Golden Jubilee For Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference Commission for the Cinema, Radio and Television, the statutes of which were approved by the Supreme Pontiff on 31 December 1954. His Holiness Paul VI acted on the Council Fathers' vote and by his motu proprio In fructibus multis of 2 April 1964 transformed the existing Commission into the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, responsible for dealing with all the problems raised by the cinema, radio, television, and the daily and periodical press in relation to the interests of the Catholic religion. With the apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus promulgated by Pope John Paul II at the Consistory of 28 June 1988, the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications became on 1 March 1989 the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and, as such, an Office of the Roman Curia in its own right. In accordance with Article 169 of the above-mentioned Apostolic Constitution, the Office was responsible for “dealing with questions concerning the instruments of social communication, so that also by these means the message of salvation and human progress may serve the growth of civilization and morality". The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference was founded in 1969. Very early on in 1972 the Bishops started a Social Communications Office, first in those little red-brick cottages opposite the Dominican Convent High School and eventually in the new Africa Synod House built on a formerly Dominican property. But the Catholic Church in this country became aware of the need for Church media and communication in the very early days of the 20th century. Early Jesuit missionaries set up a printing press in their mission in Chishawasha as one of their first apostolic ventures around 1900. Brother William Lovell SJ ran this printing press where Fathers on the mission published prayer and hymn books, catechisms and little books in Shona for teaching missionaries the language. Fr. Biehler SJ, famous for his brass band for the pupils of Chishawasha Primary School, was very productive as an editor. Later the Bethlehem Missionary Society (SMB) in Gweru moved into the media and communication work when they founded Mambo Press and MOTO Magazine, the first newspaper and voice for the indigenous people of Zimbabwe when Rhodesia, as a "white man's country", ignored the media needs of the local population. Two names will always be remembered for their work at Mambo Press, Fr. 32

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