Faithful Catholics in the British Isles feel a deep sense of gratitude to Mother Angelica for beaming EWTN into our homes. Desperate to receive good-quality Catholic catechesis, authentic Catholic devotions and reliable news about the Church, many of us purchased satellite dishes and receivers to watch EWTN from St. Clare Media (the EWTN Global Catholic Television and Radio charitable foundation for Great Britain). After a diet of secular programming from the BBC and mainstream media, watching Mother Angelica and EWTN was like finding an oasis in a very barren desert. By providential design, God raised up great communicators of the faith — and EWTN brought wisdom, prayer and humor to our families.
By any standard, Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation is worthy to be numbered alongside other great communicators of the modern Catholic Church, such as Pope St. John Paul II, Venerable Fulton Sheen and Servant of God Father Patrick Peyton.
Mother Angelica met John Paul II on a number of occasions, when the Holy Father made known his personal admiration for Mother as a great communicator. Mother Angelica biographer and EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo relates Mother’s encounter with Pope John Paul II in 1996 in Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve and a Network of Miracles:
“Observing the crutches, the braces and the visible weakness of his plump daughter, he walked back to her. Placing one hand atop her veil, he drew a cross on her forehead with the other. ‘Mother Angelica, weak in body, strong in spirit,’ he said. ‘Charismatic woman, charismatic woman.’”
The Paradox of Silence
Mother Angelica, like John Paul II, confronts us with the paradox of being a charismatic communicator, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who was rendered speechless towards the end of life. John Paul II’s capacity to communicate was damaged by surgery to his throat in the last year of his life, and Mother Angelica lost the ability to speak as a consequence of a stroke in 2001.
After decades of speaking, addresses, writing and public appearances before millions of people, both John Paul II and Mother Angelica witnessed to the world a deeper dimension of communication — the silence of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Who can forget the images of Pope John Paul II praying before the Blessed Sacrament in the papal chapel on Good Friday, just before his death? And over the past 15 years, everyone associated with EWTN and her millions of fans worldwide have been aware that Mother had entered more deeply into this sacred dimension of communication — the soul in silent adoration before the Eucharistic presence of our Savior. The thousands of words Mother spoke and wrote were a precursor to the one word of silent love she spoke as a Poor Clare to her spouse, our Lord Jesus Christ.
