How much has watching EWTN influenced your Catholic point of view?

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father pacwa is most enlightening

i like father larry richards

but to keep showing over & over 80s & 90’s vintage Mother Angelica shows ? 😦
 
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There is nothing on EWTN that is not 100% Catholic. If either EWTN or Church teaching appears too conservative or political, then it is time to consider that you are too liberal or political. A very high percentage of us in the west (US and Europe mainly) are far more political than religious. Far more activist than spiritual. It shows. Liberal (i.e. dissident, unfaithful) Catholics tend to look down their noses at EWTN, a rather typical liberal/progressive/leftist behavior.

Not forgetting that the right has its own share of problems.
 
I’m Australian gc,and my parents and extended family have had EWTN for at least 15 years,so I’ve watched programmes here and there and also have been taught through what family have learnt.I need to get the dish on the roof slightly altered to pick up the free transmition again.
God bless.
 
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Mother Angelica turned more traditional in the 1990’s as she realized that there were grave issues in the US Catholic Church. Her switch to wearing the Roman style habit reflects this. EWTN has always tried to balance the modern with the traditional and orthodox. There is no doubt that it has had some influence on the Church, as has the Catholic Answers Live radio show.
 
goodcatholic said:
I don’t get EWTN where I live.
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Neither do I @goodcatholic .

I did get it installed for my mother about 2003 , but when my mother died and I moved house it did not come with me .

I was disappointed when I watched it . I was never aware of how the Catholic Church in America was divided until I watched EWTN , and I could not see how EWTN was doing things to foster unity in the American Catholic Church . On the contrary it seemed to be fostering the present disunity .

Also I found some of its reporting to be inaccurate .

EWTN seems to have become an alternative magisterium for some Catholics . 🙃
 
EWTN - today - isn’t what it used to be.

They need to have a “EWTN 2” - where they play the early day classics again !
 
po18guy said:
Catholics tend to look down their noses at EWTN, a rather typical liberal/progressive/leftist behavior.
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I can relate to your sentiment here, in the realm of secular politics. I don’t like some left wing activists/journalists looking down on a conservative view of the world, when their own view is coloured with privilege and utopian expectations. They demonise too easily.
 
But if Mother Anjelica is some kind of EWTN icon I have to put on a pedestal, I’d rather watch repeats of MASH.
 
I very much doubt that Mother Angelica would be happy to be put on a pedestal by anyone.

I don’t get EWTN on my normal telly package now, but I did enjoy it when I did. I liked being able to join in with the rosary and divine mercy recordings . The daily Mass was very useful to me too, and I have my favourite presiding priests. I always enjoy Wade Menezes when he does a week, for example.

I didn’t get along with The World Over and some of the news programming (although I enjoy Raymond Arroyo’s literary guests) because of the American focus, and sometimes there is a lack of precision in reporting about events and issues in other countries. I certainly noticed that on reports about the UK, so I have no reason to assume it’s any different for other countries, which is a shame, really.

I have to say I’m always perplexed by the ongoing adversarial relationship between some Catholics and a perception that something is ‘conservative’. It’s always seemed to me that Catholicism is inextricably tied to conserving the faith. Not sure why that is controversial.
 
goodcatholic said:
But if Mother Anjelica is some kind of EWTN icon I have to put on a pedestal, I’d rather watch repeats of MASH.
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What’s wrong with Mother Angelica? Why do you think you have to put her on a pedestal?
 
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It has not influenced me. I always disliked EWTN–I found it “not intellectual” to the extreme, and some of the shows were a downright embarrassment in this regard. Never liked Mother Angelica. I did like and often still promote The Journey Home as a clear exception to this opinion.
I haven’t watched EWTN in a long time, though, as I don’t watch TV at all anymore. Perhaps it is better now. I hope so.
 
Rob2 said:
I was never aware of how the Catholic Church in America was divided until I watched EWTN
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I don’t think you should make assumptions about “The Catholic Church in America” from watching EWTN or reading any media, including this forum.
All media plays up the alleged “division” in a big way.
The average Joe Pewsitter in the Catholic Church in USA isn’t an activist and isn’t taking a side, except that a lot of those who regularly practice their faith are strongly anti-abortion. That’s about the only issue that ordinary Catholics might get fired up over.
Everything else they tend to just resolve on a personal level, talk to a priest if they need to, change to a different parish if they don’t like the way Mass is being said where they are, but for the most part they aren’t going out and aligning with a “progressive church” or a “conservative church”.

The USA is and has always been a highly individualized place, where you can have a whole lot of people doing the same thing (like being a Catholic) but how they go about doing that thing is going to vary a lot by individual person. It’s normal for it to be that way, especially since the Catholic church doesn’t police your individual behavior unless you are causing some big visible public scandal.
 
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The ordinary Catholic doesn’t care about either of these issues enough to get excited over them, with the exception of those persons who are personally impacted by being gay or having a gay family member/ close friend. I know plenty of ordinary Catholics who have an opinion one way or the other on these topics (including myself) but it doesn’t have much to do with our faith practice day to day as it’s not something we can control. We don’t get to vote on the Church policies or elect a bishop who agrees with us, so we can have an opinion from now till doomsday and it matters not.
 
I listened to EWTN on the radio for a long time now (we didn’t get cable until recently).

I started listening because I found it flipping through stations one day. Our extended family had just gone through an absolutely horrible experience, and things were said and sides were chosen and there was a lot of anger and hurt to go around.
So anyway, the subject on EWTN was about forgiveness, and I listened and liked it. And by the grace of God, every time I tuned in for several weeks afterwards, there was somebody, on some show, talking about forgiveness.
It was so appropriate and exactly what I needed and I’ve been listening ever since.

I usually get “fed”
 
Scripture and Tradition influence my Catholic Faith. EWTN reinforces.

One of the best quotes I heard in response to the current crisis is this…

And so, once again because of the pressure of lawsuits and the press, the bishops are talking about “developing new policies” that would apply to bishops. As a colleague at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, has said: “Isn’t it clear enough from the Gospel that covering up immoral behavior is itself wicked? Why do we need new policies when the teaching of Jesus and the apostles is so clear?” Can the words of the Old Testament prophets and Jesus Himself against false shepherds be any clearer or more devastating? (See Jeremiah 23:1-6; Matthew 23, etc.)
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s interesting how Mother Angelica, who by her own statement was never interested in marriage or kids of her own because her own homelife had been so dysfunctional, ended up being the spiritual mother to a whole bunch of people.
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Yes, a spiritual mother indeed. I remember in the mid 1990’s an entire episode in which she sat and taught the Anima Christi prayer. I had never heard of it before and she patiently explained what it all meant and how to say it. It was during a very hard time in my life and was food to me, a spiritually starving person.

This was before Internet forums and Catholic radio and Scott Hahn books existed, so she was my only source of Catholic education, hence my gratitude.
 
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