The mission of the new Radio Maria office in Homs (Syria) started with great joy on the day of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The first broadcast from Homs was the Holy Mass celebrated by His Excellency Mgr. Yulyan Yaacub Murad, Bishop of Homs, Hama and Al-Nabak for Syriac Catholics, from the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

Bishops, priests, consecrated persons and faithful from the various churches took part in the Mass, thus emphasizing that Radio Marias mission is for all the Catholic churches present in Syria’s largest diocese.

Radio Maria was officially born in 1987, when the Radio Maria Association took over a small parish radio station in the town of Erba, near Como in northern Italy. The appointment of Emanuele Ferrario as president and Father Livio Fanzaga as program director began the “Radio Maria Project”, a radio station of prayer and evangelization that is sustained by the offerings of its listeners alone and which aims to be at the service of the universal Church. Three years later, in 1990, Radio Maria was present throughout Italy, with a network of more than 400 repeaters. That same year, the first requests began to arrive from other countries and continents: Europe, the Americas, and Africa.

Radio Maria responds to Lord Jesus’ continual invitation: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) This is why Radio Maria is not a traditional radio, with journalists and editors producing daily content, but rather gives voice to the Church in its charism of prayer, proclamation, evangelization, and witness. It airs all the charisms that the Holy Spirit arouses in our days, in our local and universal Church.

The main themes of Radio Maia programming are namely prayer, the call to conversion, evangelization, human and social formation, and news from Church and society.