I have no comment on the death of Mother Angelica, yesterday, except to say that I was not a fan of her cable and radio network. I certainly didn't agree with her on many if not most things. She was certainly not as malignant a figure as Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson or, I would argue, Bishop Sheen. Still, there were a number of reasons that even the conservative U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops broke with her.
I hope there is a long period before any cause for her canonization is taken up but I would imagine her fans will push it hard.
I didn't care for her religious stance, didn't even know she founded EWTN, but I found myself drawn into watching her and a number of other shows on the network from time to time. And odd experience for a Quaker, although my parents sent me to all sorts of other churches as a lad so I could understand different perspectives.
ReplyDeleteI had one second cousin who watched her cable channel and was obviously influenced by her, wouldn't take communion in the hand, hated the changes that came with Vatican II. That was pretty much all of the influence she had on her. I don't know any other Catholics who watched her but there must have been a lot who did. The bishops dropped having a relationship with her when it became clear she was way too reactionary even for them, most of them appointed by JPII, at that time. She was a bit of a bully but she kept most of her bullying to things like complaining about internal church matters.
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