by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“God wants you to be in the world, but so different from the world that you will change it. Get cracking.” (Mother Angelica).
Mother Angelica died on Easter Sunday, March 27 (1923-2016) at age 92. Journalist John L Allen Jr rightly said that: “Rita Antoinette Rizzo, Mother Angelica’s given name, was many things: A lightning rod, a force of nature, an impresario, an entertainer, a deft commentator…and, beneath it all, a faithful and pious nun… she was far from being everyone’s cup of tea.
“Mother Angelica was an unapologetic and aggressive champion of Catholic orthodoxy, one of the leading exponents of what historians will no doubt see as a powerful conservative wave that rolled through American Catholicism in the 1980s and 90s…she will be sorely missed – the Church just isn’t as much fun without her around to stir the waters, raise our blood pressure, get us to think, and remind us to pray.”
She was born in Ohio and became a nun in Cleveland aged 21. In 1962 she founded a monastery (Poor Clare nuns – a Franciscan religious order for women) in Irondale, near Birmingham, Alabama, USA. In 1981 she founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a Catholic cable channel, in her monastery garage. The Catholic News Agency reports that “she launched EWTN after refusing to continue broadcasting from a secular TV station that she said was also broadcasting blasphemous films.”
The BBC reports: “EWTN claims to be the world’s biggest religious media network. It has 11 channels reaching more than 250 million homes in 145 countries. It also operates radio stations and newspapers. Her health had been declining since she suffered a stroke in 2001.
“Alabama Governor Robert Bentley was among those to pay tribute. ‘She left an indelible mark on Alabama, the Catholic Church and the world as a whole,’ he said. EWTN’s chairman Michael Warsaw said Mother Angelica would always personify the network. ‘In the face of sickness and long-suffering trials, Mother’s example of joy and prayerful perseverance exemplified the Franciscan spirit she held so dear,’ he said.”
I have wonderful memories of my visit to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament which was built by Mother Angelica at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. I recall the impressive monument of the Divine Child, Jesus; the damaged Roman (Tau) cross; and the shrine where the Poor Clare nuns keep a constant prayer vigil before the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The UK Telegraph’s obituary describes it as a “medieval Italianate church complex (consecrated in 1999) complete with gift shop and conference rooms.”
There is truth in the statement made on the Shrine’s website: “Visitors to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament are struck by its beauty and grandeur, often commenting on the atmosphere of peace that pervades the grounds and the ethos of prayer and reverence exuded by everything from the artwork to the architecture.”
I was honoured to have been invited to appear on EWTN with Fr Leonard Alfonso from Barbados, on St Valentine’s Day in 2007 – on Fr Mitch Pacwa’s show.
Listen to the one hour programme on abortion and other pro-life issues via the following link (see Number 436 on the site):http://www.ewtn.com/v/ondemand/audio/seriessearchprog.asp?pgnu=15&SeriesID=6695
I remember how I prayed that we would get to Fr Mitch’s house from the airport before the expected tornado struck. Thank God we got to the basement of his house with minutes to spare.
Sadly, we were unable to see Mother Angelica during our visit. She had suffered a series of strokes and a hemorrhage on Christmas Eve in 2001. Although these left her largely incapacitated, EWTN went from strength to strength. Today, it comprises television and radio stations, websites, and publishing entities.
In 2009 she was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal by Pope Benedict XVI. “She was partially paralysed in her final years but she accepted her incapacity, telling the sisters that she wanted to be kept alive, ‘because I will have suffered one more day for the love of God’…She handed over control of the network in 2000 and stopped broadcasting at the end of 2001, after a series of strokes. But she continued to write and latterly Raymond Arroyo, EWTN’s news director, published various anthologies of her thoughts…” (UK Telegraph obituary).
I end with a couple of quotations from Mother: “Where most men work for degrees after their names, we work for one before our names: ‘St.’”
“Love is what the Lord asks of us. If we must love even our enemies, imagine how we are expected to love our family members.”
May she rest in peace.
