Mother Angelica, Founder of Catholic Network EWTN, Dies at 92

[erpowers]

Source: NBC News

Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, founder of the Catholic TV powerhouse EWTN, died Sunday at age 92, the network confirmed Sunday night.

She succumbed about 5 p.m. (6 p.m. ET) in Hanceville, Alabama, to the aftereffects of a stroke she suffered many years ago, according to the network's Catholic News Agency.

Mother Angelica — born Rita Antoinette Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, in 1923 — began what would become the Eternal Word Television Network in Irondale, Alabama, in 1981 with $200 and 12 nuns and little television experience.

snip

EWTN said an invitation-only Mass of Christian Burial was scheduled for 11 a.m. (noon ET) Friday at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama, where Mother Angelica founded Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in 1999.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mother-angelica-founder-catholic-network-ewtn-dies-92-n546376

---

This was posted in the Catholic forum, but I thought it was a big enough story to post in Late Breaking News.

I had know about EWTN for years, but I had not known that Mother Angelica founded the network.

I think the funeral should be open to the public.

[Ex Lurker]

1. I thought she had died years ago

Had no idea she was still alive.

[erpowers]

4. Me Too

Until tonight I thought she had died years ago.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Me three!

Must have been someone else who passed that made the news.

[hrmjustin]

2. May she rest in peace and rise in glory!

[840high]

9. Amen.

[Gomez163]

3. My mom watched her every day for years. RIP.

She was a nice woman.

[Archae]

5. I had one major gripe with her.

She founded her network when she objected to a movie being broadcast.

And she demanded that "The Last Temptation Of Christ," the copies of the movie, negative, everything be destroyed.

Like I said after seeing part of it myself, ( I fell asleep watching the video,) if she and all those fundy would-be censors had just left it alone, it would have died on it's own. That's how shitty it was.

[AlbertCat]

10. She founded her network when she objected to a movie being broadcast.

Great! Founded on censorship! Well, what is one to expect?

[Nye Bevan]

14. Not good, but better than issuing a fatwa on the movie's producers (nt)

[Archae]

15. Back in the Middle Ages she would have gleefully done so.

[Nye Bevan]

16. DAMN THAT WOMAN for what she would have done in the Middle Ages

according to you.

[Archae]

17. She had a dictatorial streak.

She founded her network because another network aired a movie *SHE* didn't like.

She fought like hell to censor "The Last Temptation Of Christ."

She got her first "big break" thanks to Pat Robertson.

[No Vested Interest]

6. EWTN has been showing episodes of Mother Angelica's programs

filmed in the 1990's for many years.

There are some very interesting programs and some very bad programs on EWTN.
Like every other tv network, a remote control can be used whenever the program content is not to one's liking.

[mentalsolstice]

7. We almost bought a house adjacent to the EWTN campus on two sides.

My spouse and I are lapsed Catholics....however, that house would've been great, the EWTN campus is beautiful. We knew people who worked for the network, and we often see their nuns while shopping for groceries (they're the only ones in the area who still wear a full habit).

Mother Angelica was never our brand of Catholic. I was close to other nuns from different orders who didn't care for her or her views at all.

That said, may she rest in peace!

5,4,3,2,1....just waiting for the usual to come in and take a dump all over this thread.

[rpannier]

8. RIP

[LiberalElite]

12. Wow. I didn't know she founded that station -

I watched her program a few times, but probably never a whole show. I left the RC church decades ago, and she was a blast from my past.

[AngryOldDem]

13. I note her passing, but that's about all.

I can't follow the Catholicism that she and EWTN represent.

And I'm not sure why the funeral is invitation only, because the Shine (at least to me) seems to be fairly big. Maybe they're anticipating a lot of people showing up and are trying to get ahead of any problems. According to the website, the public may take part in the Mass outside in the piazza.

[Rhiannon12866]

18. Oh no! I used to be responsible for their TV listings as part of my job.

Mother Angelica was a staple there, though mostly in repeats. Very sad for the network, thanks for passing this on...