On Sunday, 29 May, the Church celebrated World Day of Social Communications. Pope Francis gave his message the title: “Listening with the ears of the heart”, calling the world of communication to relearn how to listen.
Jesus himself asks us to pay attention to how we listen. Indeed listening requires courage; it requires a free and open heart, without prejudice.
In Aparecida (SP, Brazil), the world of communications is in direct dialogue with the experience of faith and Christian spirituality. Since they arrived in this city in 1894, the Redemptorist Missionaries have followed in the footsteps of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the first and one of the most excellent communicators of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
The Bavarian Redemptorists, who came from Germany, immediately opened a graphic workshop, later becoming the Sanctuary Publishing House, intending to evangelise the people through solid catechesis. In the 1950s, the Brazilian Redemptorists inaugurated Rádio Aparecida, which quickly reached listeners all over Brazil with high-quality programming and missionary values. In the same way and with the same objective of bringing the proclamation of the Plentiful Redemption, Aparecida TV and Portal A12 appeared in 2005 and 2010, respectively.
This evangelising role of the Redemptorist Missionaries was consolidated with the Family of Devotees, which unites families from all over Brazil. The Family aims to spread the faith through periodicals such as Magazine of Aparecida, Magazine of the Youth of Mary and Magazine of Devoted Children.
It is worth recalling this common objective of the Congregation in the media of Aparecida. A video below presents the Editora Santuário, Rádio Aparecida, TV Aparecida, Portal A12 and Familia dos Devotos. The Redemptorists who coordinate and collaborate in these media talk about their missionary work, having for predecessors such renowned confreres as St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Father Valentim Mooser and Father Vitor Coelho de Almeida.
(a12.com)
