Birmingham, Ala., Aug 10, 2006 / 22:00 pm

This weekend Catholic media giant, EWTN, will celebrate the last of a handful of events surrounding its 25th anniversary of service to the Church.  The affair will take place at Birmingham, Alabama’s Jefferson Event Center.

The “Grand Finale” celebration will include talks from speakers such as Fr. Andrew Apostoli and Dr. Scott Hahn and will culminate in a Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family.  The events are free to the public.

The global Catholic media network, which now reaches 127 countries and more than 118 million households, began with the vision of a single nun.  

Mother Angelica originally began taping programs for other Christian networks, but soon learned that each episode would air just one time and then be shelved. Mother became convinced that a constant Catholic presence on the airwaves was necessary.

In 1981, Mother Angelica began the network out of the garage of her monetary.  She soon purchased a plot of land with money gained from the sale of fishing lures and began transmitting Catholic programs 4 hours per day to 60,000 homes.  

Despite a lack of funding for much of its history, Mother Angelica moved EWTN constantly forward, relying she says, on divine providence.  Before founding EWTN, Mother established a convent of cloistered sisters who pray constantly for the ministry of EWTN.  Mother Angelica attributes much of the network’s success to their prayers.  

Today the network includes satellite broadcast television services, internet sites, and a radio station.  Its website says that it is the largest religious media network in the world.

It’s hard to measure the impact EWTN has had and continues to have on the world.  However, Mother Angelica says, “its not what we’ve done, but how we’ve done it.” – with prayer and faithfulness to the Church, trusting in the providence of God.  “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous,” Mother has said, “God will not do the miraculous.”


For more information, visit the EWTN website at www.ewtn.com.