Two Radio Maria interviews about the 2018 Holy Land pilgrimage

Radio Maria (US) [LINK]

Here are two episodes of Sacred Treasures with Kathie Duggan on Radio Maria [archive page LINK] discussing the August 2018 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The first features myself; the second features our Israeli Christian tour guide Tony Azraq ... and myself (I'll explain below):

Monday 01 October 2018: Kent Hare [LINK]

Monday 19 November 2018: Tony Azraq [LINK]

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Here's the backstory, including why these are being posted so long after the fact....

A few weeks after we returned from the Holy Land in late August, Kathie invited me to join her on her weekly radio show to talk about the pilgrimage. Since it turned out the date she proposed, Monday 01 October, was the first day of my university's two-day fall break, I was able to drive down to Alexandria and join her in the studio rather than Skyping or just calling in on my cell phone. So I got to have lunch and visit with her and the staff at Radio Maria, including Fr. Emilio who was in the station for the periodic "Mariathon" fund raising campaign. It was an all around good afternoon.

I always intended to post a link to the audio ... but weeks passed and it never appeared. I contacted the station and found out they had suffered a major data breach or virus (I don't remember which at this point) that had corrupted a lot of their files and their station engineer was working through reconstructing what he could salvage. Over time, my check-ins became less and less frequent, although I think I did check within the past few weeks.

In the meantime, in mid November Kathie put out the word that she had arranged for our tour guide Tony to appear, and invited pilgrims to call in during that show. I jumped at the chance and did so ... and inadvertently ended up basically being her guest for the back half of the show when Tony's Skype connection from Israel apparently failed. It was problematic during the time he was with us, then went out completely. And that's the story of the Monday 19 November episode, which provided another good chance to reminisce about the pilgrimage.

Anyway, why now? A few days ago my wife saw in the Radio Maria newsletter that Fr. Emilio is stepping down as Priest Director [LINK -- page 2]. I decided to go in and see if there was an announcement on their web page and, on a whim, checked into the archives for the long-missing episodes -- and voila, there they were. So here they are.

Regarding the departure of Fr. Emilio, I take this opportunity to wish him farewell, although it makes the chance our paths will ever cross again vanishingly small, I know. I always hoped maybe on one of his trips to the station in Alexandria we could somehow get together a reunion meal of as many pilgrims as are in driving distance, and once again reminisce about some good times. He will be missed by Radio Maria, I know, and he will be missed by me. Vaya con Dios, Padre!