In the Spring of 1992 I began a radio adventure that little I knew the Lord would use to bring His Gospel of Life to millions of Hispanics all over the world. I was teaching moral theology at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, when I received a call to start hosting a radio program in Spanish on the life issues. The call came from "Radio Paz", the Catholic radio station of the Archdiocese of Miami. Actually I had requested such a program from Radio Paz. Nevertheless, their quick and positive response came as a very pleasant surprise. I had never been a radio host before, so I commended myself and the program to the Lord of Life and began my adventure in radio.

The program was called and is still called "Defiende la Vida" ("Defend Life") and nowadays it reaches a potential audience of over 85 million people! But I'm getting ahead of my story. Let me back track and continue where I left off.

During the academic year of 1992-1993, I still taught at St. Vincent's. I hosted "Defiende la Vida" live over the phone. But, then in 1993 I decided to apply for a job at Vida Humana Internacional (VHI), HLI's Hispanic Division. The courageous and amazing pro-life veteran Magaly Llaguno, executive director of VHI, accepted my application. Since VHI is based in Miami, I left St. Vincent's and moved back home and continued to tape "Defiende la Vida" from VHI's office.

Then, in 1994, Magaly, who is always full of wonderful new ideas, contacted "Radio Católica Mundial" ("Catholic World Radio") or WEWN, and asked them to air "Defiende la Vida". The Mother Angelica's and Alabama-based short wave radio station answered in the affirmative. All of a sudden, the-tens-of-thousand audience jumped to tens of millions, not only in Latin America, but all over the world! I cannot thank enough the Lord, Magaly and WEWN for this evangelization miracle. The programs began to be pre-recorded and sent to Mr. Doug Archer, the very capable director of WEWN's Spanish Programming, whose Spanish is as fluent as a Spaniard's. This made "Defiende la Vida" even better, since now we can plan ahead and prepare better for the programs.

"Defiende la Vida" is a very flexible program. Sometimes I just give a talk on a life/family issue (abortion, euthanasia, chastity, culture of life, domestic violence, the Church teaching on these issues etc), at other times I interview a pro-life leader from the Hispanic world, who explains the battle between the culture of life and that of death in his or her country. Still at other times we announce future pro-life events in which HLI or VHI will be involved, both in the US and abroad, or we alert our audience about the misfits IPPF, the UN, "Catholics for a Free Choice", et. al., are planning to do or are already doing in some Hispanic country. And of course, we do fund raising, too!

One specific feature of "Defiende la Vida" is that we can turn series of programs into little "courses" that we then sell. We have done several four-program series on abortion, euthanasia, domestic violence, chastity education and social justice, to name a few.

We also have another radio program: "Conferencias por la Vida y la Familia" ("Talks on Life and Family"), which consists of recorded talks given at international conferences where VHI has been involved. That was another one of Magaly's wonderful ideas.

On September 4, 2000, the Lord added a brilliant pro-lifer to VHI: Esther M. Sousa. Almost immediately I begged Magaly to have Esther as my co-host. My wife, Ilse, who had been my wonderful co-host for several years, went on to a loftier ministry: motherhood! Esther has not only co-hosted several programs, she has also interviewed pro-life leaders herself, when I have not been available. Esther has now been appointed by Mrs. Llaguno Assistant Executive Director for VHI.

Let me tell you, radio is still the most far reaching media there is. Radio reaches where not even the Internet and TV reach. I have received letters of appreciation from Cuba (where almost nobody has Internet access) and from poor and remote areas in Mexico and Central America. And now that WEWN has developed a network of affiliates in Latin America, "Defiende la Vida" reaches Hispanics also through AM and FM! Not only that, but people can also listen to "Defiende la Vida" through our Spanish web site!

Speaking of our web site, let me close by saying that you can find a list of our previous programs, as well as the schedule and frequency of "Defiende la Vida". You can obtain those previous programs by calling our office at (305) 260-0525 and asking for me. If you want to re-air our programs, call Doug at (205) 672-7200. Click here for the "Conferencias" programs.

Please, help support this extremely important ministry. Enjoy the show! Adios.