Catholic radio host prepares MP3 players for troops, wounded soldiers

WASHINGTON -- It has been a year in the making, but the first 1,000 MP3 players are prepared by the host of a Catholic radio program are making their way to the Catholic troops and wounded soldiers

They're not just any MP3 players, though. They're "filled with the Catholic content," according to the Cheri Lomonte, host of the Gabriel Award-winning radio program "Mary's Touch" and the force behind a project that she calls "Frontline Faith."

The intent of the distribution program is to provide the Catholic inspirational messages and recordings to tide the Catholic soldiers over between the infrequent visits of a Catholic chaplain to battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan

Lomonte, in a July 20 telephone interview with the Catholic News Service from Austin, Texas, said her radio program had a guest who helped to bring the wounded soldiers to Lourdes, France. Lomonte said she asked the guest, "What can we do to help?" The answer she got was: "Make sure they don't get to this point. Do something before they get to this point."

Previously, Lomonte had distributed the MP3 players to some of Austin's homeless. "We put appropriate things on the player, including snippets from the 'Mary's Touch' radio program," she said.

But this project would prove to be a more with exacting effort. The MP3 for use by troops are "packed with the Catholic things," Lomonte said -- seven hours' worth. "They could listen to a Mass, they could listen to a rosary."

The Mass is a Memorial Day celebrated by the Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services at St. Matthew Cathedral in Washington. The rosary is a "Warrior Rosary" conceived by the Lynda MacFarland, the wife of a career military man, using the sorrowful mysteries.