Preaching life on death’s
doorstep
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
While the culture of death thrives inside the Planned Parenthood Clinic
of Central New Jersey, the clinic now shares a wall with a crisis pregnancy
center and New Jersey’s first 24-hour Catholic radio station.
Those unlikely neighbors found their way into the same building after
two men began praying for guidance before the Blessed Sacrament.
James Manfredonia of Fairless Hills, a popular Catholic radio host, began
his journey in prayer before the Eucharist in 1992, when he felt the inspiration
to leave the security of corporate America and embark on a new path in
life: the growing field of Catholic radio.
“You could have every priest in every diocese preach on every Sunday
and you’re still only reaching about 25-to-35 percent of Catholics
— and that’s only those who are going to church” Manfredia
said from his office at New Jersey Catholic Radio in Shrewsbury, N.J.
“Catholic radio opens the door to those who aren’t going to
church. We might not reach the other 75 percent right away, but God can
do great things.”
He spoke with the passion a man has when he’s found his life’s
work. It’s not just in the blood. It’s in the soul.
Manfredia and his wife, Cheryl, began working with the Eternal Word Television
Network’s (EWTN) radio evangelizing effort in 1992, from their home
in lower Bucks county. Then, after a few years as station manager at WISP
in Doylestown, he left to start the Domestic Church Media Foundation to
produce and distribute Catholic programs.
Months later, a radio station became available in Monmouth County, N.J.,
with a signal powerful enough to reach New York City. “That was
always one of Mother Angelica’s dreams — to get Catholic radio
into New York City,” Manfredia said of EWTN’s founder.
He negotiated a lease with the owners and was ready to go on the air by
September 2005. All he needed was a studio.
Meanwhile, 100 miles away in St. Catherine of Genoa Parish in Holmdel,
N.J., a young father of four named Santo Arena woke up with an unsettled
feeling in the middle of an otherwise ordinary night. Arena got out of
bed, and decided to watch a favorite video of the popular EWTN preacher,
Father John Corapi.
“It was the episode where Father was suggesting that bishops should
open perpetual Adoration chapels in close proximity to abortion clinics,”
Arena said. “I heard him preach this before, but it never meant
anything to me. That night, I decided to go to Adoration, and I was only
there for about 10 minutes when I felt this urge to leave and go to a
nearby abortion clinic.”
When Arena arrived at the clinic, he saw a sign that advertised, “For
Rent by Owner,” on the adjoining building. That seemed exactly the
opportunity he had heard Father Corapi talking about.
Arena contacted the owner, and after being shown the whole building, he
was brought to a small room on the first floor. “He swings open
the door, and the first thing I see are two arches in the wall, high windows,
very private. It had that ‘chapel’ feel,” he said.
He took the building, thinking he would reserve it until a chapel could
be opened there. Within a year, however, Arena and his wife, Nancy, opened
the “Family Matters” crisis pregnancy center in the building.
One day, Arena heard about a retreat by Father Corapi at the National
Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, which was hosted by the
Domestic Church Media Foundation. He decided to go. That is where he met
Manfredonia.
“We got to know each other, and Jim told me he wanted to start New
Jersey Catholic Radio and needed a spot,” Arena said. “I invited
him over to see the building. He came here and knew immediately this was
the place.”
Of course, a giant radio tower standing in the back yard was a good sign.
“Nobody really knows why it’s here,” Arena said.
Not until now.
While Planned Parenthood delivers its gospel of death next door, Arena
and his wife save as many babies as they can, and a 24-hour Catholic radio
station proclaims the gospel of life to millions from a studio above their
offices. Once a week, a retired priest from the diocese of Metuchen, N.J.,
Father Anthony Dandry, says Mass and conducts a Holy Hour in the little
chapel on the first floor.
It’s a powerful combination, and it has already produced much fruit.
“I’ve been leasing the building for over five years now,”
Arena said. “So far, about 65 women opted out of having an abortion
and chose to continue their pregnancy.”
Manfredonia said he and his wife have had similar positive results.
“We were only on the air for a few months when a man with three
young children called to say that after the sex scandals, he’d had
it with the Church. He took his wife and three kids and joined a Baptist
congregation. But one day, he was driving up Route 18 and happened to
turn on our station,” Manfredonia said. “He started listening.
He told me, ‘I want you to know that I was so touched by what I
heard, two days before Christmas my wife and I came back to confession,
and we’re back in the Church.”
“That’s the power of Catholic radio,” said Stephen Gajdosik,
president of the 169-member Catholic Radio Association. “Virtually
all the stations in the country are EWTN, and they have so much fruit
on their tree. Lukewarm Catholics, non-Catholics, even non-Christians,
are pouring into the Church in areas where these stations are operating.
Some people may have a bias against EWTN, but you can’t look at
this and say it’s not God’s work.”
The number of Catholic radio stations is growing fastest in areas with
strong episcopal support, he said, but the effort still has a long way
to go. There are fewer than 80 Catholic-programmed stations in the United
States, compared to 1,600 non-Catholic Christian stations —out of
a total of over 17,000 licensed facilities.
“The media is the way the culture is informed,” said Gajdosik,
who quotes liberally from the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II
and Archbishop John Foley, the former editor of The CS&T.
“Virtually no one is informed about the world and society by a 10-minute,
Sunday homily,” Gajdosik said. “If the Church is absent from
the media, she is absent from the culture.”
Radio has the distinction of being a media format that’s affordable
to everyone; it costs less than any other medium, and reaches more people
in less time for less money with fewer staff. In fact, it may be the best
option for someone who wants to invest in evangelizing the culture.
“I will go to my grave extolling the virtues of Catholic radio,
because I’ve seen the power of it,” Manfredonia said.
But even he never imagined he would one day preach the gospel of life
on the very doorstep of death. Both he and Arena believe the power of
the Eucharist made that happen.
“The source and summit of our faith in action is the Eucharist,”
Arena said. “This all happened in Adoration. It was just the idea
of installing an adoration chapel here that brought forth all this fruit.”
Visit Manfredia’s Web site at: www.893fm.org or call 1-866-883-9357
for more information.
Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615.