The growing popularity of a Biblical television program in Kannada has emboldened Jesuits behind it to think of launching a full-time television channel in Karnataka.

A senior Jesuit priest said this on Dec. 6 while addressing a meeting of some 1,000 people who came to mark the 100th episode of the Biblical television program, ‘Daivik Sakath,” (power of God), telecast in local channels.

The half-hour program is produced by Fatima Retreat House, a Jesuit spirituality center in Mangalore. The program includes Biblical narration, interpretation, bible quiz, music and songs.

Father Ronnie Prabhu, who directs the program, said it is widely viewed by the Canara Catholics. The success made Jesuits to envisage a full time biblical television channel in Konkani, he said.

“We are happy that we can spread the values of our faith through this medium,” said the Jesuit priest, who is also the secretary of the regional bishops’ commission for ecumenism and dialogue.

Church leaders who addressed the gathering also stressed the need for value-based media to educate people.

“Education, awareness and entertainment are the key functions of media,” Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza of Mangalore said.

Media are powerful channels to help people experience God, he said adding media influence societies so deeply that some people now begin to doubt if it is possible to live without media.

Bishop D’Souza said if media would do more harm than good to society if they forget their three-fold mission.

Oscar Fernandes, a Mangalore Catholic and a former union minister, said watching programs such as Daivik Sakath and hearing the “holy words may lead us to live happily.”

Spiritual programs, transmitted through whichever medium, can change the world, said Fernandes, a general secretary of the Congress party that heads the federal coalition government.

Justice Michel F. Saldhanha, a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, called upon Catholics to patronize such programs as a means to evangelization. He said he would be sponsoring the next episode himself.

Source:  Jesuits contemplate launching TV channel (Cathnews India)

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