Mother Angelica, founder of Eternal Word Television Network, pictured in an undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy EWTN)
Written by Andrew Rabel
3rd November 2025
The 15 August 2025 marked 44 years since a Poor Clare cloistered nun in Irondale, Alabama flicked the switch for the beginning of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), in the heart of the Protestant Bible Belt, where the percentage of Catholics was only a few per cent. Yet she succeeded far more in this burgeoning area of satellite religious television, where the highest authorities in the Vatican could not, and even from well financed Protestant competitors.
When historians reflect on the tumultuous years after the Second Vatican Council, one figure stands out for her extraordinary audacity: Mother Angelica, who built the largest religious media empire in the world. She was not the model many progressive Catholics looked to in the 1970s and 1980s—those who pushed for women’s ordination, liberation theology, or feminist reforms in the Church. Yet paradoxically, the only woman in the United States who ever stood her ground against the bishops and won was a traditional, habit-wearing nun who spoke in plain, uncompromising terms. When she started out, Mother Angelica wore a modified habit, but in 1993, went back to her order’s traditional habits, as if to increase the optics of her fidelity to Rome, which was increasingly the theme of so many of the programs on the network.
The Bishops and Their Own Network
By the early 1980s, the U.S. bishops were uneasy with the reach and independence of EWTN. They dreamed of their own centralized, professionally managed broadcast network—something they could oversee, and through which they could guide Catholic programming in a more “controlled” fashion. Thus was born the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America (CTNA), launched in 1982.
Yet, the bishops quickly discovered that running a national television network was expensive, bureaucratic, and politically fraught. Meanwhile, Mother Angelica’s EWTN—operating on donations and the fierce will of its foundress—was growing rapidly, drawing ordinary Catholics who were hungry for accessible, orthodox content.
At meetings of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, there were heated discussions: should the bishops partner with EWTN, or should they pour resources into CTNA and maintain independence from a nun they could not control? At one point, Mother offered them a generous compromise: one free hour of airtime a week on EWTN for official episcopal programming. Many bishops appreciated the gesture; others considered it inadequate, even presumptuous.
The 1987 Papal Visit: A Moment of Unity
The defining moment of collaboration came in 1987, when Pope John Paul II made an extended pastoral visit to the United States. Both networks realized they could not afford to duplicate resources, so—for the first and only time—EWTN and CTNA joined forces to provide coverage.
In a striking image of unity, Mother Angelica and Fr. Robert Bonnot, then a key figure in CTNA, appeared together as anchors. The arrangement symbolized what could have been: a partnership between the bishops and the nun who had tapped into the Catholic grassroots. Their joint commentary during the papal visit was widely viewed and admired, and the effort showed the potential power of Catholic media when united.
But beneath the surface, tensions simmered. The bishops still resented being dependent on a cloistered nun’s network, while Mother Angelica increasingly viewed CTNA as bloated, bureaucratic, and spiritually uninspiring.
Male Authority vs. a “Feisty” Nun
The conflict was never just about media. It was also a clash of personalities, cultures, and even gender. Some bishops and curial officials were unaccustomed—if not outright uncomfortable—with a nun who spoke bluntly, challenged their authority, and built something outside their control. Mother could be bossy and unyielding, qualities many male prelates found “unbecoming” of a religious woman.
The irony, of course, was that while many sisters in the post-Vatican II era were pursuing feminist agendas, writing manifestos, and demanding ordination, the one woman who actually succeeded in defying the male hierarchy was Mother Angelica—who opposed all those feminist projects and insisted on traditional Catholic teaching.
One bishop once tried to intimidate her by sneering, “You won’t be on the air forever.”
Mother, never one to be cowed, shot back: “I’d rather blow the damn network up than let you get your hands on it.”That exchange epitomized the struggle: the bishops assumed institutional authority would eventually tame her, but Mother was willing to risk everything rather than surrender her independence.
Rome Watches
From Rome, the drama did not go unnoticed. John Paul II marvelled quietly at Mother’s thriving apostolate. He never intervened directly in her disputes with the U.S. bishops, but his personal encouragement to her and public gestures—such as warmly acknowledging her work when they met—gave her confidence. Some cardinals, including Francis Arinze, even appeared on her network, lending EWTN a credibility CTNA could not match.
Still, other Vatican officials rolled their eyes. (An interesting example being Archbishop John Foley, the fellow American who headed the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, and often narrated broadcasts from the Vatican, like Christmas and Easter). They found her too feisty, too brash, too willing to embarrass bishops in public. Yet she never lost her sense of mission: evangelization came first, and diplomacy came a distant second.
The Fall of CTNA & Denver
By the early 1990s, the strain became too much. Mother formally cut ties with CTNA, ending the uneasy collaboration. EWTN surged ahead in viewership and loyalty, while CTNA withered under the weight of bureaucracy and debt. In 1994, CTNA officially folded.
The bishops had tried to build their own Catholic media empire—but in the end, it was the Poor Clare nun in Alabama, with her fiery tongue and unshakable faith, who triumphed. During World Youth Day in Denver in 1993, during a para liturgical ceremony, where a young woman played Jesus in the Stations of the Cross, this caused Mother Angelica to launch a tirade against the state of the Church saying, “I am so tired of you liberal Church in America”, to much criticism from some elements of the Catholic hierarchy. It seemed to symbolize the polarisation between orthodox and progressive forces inside the US Catholic Church. But her one woman show in Denver, succeeded in obtaining 200 new affiliates for the network. Mother Angelica had become the voice for disaffected Catholics, who so often felt they were on the margins.
Epilogue
When she passed away in 2016, EWTN had a worldwide shortwave radio network, a massive presence on the Internet, and even had acquired several Catholic newspapers. Mother Angelica had been called by one commentator, “the most influential Catholic woman in America”. Secular criticism of the Church often revolved around the lack of participation by women in Catholic life, but Mother Angelica proved quite the opposite of that. No other Christian religious denominations or even other religions, could boast of a Mother Teresa, or Mother Angelica, as both women had a global following.
