By Linda Bordoni
Pope Pius XI’s wish to invest in a radio station that would bring the voice of the Pope and the Gospel message to every corner of the earth goes back to the 1920s.
So he asked the Italian inventor and electrical engineer, Guglielmo Marconi, to help him set up the enterprise. Thus, Vatican Radio was inaugurated on 12 February 1931 and entrusted to the Jesuit Order.
Eight pontiffs later, the Pope is Francis, and it is with his voice we celebrate the Radio’s 90th anniversary in 2021.
Today we bring you the voice and the insights of the man who embodied Vatican Radio’s English Programme for 43 years. Seàn Patrick Lovett arrived at the Radio in the 1970s as a young reporter during the papacy of Pope St Paul VI. During his long career, he headed the English Section, “invented” and directed the multi-lingual “One-O-Five Live” Programme, liaised with students and journalists from all walks of life, reporting and travelling with the Popes, bringing their vo