Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, 1923-2016
March 27, 2016 9:27 PM Subscribe
Once described by Time Magazine as "arguably the most influential Roman Catholic woman in America”, Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), died on Easter Sunday.
Born Rita Antoinette Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, in 1923, Mother Angelica joined a contemplative order, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in 1944. In 1962, she and four other sisters established a new PCPA monastery in Irondale, Alabama, raising the money by selling fishing lures. Mother Angelica entered broacasting in the 1970s, starting with a 10-minute radio program and then later starting a Catholic teaching series for CBS affiliate WBMG in Birmingham that was later picked up by televangelist Pat Robertson’s CBN statellite network. A dispute with WBMG led her to launch her own cable channel. EWTN was launched in 1981 from a studio located in a converted garage at the Irondale monastery. Her talk show "Mother Angelica Live" was on the schedule from the start. Masses from the Irondale monastery chapel have been on the daily schedule since 1991.
She publically clashed with Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angelse over his teachings on liturgy and the Eucharist. She also clashed with Bishop David Foley of Birmingham in 1999 over plans to have the televised EWTN Mass celebrated ad orientem.
In 1987 she founded a community of Franciscan friars, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, whose members celebrate Mass for the Poor Claire sisters and for EWTN broadcast and work on other EWTN productions. In 1999, Mother Angelica’s community relocated to a new monastery, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, in Hanceville, Alabama. The MFVA friars continued to celebrate daily Mass for broadcast from the Irondale chapel. Mother Angelica was also the founder of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, a community of lay brothers dedicated to perpetual adoration and serving at the Shrine.
Mother Angelica stepped down from control of EWTN in 2000 and handed control to a board of lay people. In 2001, she stopped hosting “Mother Angelica Live” after suffering two strokes in three months. EWTN continues reruns episodes of her show as 'Mother Angelica Live Classics'. In October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal to Mother Angelica. EWTN board member Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia paid tribute to her stating “Mother Angelica succeeded at a task the nation’s bishops themselves couldn’t achieve. She founded and grew a network that appealed to everyday Catholics, understood their needs and fed their spirits.” Her Vigil and Funeral Mass will be broadcast on EWTN.
Born Rita Antoinette Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, in 1923, Mother Angelica joined a contemplative order, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in 1944. In 1962, she and four other sisters established a new PCPA monastery in Irondale, Alabama, raising the money by selling fishing lures. Mother Angelica entered broacasting in the 1970s, starting with a 10-minute radio program and then later starting a Catholic teaching series for CBS affiliate WBMG in Birmingham that was later picked up by televangelist Pat Robertson’s CBN statellite network. A dispute with WBMG led her to launch her own cable channel. EWTN was launched in 1981 from a studio located in a converted garage at the Irondale monastery. Her talk show "Mother Angelica Live" was on the schedule from the start. Masses from the Irondale monastery chapel have been on the daily schedule since 1991.
She publically clashed with Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angelse over his teachings on liturgy and the Eucharist. She also clashed with Bishop David Foley of Birmingham in 1999 over plans to have the televised EWTN Mass celebrated ad orientem.
In 1987 she founded a community of Franciscan friars, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, whose members celebrate Mass for the Poor Claire sisters and for EWTN broadcast and work on other EWTN productions. In 1999, Mother Angelica’s community relocated to a new monastery, the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, in Hanceville, Alabama. The MFVA friars continued to celebrate daily Mass for broadcast from the Irondale chapel. Mother Angelica was also the founder of the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, a community of lay brothers dedicated to perpetual adoration and serving at the Shrine.
Mother Angelica stepped down from control of EWTN in 2000 and handed control to a board of lay people. In 2001, she stopped hosting “Mother Angelica Live” after suffering two strokes in three months. EWTN continues reruns episodes of her show as 'Mother Angelica Live Classics'. In October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal to Mother Angelica. EWTN board member Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia paid tribute to her stating “Mother Angelica succeeded at a task the nation’s bishops themselves couldn’t achieve. She founded and grew a network that appealed to everyday Catholics, understood their needs and fed their spirits.” Her Vigil and Funeral Mass will be broadcast on EWTN.
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:43 PM on March 27, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:43 PM on March 27, 2016 [12 favorites]
I thought she was dead already. Guess I'd been out of the loop for a pretty long time.
I first heard of her in my short Catholic seminary stint. She always impressed me by the dedication of her whack job admirers among my peers. There was a weird cult of personality among the bizarre conservative seminarians, who seemed to just adore her. I had no interest in those crazies, so I wrote off their weird obsession as another of their ecclesiastical kinks.
I didn't actually hear her broadcasting until several years later, via shortwave radio, a medium somehow perfectly suited to her reactionary angle, along side the conspiracy theorists, fascists and general lunatics that shared US based SW bandwaves. Whoda thunk that psychotic media world would be so mainstream only a few years later. ISTR, as the culture war heated up during the Clinton years, some of my former classmates were going on about Mother Angelica seeing apparitions or some such nonsense.
I'll bet the strokes that put her out of commission probably are responsible for her not being a major player among the conservative media circus that took off particularly in the Obama years. She would have been right at home playing along today's wingnut wurlitzer.
posted by 2N2222 at 10:14 PM on March 27, 2016 [11 favorites]
I first heard of her in my short Catholic seminary stint. She always impressed me by the dedication of her whack job admirers among my peers. There was a weird cult of personality among the bizarre conservative seminarians, who seemed to just adore her. I had no interest in those crazies, so I wrote off their weird obsession as another of their ecclesiastical kinks.
I didn't actually hear her broadcasting until several years later, via shortwave radio, a medium somehow perfectly suited to her reactionary angle, along side the conspiracy theorists, fascists and general lunatics that shared US based SW bandwaves. Whoda thunk that psychotic media world would be so mainstream only a few years later. ISTR, as the culture war heated up during the Clinton years, some of my former classmates were going on about Mother Angelica seeing apparitions or some such nonsense.
I'll bet the strokes that put her out of commission probably are responsible for her not being a major player among the conservative media circus that took off particularly in the Obama years. She would have been right at home playing along today's wingnut wurlitzer.
posted by 2N2222 at 10:14 PM on March 27, 2016 [11 favorites]
(This is a really well put-together obituary post. Thanks, Rancci.)
posted by benito.strauss at 10:43 PM on March 27, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by benito.strauss at 10:43 PM on March 27, 2016 [9 favorites]
I applied to Eternal Word Television Network fresh out of college, in the 1980s, along with every other broadcast and cable TV network. TBS for example sent me a form postcard of rejection. BTW I went to Central Catholic HS.
I got a letter from Mother Angelica herself. She wrote, "Any television network would be blessed to have a young man such as yourself. However, the Lord has not blessed us with enough funds to hire another person at the moment."
posted by msalt at 10:53 PM on March 27, 2016 [41 favorites]
I got a letter from Mother Angelica herself. She wrote, "Any television network would be blessed to have a young man such as yourself. However, the Lord has not blessed us with enough funds to hire another person at the moment."
posted by msalt at 10:53 PM on March 27, 2016 [41 favorites]
.
posted by spinifex23 at 10:58 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by spinifex23 at 10:58 PM on March 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
She would make an excellent choice for patron saint of insomniacs.
posted by Fupped Duck at 12:04 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Fupped Duck at 12:04 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
.
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:51 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:51 AM on March 28, 2016
I thought that evil, hate filled woman had died years ago.
I'll never forget her "sermon" about the gays.
posted by james33 at 2:44 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
I'll never forget her "sermon" about the gays.
posted by james33 at 2:44 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:51 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:51 AM on March 28, 2016
Boy, I hate to link to the freepers, but here you go.
Her response to the 9/11 attacks was to say: abortion has deprived the nation of millions of people who would otherwise be there to defend the nation.
Bye.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:11 AM on March 28, 2016 [9 favorites]
Her response to the 9/11 attacks was to say: abortion has deprived the nation of millions of people who would otherwise be there to defend the nation.
Bye.
posted by waitingtoderail at 5:11 AM on March 28, 2016 [9 favorites]
There were many times that I'd come across her on EWTN, and I would wonder why there was a puppet, a la Spitting Image, hosting a show there.
posted by stannate at 6:06 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by stannate at 6:06 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
I'm kind of shocked this is here, and positioned as it is. I'm with james33 and waitingtoderail on this one.
posted by uberchet at 7:50 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by uberchet at 7:50 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Thanks Rancci for this post. I'm kind of shocked that this is here also because MetaFilter has always stuck me as a place where Anti-Catholicism is acceptable.
posted by Rob Rockets at 8:47 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Rob Rockets at 8:47 AM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]
Another very complicated person.
I hated her politics, and was genuinely sad and disappointed when I found out about them. I occasionally watched her show, not as a religious person, but as someone curious and who felt a kinship with others who were also looking for meaning. She had such a comforting presence, and it was nice to see a woman in her position.
It's a shame she used that position to promote some evil views.
. for Mother Mary Angelica, and . for the Mother Mary Angelica that never was.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:08 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
I hated her politics, and was genuinely sad and disappointed when I found out about them. I occasionally watched her show, not as a religious person, but as someone curious and who felt a kinship with others who were also looking for meaning. She had such a comforting presence, and it was nice to see a woman in her position.
It's a shame she used that position to promote some evil views.
. for Mother Mary Angelica, and . for the Mother Mary Angelica that never was.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 9:08 AM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
MetaFilter has always stuck me as a place where Anti-Catholicism is acceptable.Anti-Catholicism, or a general rejection of religious excesses of any and all stripes?
posted by uberchet at 9:11 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
MetaFilter has always stuck me as a place where Anti-Catholicism is acceptable.
Sorry, too early in the day/week/month/year/millennium for Catholic victimhood, particularly of the disingenuous variety. The RC church comes in for some stick here, no doubt—as it frequently deserves. But there are always Catholic (and non-Catholic) MeFites to offer broader, often counterbalancing, perspectives from a doctrinal, historical or personal standpoint.
So, no.
posted by the sobsister at 9:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
Sorry, too early in the day/week/month/year/millennium for Catholic victimhood, particularly of the disingenuous variety. The RC church comes in for some stick here, no doubt—as it frequently deserves. But there are always Catholic (and non-Catholic) MeFites to offer broader, often counterbalancing, perspectives from a doctrinal, historical or personal standpoint.
So, no.
posted by the sobsister at 9:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]
I had never heard of this woman before, and now that other MeFites are adding details I'm starting to wonder if this nicely detailed write up isn't in fact a bit deceptive.
If someone tried to use 9/11 as anti-abortion propaganda and has a "'sermon' about the gays" (I'm guessing that it's not particularly kind), then that side of her deserves a mention. From my first reading the most controversial thing I knew about her was her beliefs about which way a priest should face.
I know it's an obituary, so we like to emphasize the good, but I think we here have a duty to not ignore other major parts of a person's life.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:03 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
If someone tried to use 9/11 as anti-abortion propaganda and has a "'sermon' about the gays" (I'm guessing that it's not particularly kind), then that side of her deserves a mention. From my first reading the most controversial thing I knew about her was her beliefs about which way a priest should face.
I know it's an obituary, so we like to emphasize the good, but I think we here have a duty to not ignore other major parts of a person's life.
posted by benito.strauss at 10:03 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
A great teacher. A great leader.
posted by soakingbook at 10:20 AM on March 28, 2016
posted by soakingbook at 10:20 AM on March 28, 2016
As a former altar boy with 13 years of Catholic education under my belt, I feel I've earned the right to say this woman was horrible, "anti-Catholic" or not.
posted by waitingtoderail at 10:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by waitingtoderail at 10:22 AM on March 28, 2016 [2 favorites]
Of course she did.
No comment one way or the other, but she certainly led me down some interesting internet rabbit holes.
posted by St. Hubbins at 10:44 AM on March 28, 2016
No comment one way or the other, but she certainly led me down some interesting internet rabbit holes.
posted by St. Hubbins at 10:44 AM on March 28, 2016
Anti-Catholicism, or a general rejection of religious excesses of any and all stripes?
Oh, more than that, metafilter will sharply critique many of leaders of the atheism movement (for good reason, quite often).
posted by el io at 11:18 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
Oh, more than that, metafilter will sharply critique many of leaders of the atheism movement (for good reason, quite often).
posted by el io at 11:18 AM on March 28, 2016 [5 favorites]
She once literally said that deadly tornadoes in the Midwest are caused by women getting abortions.
Being against that doesn't make you "anti-Catholic". Being against that is the beginning of sanity.
She was a horrible, evil, spiteful, vicious little person who worshiped a terrorist god -- a god who randomly kills people to get his point across and inspire fear in His enemies.
I hope she spends eternity with Him.
posted by Tyrant King Porn Dragon at 5:27 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
Being against that doesn't make you "anti-Catholic". Being against that is the beginning of sanity.
She was a horrible, evil, spiteful, vicious little person who worshiped a terrorist god -- a god who randomly kills people to get his point across and inspire fear in His enemies.
I hope she spends eternity with Him.
posted by Tyrant King Porn Dragon at 5:27 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
She once literally said that deadly tornadoes in the Midwest are caused by women getting abortions.
Cite?
posted by Bardolph at 8:18 AM on March 29, 2016
Cite?
posted by Bardolph at 8:18 AM on March 29, 2016
She was wonderful, she was horrible, just like the religion that spawned her.
posted by telstar at 9:57 PM on March 29, 2016
posted by telstar at 9:57 PM on March 29, 2016
She once literally said that deadly tornadoes in the Midwest are caused by women getting abortions.
Cite?
posted by Bardolph at 8:18 AM on March 29 [+] [!]
I was watching her on TV in 1999 when she said this.
posted by Tyrant King Porn Dragon at 2:03 PM on April 2, 2016
Cite?
posted by Bardolph at 8:18 AM on March 29 [+] [!]
I was watching her on TV in 1999 when she said this.
posted by Tyrant King Porn Dragon at 2:03 PM on April 2, 2016
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She will be missed by many for many reasons.
.
posted by hippybear at 9:30 PM on March 27, 2016 [4 favorites]