual, of implanting itself in his heart as though he were the only person being addressed, with all his most individual and personal qualities, and evoke an entirely personal adherence and commitment. (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 45)

No wonder professor Luigi Pautasso took on this prodigious task to make sure that the era of communications would be put into practice in the spirit of the project of World Family Radio Maria. I will not go into fashioning a eulogy of such a great person, for the Lord has used him as an instrument, and so merit what we have today. Radio Maria has continued to evolve throughout these years. From its beginning, Radio Maria has, and still has, the mission of the Virgin Mary, Our Mother, to bring Jesus, the Redeemer, to the world. The World thirsts for the True Religious Message to grow spiritually. Radio Maria is a Marian instrument which responds to the appeal of the Blessed Virgin Mary, through prayer and the teaching of the Catholic faith.”

We would like to congratulate and send our best wishes to Fr. Charles on his new assignment.