Arroyo, Raymond. New York: Doubleday Books, 2005. 384 pages, $33.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-385-51092-6.
[1] Mother Angelica accomplished
what the American Catholic hierarchy failed to do; she built the largest
religious television network in the world (EWTN, the Eternal Word Television
Network), which broadcasts around the clock (in English and Spanish), on
television, the Internet, and on AM and FM radio stations. Now, in the network’s
twenty-fifth year of broadcasting, EWTN news anchor Raymond Arroyo has
published an unofficial biography of Mother Angelica and the founding of the
network.
[2] Born Rita Rizzo in a rough
Italian neighborhood in Depression era Canton, Ohio, Mother Angelica developed
“ a thick skin and the ability to hold firm in times of adversity” (56).
Singled out by the nuns because of her parents divorce, Angelica graduate from
public high school without distinction and decided to join the contemplative
Poor Clare nuns in Cleveland to escape her dependent mother, who would
eventually join her in the order. Because of the rigid penitential practices of
the order and her own poor health, life was not easy for the young nun.
However, she persisted, initially feeling called by God to build a monastery in
the South for members of the African-American community.
[3] Arroyo spins a very readable
rags-to-riches tale, filling the book with colourful anecdotes that are
especially intriguing as Arroyo records the difficulties in the development of
Mother Angelica’s television network. At one point, she had a run-in with
Cardinal Mahoney (of Los Angeles) and was threatened with expulsion from her
order because of her frequent travel habits. More recently, Mother Angelica was
able to avoid sanction by stepping down as head of the network, placing it
entirely in the hands of a lay board. Arroyo’s biases are clear; he
characterizes Mother Angelica as the humble nun who places blind trust in God,
an agent of the will of God, and the bishops as “crazy” “grousing to
reporters,” throwing “snits” and “raising a fuss.” Arroyo
acknowledges Mother Angelica’s stubborn fits, but places them in a context that
makes Angelica all the more human. In fact, in many ways Arroyo’s account reads like a traditional
hagiography, from the child Jesus running down the halls of Mother Angelica’s
new $50 million shrine/monastery, to donors coming to her rescue at the last
minute as bill collectors are at the door.
[5] As a whole, this biography reflects
the changing currents of religious life in the Catholic Church over the last
fifty years. Readers see, for example, how Mother Angelica chooses to take a
more conservative stand toward liturgy, moral issues, and religious life, and
her own nuns return to the traditional garb after years of experimentation. It
is ironic that this woman who stood up against the Catholic bishops took a more
conservative stance regarding the role of women in the Catholic Church. And yet, John Paul II was an object of
admiration for her, and she built bridges among a divided Catholic hierarchy.
[6] Arroyo’s biography is a
fascinating study of a religious marketing campaign. Mother Angelica built her Alabama monastery by selling “St.
Peter’s Fishing Lures.” Her business gained momentum when newspapers and a 1961
article in Sports Illustrated publicized
her quest. Early on she appealed to her loyal following as “Dear Family.” She
established a Catholic Missionary Alliance to distribute her mini-books that
contained her Bible lessons and promoted her new network. Her program Mother
Angelica Live brought her into many homes,
and she spoke spontaneously before a live audience, asking them to remember to
put EWTN between the electric and gas bill. In 2001, Mother Angelica suffered a
stroke that silenced her; nonetheless, reruns of her programs are still
televised on her network, and she can still be seen on a program with the nuns
praying the rosary in her cloister-shrine dedicated to the infant Jesus. Her
network continues to speak for a more traditional Catholicism.
Christopher Lynch
Kean University
clynch@cougar.kean.edu
