Page 8
University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1964
Priest Released By Communists; Uses Radio to Further Christianity
BRUSSELS —(UPI) — A Belgian priest who was a prisoner of the Chinese Communists for seven years has taken to the airwaves to spread the word of Christianity among the peoples behind the Iron Curtain.
He does so from studios in the center of Brussels, using a transmitter "somewhere in Western Europe."
Antwerp-born Father Jan L. Fierens prefers this vague location of his transmitter because, he says, "We do not want to be identified with one or other element in the cold war." But reports have it that the transmitter is in West Germany.
FIERENS WAS jailed by the Communists when he worked in China as a missionary of the Immaculate Heart congregation. He was expelled from the country after seven years in prison but his determination to bear witness of his faith remained unshaken. He believed that the faithful of the silent church could only be reached by radio and, nine
years after his return to Europe, in 1962, he started a venture which he called "Radio Omega."
With money scratched together from supporters in Belgium and Luxembourg, he rented a house in Brussels, large enough to install an editorial department and a library. Then he searched for the cheapest possible recording equipment on the market. Fate was kind to him. A "pirate" commercial transmitter which had been operating from a ship outside Belgian territorial waters was hit by a winter storm and had to be scrapped. Fierens bought its microphones, tape recorders and turntables at a low price.
There was no question of transmitting from Belgian territory since the government holds a monoply of radio broadcasting and all radio activities, private or commercial, are banned.
THEREFORE, HE had to rely on a station abroad with a well-established audience behind the iron curtain. He found one prepared to sell him a daily hour's time for six days per week.
Radio Omega started Aug. 1, 1962, with two half-hour broadcasts a day beaming a program to the Soviet bloc which consisted of non-denominational religious talks, Bible readings, and music. When listeners behind the iron curtain heard the thin sounds of a flute playing the first bars of Handel's "Hallelujah," they knew they were listening to Radio Omega's Christian voice.
Professors of Petroleum Donate $15,000 for Music
Production director Gerald Pelforge says, "There are 150 million Christians behind the two curtains. We are directing our message to all of them. For the time being we are reaching only those in Russia and Communist Europe. But our ultimate aim is to have a second transmitter in the Far East and penetrate into the territory which Father Fierens had to give up."
The love of music held by two professors of petroleum engineering at the University of Kansas has led to their creation of a $15,000 endowment to "engage professional artists for performances at the university for which state and other funds are not available."
Creation of the Eugene A. and C. Florence Stephenson fund in music was announced by vice chancellor James R. Surface during Saturday night's concert at KU by the Minneapolis Symphony orchestra.
THE DONORS are Dr. and Mrs. Stephenson, he a long-time chairman of the petroleum engineering department who retired in 1947, and Dr. and Mrs. Charles F. Weinaug, member of the Kansas faculty since 1948.
This is the first endowment created at KU to underwrite professionallevel performance of music.
Income from the fund held by the Endowment Association will be administered by a committee, designated by the donors as Dean Thomas Corton of the School of Fine Arts, Prof. Joseph F. Wilkins, head of the
voice department, and Prof. Raymond Stuhl, teacher of cello. When a member retires or leaves the university, the other two shall elect a successor.
Preference for the type of performance to be subsidized is to be given to cello, violin, piano and vocal presentations.
Professor and Mrs. Stephenson wrote, in creating the fund: "We have enjoyed and appreciated musical performances at the university for many years. In part, then, our contribution is to express gratitude for these experiences. At the same time, we realize that funds to engage professional artists are limited, so it is our desire that the income from the fund be used for this purpose."
In expressing appreciation for the gift, Dean Surface said. "Not only will countless persons in the years to come benefit from their thoughtful generosity, but they have also underscored for others the importance of private support in building a great university through providing for purposes for which state funds are not available."
FIERENS. A slight man of 52, left for the United States recently on a fund-raising and information mission, using his congregations' headquarters in Arlington, Va., as his base.
"The next step," Delforge predicts, "will be to buy our own transmitter somewhere in Europe and step up our programs so that we can cover some twelve languages spoken in the Soviet Union. We will need about $60,000 for this project and we may start at the end of this year."
From the beginning, Fierens has striven to insure that no political bias creeps into his broadcasts and this, Radio Omega thinks, may be the reason why the programs have never been jammed.
THE PRIEST and his aides know that Radio Omega is being listened to behind the curtain and that its message is being effectively heard. They know this, they say, from secretly obtained reception advisories and messages of encouragement received from listeners.
They decline, however, to reveal just how many people in Russia and the satellites they estimate tune in to the religious broadcasts.
In December of last year Pope Paul VI gave his blessing to the venture which has earned Father Fierens the nickname of "the short-wave missionary."
ATTENTION
SENIORS!
Now that we have your attention, please hold on to your caps, because -we (the executives), are about to inform you that distribution of those exciting SENIOR CALENDARS* has commenced! And will continue through payment of fees . . of course it's FREE! FREE! FREE! with your senior I.D. in Strong Rotunda.
- AMONG OTHER SENIOR GOODIES!!!
(Naturally, all of these goodies can be purchased separately . . . for a nominal fee.)
- SENIOR SWEATSHIRTS . . . . . $3.00
- SENIOR BUTTONS . . . . . $ .50
- SENIOR CALENDARS . . . . . . $ .50
Rock Chalk Revue Begins Countdown
The 14th annual Rock Chalk Revue sponsored by the KU-Y is well under wav.
Drawings for blocs of Rock Chalk tickets will be held at 7:00, tonight, in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union.
Rehearsals for the Rock Chalk Revue skits begin at 6:30, tonight, in Hoch Auditorium.
The theme of the four-skit presentation to be held February 28-29 is "Lacerated Legends." Parodies on legends of the past will be applied to campus life.
ALPHA TAU Omega and Chi Omega will adapt the legend of Robin Hood. A parody on the legend of the Vampires entitled "All's Not In Vein" will be given by Sigma Chi and Gamma Phi Beta.
"The Adventures of Alewdwin and His Magic Pot" will be the Phi Kappa Psi and Delta Delta Delta skit. A take-off on the Faust legend will be presented by Kappa Sigma and Delta Gamma in "You Can Take It With You."
Tickets for the Revue will go on sale February 17, at the Information Booth. A limited number of tickets will also be sold in the Kansas Union, Gary Gradinger, chairman of ticket sales for Rock Chalk, said.
Order Investigation
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - Police Chief Thomas Cahill ordered an investigation yesterday into the $150 robbery of Walt's Tavern.
Two policemen were having a coffee break in the back room of the tavern while two gunmen and an accomplice cleaned out the cash register Tuesday night.
First it was LONNIE MACK Now it is the DISCIPLES
appearing Friday evening at
OAK LODGE 1 mile south of the Baldwin turnoff on Hiway 59.
Low Hour Glass Heels, were $15 now $10.90
Low Stacked Heels, were $13 now $9.90
Assorted colors and styles on both heels. Sizes to 10
813 Mass.
L E
VI 3-2091
W
has h
It he wa Dr. V the E
In
explo
past
was
infide
teria
L instit into that ficati ment
thy s
B a "B only make
integ men
"No Linc
ica-
certa
sens
Γ
Linc
V Linco cabi that in th cause
felt posa shot the
veal
abou
4 But not com on t
be
A at 7 Roo
ture olog cott We man the olog