Awards, EWTN radio host mark Catholic Radio Indy’s 20th anniversary banquet

During a banquet on Feb. 25 in Indianapolis celebrating 20 years of broadcasting, Catholic Radio Indy general manager Gordon Smith holds a San Damiano Cross award before presenting it to Bob and Sharon Teipen for their efforts in starting and supporting Catholic Radio Indy since its inception in 2004. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

It started in 1999 with a nudge from the Holy Spirit prompting Bob Teipen to start a Catholic radio station in Indianapolis.

Now, two decades since the launching of its first station in 2004, Catholic Radio Indy has expanded to include five stations covering most of central Indiana and established a digital footprint with streaming via the Internet and other devices.

“We’re here to celebrate 20 years of fulfilling our mission to bring souls to Jesus,” said Gordon Smith, general manager of Catholic Radio Indy, operating as Inter Mirifica Inc., at a banquet in Indianapolis on Feb. 25.

David Anders, host of the EWTN radio call-in program “Called to Communion,” served as the keynote speaker.

The celebration, attended by more than 270, also included special recognition for Deacon Ronald Pirau of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Deacon Paul Lunsford of the Diocese of Lafayette, and Teipen and his wife Sharon.

‘A prompting of the Holy Spirit’

While receiving Catholic Radio Indy’s Archbishop Fulton Sheen Evangelist of the Year Award, both deacons spoke of the impact of Catholic radio on their faith lives.

“I’m just eternally grateful for Catholic radio,” said Deacon Pirau.

He credits a program on Catholic Radio Indy with introducing him to the idea of spiritual direction, and another program that helped him confirm his discernment of a call to the permanent diaconate. He was ordained a deacon in 2012.

Deacon Pirau now serves as director of the permanent deacon faith formation program at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad. He also ministers at SS. Francis and Clare of Assisi Parish in Greenwood and at the Johnson County Jail.

As a traveling salesman in Indiana and Kentucky, Deacon Lunsford said he “lived on Christian radio,” but noticed “something was a little different between what I was hearing on the radio from what the Roman Catholic Church teaches.

“Then entered Catholic radio 20 years ago,” said Deacon Lunsford, who ministers at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Carmel. Ordained in 2013, he was president of Guerin Catholic High School in Noblesville, Ind., from 2010-2018. He now serves as the Lafayette Diocese’s director of the Third Option marriage program and oversees the diocese’s Pathways to Healing from Divorce ministry.

He said he is grateful “that the orthodoxy of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Church is represented beautifully” through Catholic Radio Indy.

On behalf of the Inter Mirifica board of directors, Smith honored the Teipens with an award for their efforts “to make sure that the airwaves have evangelized these past 20 years, and [to] do so through thick and thin.”

Bob shared with those present the journey that began 25 years ago with “a prompting of the Holy Spirit to do something in Catholic radio. It took five years before we finally came to the situation where we were able to acquire the station 89.1 [FM].”

He recognized the contributions of Jim Ganley, who served as general manager from 2004-2021, and acknowledged the “generosity and support of our underwriters, our benefactors, all the hard work of our employees and our volunteers and our board of directors.”

He also gave special credit to his wife of 53 years.

“Sharon was right there working with [Jim] all the time as a super volunteer,” said Teipen. “Without her support, this would not have happened.”

‘Apologetics matter’

A map of the coverage of the various frequencies of Catholic Radio Indy in central Indiana. Click the image for a larger version

Keynote speaker Anders spoke about the importance of Catholic radio as an evangelization tool and the role it played in his own journey as a former Presbyterian to being received into the Catholic faith in 2003.

“Apologetics matter,” he said, noting that Catholic radio may be some people’s only introduction and connection to the faith, “from the fellow in the middle of rural Japan who literally knows no Catholics in the world,” to those in areas of the United States dominated by Protestant faith traditions.

He recalled one caller from Mississippi who asked question after question on the same call.

“Finally he says, ‘I apologize for hammering you like this, but you guys are literally the only Catholics I know,’ ” Anders shared.

Some callers are intent on challenging the faith, he also noted. One such caller was “Roy the truck driver.”

“I patiently answered his objections and explained how I had fallen my way out of the box [of misperceptions] that he was in,” said Anders.

After calling the show for about six months, Roy shared with Anders that he was coming into the Church that Easter.

“Six months after that, he calls to tell me how he’s evangelizing the Catholic faith for other truckers at truck stops,” said Anders.

While “Called to Communion” is intended for non-Catholics, he said he gets many calls from “cradle Catholics who have grown up in the Church their whole life who say, ‘I never knew the Catholic faith until now.’ ”

‘Catholic radio changed my life’

Anders spoke about his own journey to Catholicism from being Presbyterian and a staunch believer that Catholics were wrong and “fell outside of Christ’s salvation.”

It was through the process of earning a doctorate in Reformation history and historical theology that he came to see the truth of the Catholic faith.

One day in the early 2000s, Anders discovered a Catholic radio station with EWTN programming. Eventually he called Marcus Grodi, host of EWTN’s “The Journey Home” radio show.

He asked Grodi if he knew any former Protestants in the Birmingham, Ala., area who had become Catholic—not knowing that EWTN was located in Birmingham “just five miles” from Anders’ house.

“I could hear him chuckle, and he said, ‘Yeah, I might know a few,’ ” said Anders.

He started visiting the EWTN headquarters, getting to know the faith through staff members, and professed the Catholic faith in 2003.

Meanwhile, Anders said, his marriage had been crumbling for several years. He credits the healing and forgiveness he found through the sacrament of reconciliation with restoring his marriage.

“God got a hold of me in my studies first, but then in my moral life, and then the witness of real Catholics, and then to the mercy of the confessional, and then from Catholic people who loved me, and then backed me into a radio studio, where now I get to talk to people all over the world who’ve had problems just like me,” Anders summarized.

“Catholic radio matters,” he said. “It matters to the deepest places of human personality and relationship. … Catholic radio changed my marriage. Catholic radio changed my life, and it does that for people all over the world every single day.”

“The gift of Catholic radio is tremendous,” Anders added. “I think it’s the greatest tool we have for evangelism in the Church today, but also in terms of the actual qualitative difference that it makes to people’s lives, to their marriages, to their relationship with God, to their self-respect, to their communities.”
 

(Listen to Catholic Radio Indy locally by tuning in to 89.1 FM—west Indianapolis; 89.5 FM—south Indianapolis; 90.9 FM—Hamilton County, Ind.; 94.3 FM—Lafayette, Ind.; or 98.3 FM—Anderson, Ind.; or anywhere by downloading the Catholic Radio Indy app from an app store, by dialing 641-793-5507, by asking Alexa to “play Catholic Radio Indy,” or by clicking “Listen Live Now” at catholicradioindy.org. To donate online or for information on becoming an underwriter, go to the same web address. To donate by mail, send a check for “Catholic Radio Indy” to Catholic Radio Indy, 8383 Craig St., Suite 280, Indianapolis, IN 46250.) †