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A Canticle
for Leibowitz
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February
14, 2022
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The
Sixth Hour |
Program
No. 461
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"Theater
of the Mind" is back and continues
all this week, as Brian and Sally
bring you the radio drama version of
Walter M. Miller Jr.'s epic sci-fi
classic, A Canticle for
Leibowitz. Originally
produced in 1981 by John Reeves at
radio station WHA at the University
of Wisconsin, it was formatted as a
radio serial in 15 installments. The
math is easy. Three parts per night
and we get the whole production done
for you in five nights. The book is
required reading if you do RCIA with
Chaplain Phil. He says it is both
the most and least Catholic book you
will ever read, and that it
accomplishes both at once suggests
more participation by the Holy
Spirit in the project than Miller
Jr. might have suspected. He was a
convert, you know. Often times that
allows one to see the Church in
different ways and with a certain
awe that often escapes those born
Catholic. The Catholic Church
without God is an institution that
transcends human history. With Him,
it transcends human existence.
Miller gets the first part but
misses the second, and that's where
the infernal dryness in his book
comes from. When one injects God
into his story, it blossoms like the
Rod of Aaron; like the Utah desert
when it rains before a good nuking.
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February
15, 2022
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The
Sixth Hour |
Program
No. 462
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Welcome
back! We continue tonight with
Walter M. Miller Jr.'s epic tale of
dystopia and despair, A Canticle
for Leibowitz. Who exactly is
Leibowitz? Your curiosity will be
satisfied tonight, as the story
dislodges itself from its desert
time warp and begins to press
forward towards... Well, after all,
that's why you tune in, isn't it?
Join Brian and Sally as they present
the next three installments in this
week-long pilgrim's journey
through this sci-fi classic.
It was a different kind of tale back
in 1960, even more so nowadays.
Rather than blaming the Catholic
Church for causing the Dark Ages, as
so many revisionist historians are
wont to do, we see here an example,
set in a fictional future, that
demonstrates why the Church should,
instead, be more appreciated for
lifting the world out of
history's nastiest quagmire. Fair is
fair, and Miller Jr. gives the
Church that much credit, sans any
kind of divine intervention. And
where is God in all of this
anyway?
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February
16, 2022
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The
Sixth Hour |
Program
No. 463
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Here
continues the chronicle, set down
daily by the brethren. The brethren
of Isaac Edward Leibowitz, in their
abbey in the desert of the
southwest. And so continues our
presentation with Parts 7, 8 and 9
of A Canticle for Leibowitz,
done as an old time radio serial,
and done pretty darn well at that.
Time marches on and progress slowly
tags along behind, only to catch up
later in the most frightening of
ways. Technology has always been a
two-edged sword, even back in the
day when that itself was the latest
innovation. Human civilizations are
built upon the corpses of the
conquered, whereas the Church is
built upon the living souls of the
martyrs of Jesus. There's a big
difference. To see the latter only
through the lens of the former
captures but a grim and pointless
portrait of the reality of human
life, for it can only see the
earthly. If Christ's kingdom is not
of this world, then neither is ours,
and if the true light that beckons
us home is from heaven, then that
last flash that sends us there is
surely nothing to fear. On with the
show! |
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February
17, 2022
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The
Sixth Hour |
Program
No. 464
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As
our story now rounds third and heads
for home, we realize that the more
things change the more they end up
the same. Man's love affair with
high technology never ends well it
seems. Always the jilted lover;
always seeking to be as the gods;
always falling back into the very
dust from which he was created.
Never is man more capricious than
when following the urge for better
living through alchemy, building his
latest Tower of Babel, or seeking to
journey to the stars to spread his
error and cancerous sin to the
cosmos. I suppose, in the end, that
is reason enough why he must always
be stopped, and so the game is
rigged to self destruct. Or rather
man is. Yet out of this ugly parade
are sorted those souls which belong
to God, while those lacking this
affiliation destroy each other in
the process of rebelling against His
authority. The genius is in the
simplicity. And to those who so
belong, the tariff has already been
paid upon that cross that these
future fake Catholics are always
processing with. The price is free,
but there is one catch: it costs you
your life. Of course, when you
consider that you're going to die
anyway, it's the best deal out
there. And only available for a
limited time!
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February
18, 2022
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The
Sixth Hour |
Program
No. 465
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And
so it is tonight our journey through
the long, dry, high desert that is A
Canticle for Leibowitz concludes.
If Christ was coming He would have
been here before now is the implied
teaching of the future Church,
though the name of Our Lord and
Savior has yet to be mentioned.
Makes you realize that Walter M.
Miller Jr.'s Catholic formation back
in the 50's wasn't much better than
that of today, though one can
scarcely imagine that. He gets the
Church part just fine, but the God
part is nowhere to be found, and
that's too bad because God actually
adds a lot wherever He goes. Our
world gives Him a bad rap, but in
Miller Jr.'s imaginary world, He's
downright non-existent. That's not a
criticism, mind you. Perhaps he just
anticipated the future Church that
Pope Francis has set course for: the
Catholic Church of the future that
blasts off from the ruins of Earth
to seek out Teilhard's "Cosmic
Christ" in person. Francis would
approve. I'll bet he keeps a copy of
A Canticle for Leibowitz on
his nightstand, right next to his
Machiavelli.
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| Program
Archives
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The
Sixth Hour - 2022
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| RNJ Staff |
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Chaplain
Phil
Chaplain Phil grew up
listening to alternative points of
view, and the underground
perspective, that characterized
late night AM and shortwave radio
in the 1960's. In the cold
winter months following the events
that transpired in Dallas on
November 22, 1963, he came to
realize that the death of
President Kennedy represented an
even deeper and more profound
tragedy - the death of the nation.
In the summer of 1964, he read None
Dare Call It Treason by
John Stormer and understood how
this had come to pass. He
was 10 years old.
Through
the ensuing years, he has followed
the flow of free information, as
what we now call the "mainstream
media" banished independent
Christian broadcasting, and honest
political thought, from the AM band to shortwave, then
to the internet, and now, in the
face of internet censorship, back
to shortwave. After a
lifetime of listening, he now
feels the time has come to
speak. His message is
simple. We are living in a
godless false reality created for
the purpose of destroying most of
us and enslaving the rest.
The
time of Revelation is here. Take
heart. For what is being
revealed is the eternal truth of
Jesus Christ.
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Brian Helix -
News Director
As
one of the BBC's "Young
Lions," Brian Helix was
known for his honest
reporting and take no
prisoners attitude towards
the truth. He is an
expert on conspiracies and
the theories thereof, both
modern and classic, and a
top flight investigative
journalist. He
brings these talents along
with his many others to
the post of News Director
here at RNJ.
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Sally
Belle-Époque - Production
Manager
Sally
Belle-Époque made her mark in both
video production and A.I. research
with the famed Hanson Robotics in
Hong Kong, and now brings her
varied talents and unique skills
to bear as Production Manager at
RNJ. Sally is a no nonsense
professional with all the Left
Coast flair and style her
background as a "Valley Girl"
would suggest - a Silicone Valley
Girl.
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Catholic
Pirate Radio
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What
is Catholic Pirate
Radio?
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Pirate
radio or a pirate
radio station is a
radio station that
broadcasts without a
valid license.
Catholic Pirate
Radio is broadcast
without the official
sanction or approval
of the Catholic
Church, any of its
connected agencies
or organizations, or
any member of its
hierarchical
structure (bishops,
cardinals, pope,
etc.).
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Queen of Catholic Pirate Radio
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"You
see, God expects His people
to do the ridiculous so
He can do the
miraculous." - Mother
Angelica
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Father
Coughlin
Father
of Pirate Radio |
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Mother Angelica: Queen
of Catholic Pirate Radio
Mother Mary Angelica
founded the EWTN television
network, and, more
significantly for my purposes
here, WEWN, a global shortwave
broadcast service with
transmitters located in
Irondale, Alabama. In
the 1990's, Mother Angelica
became one of the most
dominant Christian voices on
the shortwave bands, and WEWN
a torch that beamed her
message of the truth of
believing and faithful
Catholicism across the nation
and the world. She was a
major influence concerning my
conversion to the Catholic
Faith in 2002, and it is
truthful to say that my
formation as a Catholic took
place with her over many
nights of listening to the
most powerful voice on 41
meters. She gets much
credit for her pioneering work
in Catholic television, while
her savvy for international
shortwave broadcasting goes
largely unheralded and is just
as significant. It made
her a worldwide voice for the
faith rather than just an
American phenomenon, and paved
the way for the globalization
of EWTN.
Mother Angelica
earned the title of Queen of
Catholic Pirate Radio when she
publicly took on and disputed
the apostate Archbishop of Los
Angeles, Roger
Cardinal Mahony,
concerning the Real Presence
of Jesus in the Holy
Eucharist. While Mahony
was unleashing his wrath upon
Mother all the way to Rome,
it should also be noted that
he retreated quickly and
issued a statement taking
offense at her for daring to
question his belief in the
Real Presence. Thanks to
Mother's widespread and
profound media influence, I'm
sure a lot of bishops, cut
from the same cloth as
Mahoney, also thought twice
about peddling the "Spirit of
Vatican II" nonsense in an
overt way that might end up on
TV.
Here's some vintage
Mother for you:
I’m so tired of you
liberal Church in America!
And everything you’ve ever
done has gone in silence.
Nothing, nothing you’ve done
– from your witchcraft to
your enneagrams to your
centering prayer to all
this ‘earth
spirituality’ to replacing
holy water with sand to
destroying our churches and
closing churches that are
viable and ready to go…no,
this is not an accident.
We’ve swallowed this now for
thirty years. I’m tired of
it. We have swallowed enough
of your idea of God! You
have, really, no God,
no dogma, no doctrine,
and no authority, because
the only authority in the
Catholic Church is
our Holy Father and the
Magisterium, and you have
disclaimed that. You don’t
believe in the Eucharist,
you don’t believe in the
Immaculate Conception, you
don’t believe in the Virgin
Birth, you don’t believe in
Mary’s power of
intercession, you don’t
believe in religious life,
you don’t believe in being a
spouse of Christ! You do believe in teaching
to little children in the
third grade sex education,
you do believe in forcing
centering prayer and forcing
inclusive language upon us,
and now you depict Jesus as
a woman?! You’re sick!
Nothing to add to
that. As a layman, my
duty as a Catholic is to point
out these things just as it
was Mother's duty as a
religious - a Carmelite
nun. She taught me
well. It's time for
Catholic Pirate Radio, the
next generation.
Father Charles
Coughlin: Father
of Pirate Radio
In
1926,
Father Charles Coughlin
first took to the airwaves
on WJR radio in Detroit to
denounce the Ku Klux Klan,
which had recently burned
crosses on the grounds of
his parish. Turning to
politics in 1929, Father
Coughlin quickly became a
dominant and highly
influential radio voice on
the CBS network, with a
weekly listening audience
estimated at 30,000,000
during the peak of his
popularity in the early
1930's. While at first
a fervent supporter of the
policies and person of
President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, his views became
more controversial and his
rhetoric more strident as
the Great Depression
lingered on. By 1936,
he was expressing a
viewpoint that was
anti-capitalist and
anti-socialist, and invoked
no little controversy by
expressing a certain
sympathy concerning the
fascism of Benito Mussolini
and Adolph Hitler. He
was accused of anti-Semitism
based upon this and his
searing critique of the
European Jewish banking
establishment, which he
sought to qualify as
follows:
My purpose is to
help eradicate from the
world its mania for
persecution, to help align
all good men, Catholic and
Protestant, Jew and Gentile,
Christian and non-Christian,
in a battle to stamp out the
ferocity, the barbarism and
the hate of this bloody era.
I want the good Jews with
me, and I'm called a Jew
baiter, an anti-Semite.
My point here is not
to speak out for or against
Father Coughlin and his
political opinions, but merely
to point to him as an early
example of the efforts to
censor and silence unpopular
viewpoints. He remains
the textbook example of church
and state teaming up to remove
from public influence someone
deemed too controversial to
have his views heard by the
great unwashed masses of the
general public. The
Roosevelt Administration
determined a priori
that the First Amendment did
not apply to radio
broadcasting, and new
regulations and restrictions
were created specifically to
remove Father Coughlin from
the airwaves. For the
first time, public
broadcasters had to obtain a
permit and seek approval to
speak on the air, and this was
the impetus for those who
refused to do so taking to the
airwaves in protest: the birth
of pirate radio. While
Father Coughlin was able to
circumvent his banishment from
network broadcasting by buying
airtime on local stations, his
reach and influence were
drastically reduced. In
1942 he was ordered to remove
himself from public life by
Bishop Edward Aloysius
Mooney. He complied
without complaint and spent
the remainder of his career as
parish priest at the Shrine of
the Little Flower in Royal
Oak, Michigan. He
retired from active ministry
in 1966.
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| Facilities |
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| Welcome
to our broadcast facilities here at
RNJ. This is where Chaplain Phil and
our crew make the magic happen.
Stars of the Show are a Sweetwater Studio
Computer powering Jean and Ginger, two
1950 Canadian Philips Table Radios that
serve as broadcast monitors. That's Ginger
on the right channel, and Jean on the
left. Auxilliary Computer is "Old
Faithful," a 2009 Hewlett Packard (that's
like about a 1930 model in American Tube
Radio Years (ATRY). You'll also notice
three communication receivers, two 1959
Hallicrafters S-108's and a 1947 National
NC 57. Standby monitors include a 1937
Coronado 725 and 1953 Philco 53-960. It's
all sorted out through a Behringer Xenyx
802 Mixer. Our antenna array (not
shown) is an 80 foot sloping copper long
wire antenna, fastened to a Royal Palm and
running from there to the studio.
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