Pope Pius XI saw wave of the future

Published: 2006-03-03

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The idea of capturing and carrying someone's voice across oceans and continents was a radical idea at the turn of the 20th century, and one pope saw the groundbreaking possibilities in such a project. Pope Pius XI was fascinated by this "awesome invention," and in the late 1920s he invited the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, to build a radio broadcasting station on the grounds of the newly established Vatican City State. Before radio, the pope's public addresses could only cover the venue at which he was speaking, maybe going a little farther if there was a good echo bouncing off Bernini's colonnade in St. Peter's Square. But on Feb. 12, 1931, with a flick of a switch, the pope's words spoken from a tiny, bare-bones studio in Vatican City were heard simultaneously in New York, Quebec, London, Paris, and Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. With Christ, the word was made flesh; with radio, the pope's words were made trans-Atlantic and truly universal.

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