✣ TV pioneer Mother Angelica dies aged 92
What happened? Mother Angelica, the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network, (EWTN) the world’s largest religious media network, has died aged 92. The Franciscan nun passed away on Easter Sunday at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Alabama, the monastery she helped to found more than 50 years ago. She hosted a talk show and was known for her straight-talking manner. She founded the channel in a converted garage in 1980; it now reaches 230m homes. What the media are saying Paul Vitello of the New York Times said Mother Angelica’s screen persona “approximated a personal encounter with a shrewd, yet grandmotherly nun from a seemingly bygone era”. Her outspokenness “made her both friends and enemies among the Catholic faithful. It also brought her into conflict with members of the Church hierarchy” – notably Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who proposed changes which she thought would breach Church doctrine on the Eucharist. In the Washington Post, Jacqueline Salmon said that Mother Angelica charmed millions worldwide with her “high-pitched voice and frequent piercing cackle”, and her delivery of “rambling discourses on faith and the Bible, cheery fundraising pitches and humorous maxims”. What Catholics are saying “For a good many American Catholics,” said Rocco Palmo on his Whispers in the Loggia blog, “this Easter night brings a bigger blow than the loss of a pope.” Mother Angelica was “arguably the most influential voice for the Stateside Church’s ‘base’ over two generations – and, indeed, a woman whose prime saw her wield more clout than almost any churchman at home or abroad.” Many American Catholics highlighted Mother Angelica’s trust in God. The theologian Janet E Smith told Aleteia: “She was a simple nun, with a profound faith, and one courageously dependent upon God’s grace to supply what was needed. Her life and deeds were miraculous. I have great confidence that some day she will be declared to be a saint.”
