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EWTN
HeadquartersIrondale, Alabama, United States

The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American cable television network which presents Catholic-themed programming. It was founded in 1980 by Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, PCPA (born Rita Antoinette Rizzo). EWTN received its license from the Federal Communications Commission on January 27, 1981[1] and began broadcasting on August 15, 1981 from a garage at the Our Lady of the Angels monastery in Irondale, Alabama.

Initially offering four hours of programming per day, EWTN began broadcasting around the clock in 1987. Shortwave radio station WEWN was established in 1992, and, in 1996, they began broadcasting on AM/FM radio. EWTN also has a presence on Sirius Satellite Radio and offers Spanish broadcasts on all platforms. High-definition broadcasts began on December 8, 2009.[2]

In addition to regular programs such as a daily Mass and a daily praying of the Rosary, EWTN presents a variety of daily and weekly news, talk, and educational shows for adults and children. When necessary, special programming is also presented. Most recently, for instance, EWTN covered the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Mother Angelica herself hosted her own show, Mother Angelica Live, but a series of health issues (most notably a severe stroke in 2001), forced her to give it up. Aged 88, she currently resides at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama and rarely appears on television in new programming. Reruns of her live show now air as Mother Angelica Live Classics and The Best of Mother Angelica Live. She leads other nuns of her order in the taped daily praying of the rosary.

EWTN is a member of the World Catholic Association for Communication.[3][4] In January 2011, EWTN acquired the National Catholic Register, a newspaper founded in Denver, Colorado in 1924 as a periodical for local Catholics; it became a national publication three years later. EWTN officially assumed total control on February 1.[5]

EWTN has occasionally been the subject of criticism for its social, political and theological positions. Notably, in 2008, the Holy See sent an Apostolic visitor to the network to investigate claims. Believing that it could possibly endanger the network's independence, Mother Angelica turned EWTN over to a board of governors comprised exclusively of lay people.[6] While the network has trustees, it does not have shareholders or owners. A majority of the network's funding is from viewer donations. Its traditional plea to donors is, "Remember to keep us between your gas and electric bill". The current president is Michael P. Warsaw[7]

Development of EWTN

EWTN's main studio.

During the 1970s, Mother Angelica had been a lecturer and produced educational audio and video tapes. She had been a guest on local station WBMG (formerly WIAT), and on shows on the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. After she gave an interview on then-Christian station WCFC TV 38 in Chicago, she decided she wanted her own network: "I walked in, and it was just a little studio, and I remember standing in the doorway and thinking, 'it doesn't take much to reach the masses'. I just stood there and said to the Lord, 'Lord, I've got to have one of these'".[8]

Mother Angelica purchased satellite space and EWTN began broadcasting on August 15, 1981 with four hours of daily programming, which included her own show, Mother Angelica Live (aired two nights a week), a Sunday Mass, and reruns of older Catholic programs such as Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's Life Is Worth Living. The remainder of the time was filled with shows produced by dioceses across the country, shows from Protestant sources which Mother Angelica determined were in concert with Catholic principles, and children's shows such as Joy Junction and The Sunshine Factory. About one-third of programming time consisted of secular content, such as re-runs of The Bill Cosby Show, public domain films, and cooking and western-themed shows. ETWN eventually expanded to 6 hours a day and then to 8 hours a day by 1986.

Secular content was gradually reduced from 1986 to 1988, and satellite distribution was expanded late in 1987, whereupon EWTN began broadcasting around the clock when it acquired a far more desirable satellite channel. At this point, EWTN began broadcasting the praying of the rosary on a daily basis and added a number of educational shows. Production of original programming gradually increased. The Mass, which formerly aired on a weekly basis, became televised daily in 1991 from a chapel on the monastery grounds. By then most shows from non-Catholic sources had been gradually dropped and a more conservative image gradually developed.

Radio

Main article: WEWN

In 1992, EWTN established the largest privately owned shortwave radio station, WEWN, in the Birmingham area. In 2004, EWTN announced an agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio (which has since merged with XM Radio to become Sirius XM Radio).

News

The EWTN news department produces a daily news service for television and radio, featuring news sources including Vatican Radio. They also produce The World Over Live, which covers relevant current events. It is hosted by journalist and author Raymond Arroyo (who is also EWTN's news director). The program is conservative in its political orientation and generally conservative in its religious orientation. Notable guests have included Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, author and activist George Weigel, political commentator Laura Ingraham, conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan, and the late columnist and commentator Robert Novak, a Jewish convert to Catholicism.

History of programming

File:Mother angelica screenshot.jpg
EWTN's Founder, Mother Angelica

In its early history, EWTN broadcast Catholic-produced programming from a wide variety of Catholic sources. This ranged from Catholic charismatic programming such as Fr. Michael Manning, to shows focusing on social reform and social justice, such as Christopher Closeup, to doctrinal teaching shows hosted by various clergy.

In the early 1990s, EWTN began producing more of its own shows. This marked a distinctive conservative shift in the network's overall orientation, with programs featuring topics on social reform and justice gradually being phased out and replaced with general doctrinal teaching and discussion programs. This shift was apparent in the daily televised Masses, which, in 1992, began incorporating Latin into the liturgy and gradually no longer featuring contemporary music. Some non televised masses are in all English. On Christmas Eve 1993, Mother Angelica and the nuns of her order reverted to traditional habits.

EWTN has programs discussing non-Catholic beliefs from the Catholic perspective, such as The Journey Home. Guests are generally former Protestants or "cradle Catholics" who left the Catholic faith and later returned. Former adherents of non-Christian faiths such as Judaism and former atheists have occasionally appeared.

Sunday Night Live with Fr. Benedict Groeschel (who has worked with EWTN since their beginning) hosts religious discussions. Viewers' questions can be answered from both a spiritual and a psychological perspective; in addition to being a priest, Fr. Groeschel is also a trained psychologist. As of March 2011, due to format changes, the program has been renamed "Sunday Night Prime."

EWTN HD, a high definition simulcast of EWTN, became available to affiliates on December 8, 2009. CEO Michael P. Warsaw said "We chose to launch HD in December so we could bring our viewers all the beautiful images of the Christmas season using the most advanced technology. We are proud to say that we are the only Catholic television network available in this format."[9] The HD feed first became available to Comcast customers in Richmond, VA and vicinity on May 11, 2010.[10]

Often, EWTN airs special programming: coverage of the deaths of popes; papal conclaves, elections, inaugurations and visits; Easter, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day Masses; the installations of bishops, archbishops, and cardinals; and World Youth Day.

Criticisms and controversy

In one notable incident, in an episode of Mother Angelica Live, Mother Angelica harshly criticized a presentation of a mimed re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross at the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado in which a woman played Jesus. It was viewed by Pope John Paul II. Archbishop Rembert Weakland of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee called Mother Angelica's comments "... one of the most disgraceful, un-Christian, offensive, and divisive diatribes I have ever heard".[11] Mother Angelica responded by saying, "He didn't think a woman playing Jesus was offensive? He can go put his head in the back toilet as far as I am concerned"![12]

In 1997, Mother Angelica also publicly criticized Roger Cardinal Mahony, then the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, for his pastoral letter on the Eucharist called "Gather Faithfully Together: A Guide for Sunday Mass", which she perceived had a lack of emphasis on transubstantiation.[13]: "I’m afraid my obedience in that diocese would be absolutely zero. And I hope everybody else’s in that diocese is zero".[14] She later issued a conditional, albeit reluctant, apology for her comments, which Cardinal Mahony regarded as heresy.[15]

In 1999, Bishop David Foley of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, Alabama issued a decree prohibiting priests in his diocese from celebrating Mass in the ad orientem ("to the east") style, with people and priest facing in the same direction under most circumstances.[16] Although the decree did not specifically mention EWTN, due to the phrasing of the decree, which stated: "...any Mass that is or will be televised for broadcast or videotaped for public dissemination". Supporters and critics alike, however, generally agreed that the decree was written with EWTN in mind. Bishop Foley stated that the practice of having the priest's back to the people "amounts to making a political statement and is dividing the people."[16] The network eventually complied with Bishop Foley's order.[17] As a result of this incident, the Holy See appointed an Apostolic Visitor, Archbishop Roberto González Nieves of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to investigate. Archbishop Gonzalez Nieves saw three distinct problems: the ownership of the network, the monastery's right to give property to EWTN, and, since she had never been elected, the legitimacy of Mother Angelica's authority.[18] To prevent the Holy See from making changes, Mother Angelica resigned her positions on the EWTN board and turned it completely over to lay people, which severed official connection with her monastery and assured that the management of EWTN were not directly dependent on the bishops or the Holy See.[19][20]

On January 1, 2006, a book critical of EWTN and Mother Angelica, EWTN: A Network Gone Wrong by Christopher A. Ferrara, was published. According to the book's promotional website,[21] "Basing itself on extensive evidence taken from EWTN’s own content, and comparing that content to the perennial belief and practice of the Church, the book shows that EWTN’s 'moderately Modernist' version of the Faith is precisely what St. Pius X had in view when he condemned Modernism in all its forms, including what His Holiness called 'the Modernist as reformer'". This book, though, makes innacurate statements such as EWTN being strictly pre Vatican 2. It also makes statements that EWTN advocated positions it never did. EWTN has never advocated a pre Vatican 2 traditionalist attitude. They have always been in union with Rome and are Novus Ordo, always have been.

Later that year it was revealed that a priest, Rev. Real Bourque, who admitted to sexually abusing children in Maine and Massachusetts in the 1970s and 1980s, was employed by EWTN from 1991 to 2002. Bourque's misconduct was first revealed in 1993. His order placed him in treatment and, after he completed it, Bourque was permitted to return to active duty. While at EWTN, Bourque led Masses and staff Bible studies and gave talks at retreats. However, he wasn't allowed on the air or to be around young people after 1995.

Viewership statistics

EWTN boasts that it has become the largest religious media network in the world. As of February 2008, its programming reached more than 146 million homes in 127 countries and 16 territories on more than 5,200 cable systems, wireless cable, direct broadcast satellite, low power television, and individual satellite users. A 1994 National Catholic Reporter cover story claimed EWTN employed 124 people and received annual donations totaling approximately $25 million, of which approximately $8.5 million goes toward operating expenses.[22]

Papal award

On October 4, 2009, Mother Angelica and Deacon Bill Steltemeier, the chairman of EWTN’s board of governors, were recipients of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (the Cross of Honor) by Pope Benedict XVI for distinguished service to the Catholic Church. Bishop Robert J. Baker of the Diocese of Birmingham conferred the awards.[23] In commenting on the award, Bishop Baker said the award is, "... a significant acknowledgment by our Holy Father, of Mother's labors of love in support of our Church. By giving awards the Church is not saying people or institutions are perfect, but we are saying that Mother Angelica, through this network, has made a significant contribution to the new evangelization heralded and promoted by recent Popes".[24]

Program titles

A partial listing of EWTN programs:

  • Mother Angelica Live Classics
  • Daily Mass
  • Life on the Rock
  • My Little Angels
  • We Are Catholic
  • The Carpenter's Shop
  • Adventures in Odyssey
  • The Joy of Music, starring concert organist Diane Bish
  • EWTN Live - Fr. Mitch Pacwa SJ
  • The Journey Home - Marcus Grodi
  • Pope Fiction - Patrick Madrid
  • Pequeño Jesús
  • Now That We Are Catholic
  • Jesus Christ - True God/True Man - Raymond D'Souza
  • The World Over Live - Raymond Arroyo
  • Web Of Faith - Fr. John Trigilio & Fr. Robert Levis
  • G. K. Chesterton: Apostle of Common Sense - Dale Ahlquist
  • Household Of Faith - Kristine Franklin & Rosalind Moss
  • The Abundant Life - Johnette Benkovic
  • Does The Church Still Teach This? - Fr. Shannon Collins FME
  • Sunday Night Live - Fr. Benedict Groeschel
  • Catholics Coming Home - Msgr. Frank E. Bognanno
  • Threshold Of Hope - Fr. Mitch Pacwa S.J.
  • Defending Life - Fr. Frank Pavone and Janet Morana
  • EWTN Bookmark - with Doug Keck
  • Catholicism on Campus - with Msgr. Stuart Swetland
  • Finding God Through Faith and Reaso' - with Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D
  • The Pure Life - with Jason and Crystallina Evert
  • Crash Course in Catholicism - with Fr. John Trigilio and Fr. Ken Brighenti
  • Father Corapi and the Catechism of the Catholic Church - with Fr. John Corapi
  • The Quest for Shakespeare - Joseph Pearce
  • Reasons For Our Hope - Rosalind Moss
  • Council of Faith: The Documents of Vatican II - Fr. John Trigilio
  • Council of Faith: The Post-Consiliar Documents - Fr. John Trigilio
  • Reclaiming Your Children For The Faith - Fr. Robert J. Fox
  • Super Saints - hosted by Bob and Penny Lord[25]
  • The Friar

See also

References

  1. ^ EWTN Press Room
  2. ^ EWTN To Be Made Available in HD - Prwire - Catholic Online
  3. ^ "Board of Management". SIGNIS. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  4. ^ "Members". SIGNIS. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  5. ^ National Catholic Register Acquired by EWTN | Daily News | NCRegister.com
  6. ^ EWTN in a nutshe: Question & Answer fact sheet
  7. ^ EWTN Press Room
  8. ^ Applebome, Peter (October 8, 1989). "Scandals Aside, TV Preachers Thrive". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ Multichannel News October 20, 2009 EWTN Plans HD Launch In December - Global Catholic Net Says Feed Will Be Available to Affiliates Dec. 8
  10. ^ EWTN HD Launches on Comcast in Richmond Area
  11. ^ Archbishop Weakland calls Mother Angelica's statements 'disgraceful.' - Aug 14, 1993 telecast denouncing Catholic liberalism | National Catholic Reporter | Find Articles at BNET
  12. ^ Raymond Arroyo, Mother Angelica: the Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve and a Network of Miracles. (pp. 243-244)
  13. ^ St. Thomas Aquinas
  14. ^ Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Liturgical confusion-criticism over a pastoral letter Editorial, Commonweal, January 30, 1998
  15. ^ John L. Allen, Jr. Mahony sees nun's critique as heresy charge-Cardinal Roger Mahony; dispute with televangelist Mother M. Angelica, National Catholic Reporter, Dec 5, 1997.
  16. ^ a b John L. Allen, Jr. EWTN's bishop says priests must face the people-Eternal Word Television Network-Brief Article, National Catholic Reporter November 19, 1999.
  17. ^ Msgr. Guido Marini, Papal Master of Ceremonies, quoted in Pope celebrates Mass ad orientem, speaks on Baptism, Catholic World News, January 14, 2008.
  18. ^ Mother Angelica: The remarkable story of a nun, her nerve and a network of miricles. - Free Online Library
  19. ^ Mother Angelica: The remarkable story of a nun, her nerve and a network of miracles
  20. ^ article by Robert Sungenis
  21. ^ St. Thomas Aquinas
  22. ^ Raymond A. Schroth Angelica, EWTN push Disneyland church: smiles hide anger, yen for the old certainties Cover Story, National Catholic Reporter, July 15, 1994.
  23. ^ Mother Angelica Receives Papal Cross of Honor by EWTN News | articles on 4marks
  24. ^ Mother Angelica Awarded Top Honor by Pope Benedict XVI
  25. ^ EWTN.com
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