It was a year of preparation, but the first 1,000 MP3 players prepared by the host of a Catholic radio are making their way to the Catholic troops and wounded soldiers. Not just any MP3 player, however. They are “full of Catholic content,” according to Cheri Lomonte, radio show host Gabriel Award-winning “Touch” of Mary and the force behind a project she calls “Frontline Faith.”
The intention of the distribution program is to provide inspirational messages and recordings Catholic tide Catholic soldiers more frequent visits by a Catholic chaplain to the battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ms. Lomonte, in a July 20 telephone interview with Catholic News Service in Austin, Texas, said his radio show had a guest who helped wounded soldiers to Lourdes, France. Lomonte said it asked the guests, “What can we do to help?” The answer was: “Be sure not to get to this point. Do something before getting to this point.”
Previously, Ms. Lomonte was distributed to some MP3 players homeless in Austin. “We put the right things in the player, including fragments of the” Touch Radio Maria, “he said.
But this project would be a demanding effort. The MP3 for use by the troops are “full of things Catholic,” Lomonte said – seven hours worth. “You could hear Mass, you could hear a rosary.”
The Mass is a Memorial Day Mass celebrated by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services in the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington. The Rosary is a “warrior of Rosario”, designed by Lynda MacFarland, the wife of a military career, with the sorrowful mysteries.
Other options in the MP3 programming includes “Centurions of Rome”, a presentation made by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen in the U.S. Academy West Point, New York, letters from children to soldiers read by children themselves, an examination of conscience; features interview from “Touch” of Mary, and two and half hours of stories about faith in life military, including “D’oh Father,” about a priest who took care of the infantry and the story of a soldier carrying the Eucharist in the battle.
The military archdiocese is the distribution of MP3 players through their chaplains. But that may take some time, with a shortage of Catholic chaplains in the military.
“Our troops did not get to see a priest because sometimes seven or eight months,” Lomonte said. “That would be like you and I could not receive the Eucharist until Valentine’s Day, or sometime in the spring. … How can our troops go without the Eucharist for all that time when they most need? ”
It costs about $ 24 to buy the MP3 player, loaded and ready for shipment. The funds raised have allowed 1,000 players were prepared for distribution.
“We have 330,000 Catholics in our armed forces, and our long-term goal is to have an MP3 player called ‘Frontline Faith” to all members of our armed forces who wants it, “Lomonte said.
MP3 players are not just for the combat zones. “One of the first places that is sent to our hospitals,” Ms. Lomonte said. “They have nothing. Our chaplains supply it.