The History of EWTN

As many of my readers might know I am a convert to the Catholic Church after dabbling in various other religions (see my articles on the Bahai religion) One of the major reasons I converted was my discovery of the Catholic cable channel EWTN and it's remarkable founder Mother Angelica. What follows is an informal history of EWTN and it's creation.

EWTN turned 25 last year on August 15. It's also a day of special significance in the Church calendar, the Feast of the Assumption (or Dormition, if you're an Orthodox Christian). It is also the day on which EWTN's foundress, Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, first entered a Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration convent in Cleveland, Ohio, near her home town of Canton (the home of the NFL Hall of Fame). The initials EWTN stand for Eternal Word Television Network (the Eternal Word being, of course, Jesus Christ). It is the only all-Catholic network on the air right now, at least on a national level. It is also America's most prominent religious network from any denomination. By way of contrast, by the time the US Council of Catholic Bishops realized it had to get its network on cable systems (as opposed to selling CTN-A directly to dioceses and individuals via satellite), Mother Angelica had beaten it to the punch. The irony is that Mother Angelica didn't start out as the arch conservative everyone thinks she is currently. She was born into a troubled home, with the name Rita Antoinette Rizzo, during the Roaring Twenties. A year later, Dad abandoned Rita and her mother Mae. Mae was emotionally troubled and volatile to begin with, and Rita and Mae became dysfunctionally close as Rita grew up.

Rita ended up living in poverty during her childhood. Mae started a number of dry-cleaning businesses, with varying degrees of success. Between the family's poverty and her parents' divorce (back when divorce was stigmatized), Rita grew up virtually alone. Recollections differ among the people Raymond Arroyo interviewed for Mother Angelica's biography; when Rita was a teen, she was seen as outgoing and bubbly by the peers Arroyo interviewed, but she herself felt all alone in the world.