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Revision as of 09:38, 19 October 2005 by Everyking (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Mother Angelica (1923-) is an American religious figure.
Born on April 20, 1923 in Canton, Ohio, as Rita Antoinette Rizzo was the only child of John and Mae Rizzo, who divorced in 1929. Her childhood was marred by poverty and unhappiness as she grew up during the Great Depression. Her father abandoned the family when she was very young, and her mother struggled with chronic depression and poverty.
Rita became a nun in the Poor Clares in 1944 against her mother's wishes, although, ironically, some years later, (according to the Internet Movie Database) Rita's mother, Mae G. Rizzo, became a nun herself just as Rita became a Mother Superior. Thus, Rita called her biological mother "Sister", and her biological mother called her "Mother".
Mother Angelica created the Eternal Word Television Network (aka EWTN) in 1981, and it has become a powerful voice for orthodox Roman Catholics, despite its location in the not-particularly Catholic state of Alabama in the Bible Belt of the Deep South, which redoubled under the last papacy (of Pope John Paul II). She was frequently seen on the network teaching or taking questions from viewers via telephone.
Mother Angelica has had controversial feuds with members of the Catholic hierarchy. Most famous is the feud over a pastoral letter written by Roger Cardinal Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles over teachings surrounding the Eucharist and the liturgy. She is noted for her pudgy face, large eyeglasses and gruff style of preaching, and has frequently been parodied and caricatured, including receiving prank phone calls on the air from Howard Stern cohort Captain Janks.
Mother Angelica has reportedly suffered some health setbacks now that she is 82 years old, but she has stabilized according to sources close to her. She is based at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama near Birmingham.
Trivia
- Time Magazine once described Mother Angelica as one of the most influential Roman Catholic women in America.