Mother Angelica’s work still brings inspiration and conversion, six years after her death

Joe Bukuras   By Joe Bukuras for CNA

March 27, 2022 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

Mother Angelica, foundress of EWTN. / EWTN

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 27, 2022 / 03:00 am (CNA).

The foundress of EWTN, Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, died six years ago, but her legacy lives on in the spiritual renewals that have resulted from the fruits of her work.

She died March 27, 2016 – Easter Sunday – after a lengthy struggle with the aftereffects of a stroke. She was 92 years old.

Mother Angelica founded EWTN out of a garage in Alabama in 1981, and it has since become the largest religious media network in the world. Catholic News Agency is a service of EWTN.

Six years after her death, EWTN viewers are still sharing their stories of how Mother Angelica’s life and the network she founded continue to influence them. Here are some of those stories, edited for clarity:

Daily Mass viewers

“EWTN has changed my life. I faithfully watch from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. every morning in Massachusetts. My father, who is 95-years-old, lives in Maine. We watch daily Mass together through FaceTime and we discuss our thoughts on the homily for the day, every day. I was lost for many years and felt unworthy. EWTN is the vehicle that has taught me to forgive and learn to love myself. The greatest blessing I have received is from EWTN. I now feel at peace, feel hope and I know that I am loved.”

“I just wanted to acknowledge how your EWTN network has blessed me. I am not Catholic, but [it] does not matter, I am a Christian. I am shut in and I tape your 8 a.m. morning Mass and watch it at 11 p.m. instead of the news. I also enjoy Father [Mitch] Pacwa and his weekly show.”

EWTN in prison

“I’m 42 and was recently released from prison. You have no idea the impact you are making for those of us who were and are incarcerated. Your program is an excellent resource for all Catholics! When I couldn’t watch EWTN on television, I would listen to the radio. I have reconnected with God and my faith and through your program. I have helped others by letting them know what resources to watch and listen to.  You have helped so many, you don’t even realize! Archbishop Fulton Sheen is my favorite, as well as Fr. Spitzer’s Universe, the rosary, and Divine Mercy. You have helped me and so many others grow in their faith and really turn their lives around that I even made my confirmation in prison! This feels so good to be able to share this with you! I’m walking by faith and will continue to help others through your program to see God’s light…… this is why I donate.”

EWTN in schools

I work as a substitute teacher and many times when the teacher leaves work for kids to do independently, I turn on EWTN on the school computers and keep closed captioning on so as not to bother the students and I can read the entire Mass and the Lord have mercy in Latin-all of it and obtain graces. So, thank you! I can’t wait to meet Mother Angelica in heaven one day. I went to Alabama in 2006 to the family celebration and she was supposed to be there but that was the beginning of her decline as they said she wouldn’t make it after all. I live in Arizona now and am eternally grateful for EWTN.

EWTN in RCIA classes

“EWTN is a valuable tool that brings back those who have lost their way and the spirit of listening to the call to seek Him. I have been praying for a long time for my husband to convert to the Catholic faith with me. I am happy to say that it is through your programming and listening to Sirius XM in the car that has called my husband to RCIA classes. Together we are taking RCIA classes and use your resources to further educate us. I am so grateful to EWTN and my answer to prayer that has brought my husband and I even closer. I will continue to donate because I want this light to keep burning…… to call others.”

EWTN in the hospital

Several years ago, I was in the hospital with a serious respiratory infection. I found myself flipping through the channels on the television and came to EWTN and your show “Scripture and Tradition.” You and the Holy Spirit saved me that day. After listening to you I came back to the church after being gone for many years. I went to the local church, St. Lawrence, and joined immediately. Since then, I have been very faithful, including watching daily Mass on YouTube and praying the daily rosary. I also go to confession every first Saturday and attend Mass and sacramental communion … I also watch EWTN everyday, especially your show. Thank you for all that you do and for helping to save me. You are very special to me as I am hopeful that the Lord will take me to Heaven when I die because of your efforts. God bless you and give you the strength and energy to keep up your fabulous work. I will always pray for you.”

EWTN on the journey ‘home’

Just a quick email to say how much I enjoy listening to your program on EWTN … it’s terrific! I am a somewhat lapsed Catholic and am currently busy ‘finding my way home’…. programs like yours (and others on EWTN) are helping me immensely. I’m so pleased to have stumbled across EWTN a few months ago and now I regularly tune-in (via satellite) to listen. I’m very impressed by your knowledge, Dr. David Anders, and you are great at explaining complicated things in a simple, readily understandable way. By the way, I also like the chap who helps you on the program, too. Thank you EWTN for bringing the word of God to us viewers.  We appreciate the way EWTN’s programs bring peace and unity to us viewers in order to help in our life with the presence of the Lord. Through the virtues, we open our mind and heart, and learn our strengths and weaknesses. Our heart is with God, and we believe all the truths of the church. The programs on scripture and education teach us to learn more. Our heart is with God.  We serve God. The word of God is important. Thank you for televising this program and Catholic news about Vatican City and Pope Francis.

EWTN on the App Store

“I wanted to say that I am eternally grateful that EWTN has its own app. I don’t have to go to one of the million dollar apps like Youtube or Facebook to get my EWTN programming.”

EWTN becoming family

“I’m 95-years-old. I have trouble falling asleep since my husband, Joseph, passed away 2 years ago. In January 2021, I scrolled through the television at midnight. I came across your channel and daily Mass. I was so inspired by Fr. Mark’s homily, that I have watched you all continuously 7 days a week because of his homily and how much it meant to me. I have grown to love you all and I just worry about the Friars. They are like my children, I love them so much. I am so thankful to have EWTN in my home. It is so hard being alone. You have become my family.”

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Pope Francis, Jane Goodall speak on ‘what it means to be human’ at Vatican health conference

May 8, 2021 Catholic News Agency 9
Pope Francis greets a child in St. Peter’s Square during the general audience on April 20, 2016. Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, May 8, 2021 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis and Jane Goodall both offered perspectives on “what it means to be human” on the final day of an online Vatican health conference on Saturday.

In a video message to the virtual conference on May 8, the pope said that Saint Augustine’s words in “The Confessions” are timeless: “Man is himself a great deep.”

“The Scriptures, and philosophical and theological reflection in particular, have employed the concept of ‘soul’ to define our uniqueness as human beings and the specificity of the person, which is irreducible to any other living being and includes our openness to a supernatural dimension and thus to God,” the pope said.

Pope Francis said that “this openness to the transcendent” is fundamental and “bears witness to the infinite value of every human person.”

Anthropologist Jane Goodall, famed for her work with chimpanzees, also spoke at the Vatican conference on “mind, body, and soul,” giving a talk entitled “What does it Mean to be Human?”

“I think where we fit in into the picture of primates is we are the fifth great ape, and our closest relative among the other great apes… Well, there’s two of them, actually, the chimpanzee and the bonobo. We differ from each other genetically by only just over 1%,” Goodall said.

She offered examples of how chimpanzees can be taught sign language, use the computer, and make drawings. During evolution, she said, humans learned to communicate with words, language, and writing that enables people to be distinguished by their ability to make plans for the future and invent rockets.

“But then when you realize how like us chimpanzees are, and yet how we differ with this explosive development of the intellect, this development of the intellect has not given us a reason to label ourselves as Homo sapiens, the wise ape. We’re not wise. We’ve seen what Mars looks like. We don’t want to live there. We’ve only got this one planet, at least in our lifetimes, and we’re destroying it,” Goodall said.

“All the major religions share the golden rule, do to others as you would have them do to you. If we can apply that to animals, as well as to each other, then I think we shall be coming closer to being able to define ourselves as Homo sapiens,” she added.

The Vatican health conference taking place May 6-8 on “Exploring the Mind, Body & Soul: How Innovation and Novel Delivery Systems Improve Human Health,” has featured more than 100 speakers including Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as Clinton Foundation vice chair Chelsea Clinton and New Age guru Deepak Chopra.

It is the fifth conference of its kind organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Cura Foundation, which describes itself as a “nonsectarian, nonpartisan” group “with a mission to improve human health globally.” This year is the first time that the conference is taking place virtually.

“I am pleased that students from various universities throughout the world, Catholic and non-Catholic, are taking part in this event. I encourage you to undertake and pursue interdisciplinary research involving various centers of study, for the sake of a better understanding of ourselves and of our human nature, with all its limits and possibilities, while always keeping in mind the transcendent horizon to which our being tends,” Pope Francis said.

The pope said that when interdisciplinary research is applied to the medical sciences it “translates into more sophisticated research and increasingly suitable and exact strategies of care.”

“We need but think of the vast field of research in genetics, aimed at curing a variety of diseases. Yet this progress has also raised a number of anthropological and ethical issues, such as those dealing with the manipulation of the human genome aimed at controlling or even overcoming the aging process, or at achieving human enhancement,” he said.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin also addressed the conference via video message on May 8.

The cardinal said that human beings are distinguished from animals by rationality, “a high degree of self-understanding” and reflection on others and the universe.

“Another unique feature is the moral conscience that allows us to act by distinguishing between what is good and what is bad. This fundamental reference causes us to ask ourselves ethical questions about our actions, about society, about the use of the tools that we develop and make socially usable,” Parolin said.

“A strong moral sense pushes us to denounce and take actions that put an end to injustices through philanthropic and solidarity actions that counteract the manifestations of evil.”

He also noted that humans are capable of contemplating beauty and artistic expression in many different forms, as well as possessing “the openness to the transcendent horizon which in the lives of many of us leads to religious experience, but which also prompts us to question ourselves about the ultimate questions.”

“The ancient thinkers encapsulated this specificity and uniqueness of the human being in a single term, humanitas, which from Cicero onwards became the category with which to indicate the objective principle of a complex system of exquisitely human moral values,” Parolin said.

“Now, this day seals the three days full of content, and is also the final moment of a complex itinerary of reflection. However, it is also an openness to a constant search for human natures conducted by the philosophers and men of culture of the past. My wish is, therefore, to continue to deepening the mystery of our being with enthusiasm and determination, to discover and be fascinated by what makes us truly human,” he said.


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