February 22, 2011. Father Federico Lombardi, director of Vatican Radio, and Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, President of the Governorate of Vatican City, opened this exhibition that traced the history of the pope´s radio station.

Antonio Paolucci
Director, Vatican Museums
“The Vatican Museums have done their best to prepare this small exhibition in the entrance hall, which is a strategic location because for the year-long survey, about 5 million people people of all languages will visit from around the world, showing the worldwide impact of Vatican Radio.”

The exhibition is the main event of Vatican Radio´s 80th anniversary proceedings. Also planned is the publication of a book on the history of Vatican Radio, as well as the meeting of chairs of European radio stations. The head of the Vatican City said today that Vatican Radio has had the same mission for its 80 years of existence: to bring the voice of the Pope to the whole world, even to places where there is no religious freedom.

Card. Giovanni Lajolo
President, Governatorate of Vatican City
“Radio remains the appropriate instrument, and, sometimes the only, to spread a message of faith and freedom. Radio can overcome barriers and enter the houses and places where faith continues to develop in secret, at the risk of one´s own life.”

Fr. Federico Lombardi
Director, Vatican Radio
“We believe that we have a clear and constant mission. We serve for the proclamation of the Gospel, in a specific way, as collaborators of the Holy Father.”

From 1940 until 1946, Vatican Radio broadcast 1,270,000 messages, 12,105 hours of broadcasting that brought the voice and message of the pope to the prison camps and battlefronts of World War II.

The success of Vatican Radio is not limited to the past. With the advent of new technologies, the radio of the pope has been reinvented. Now 80 years old and making the leap to internet radio and mobile podcast, there is the hope that the new challenges facing Vatican Radio will be met with at least 80 more years of success.