RIP Mother Angelica
  • “Mother Angelica succeeded at a task the nation’s bishops themselves couldn’t achieve,” Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who has served on EWTN’s board of governors since 1995, told the Catholic News Agency. “She founded and grew a network that appealed to everyday Catholics, understood their needs and fed their spirits. She had a lot of help, obviously, but that was part of her genius.”
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    I heard her speak at a conference in Louisville around 1990 or so, as best I remember. What I do remember is that it was one of the most powerful and moving talks I have heard. She was an incredible woman who achieved greatly. May her memory be eternal.
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    Agreed...Anybody know if she liked music?
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    She was a drum majorette in high school, so at least she had some exposure to music.
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    She also had some decent traditionalist leanings, including a strong love of Latin. It's not a coincidence the Masses on EWTN are, as a rule, celebrated well.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,946
    The monastery Masses were not always celebrated well, musically and aesthetically speaking, if the “60 Minutes” segment from 1984 is any indicator. The Masses were always ad orientem, which is what caused the flare-up with her bishop when she wanted to televise Masses. The priest can be seen doing the weird turn from the altar instead of properly elevating it. His chasuble is dated and ugly too.

    I have heard she wanted the 1967 Ordo Missae, but she was forced to adopt the Novus Ordo. I am kinda amazed by the news clip, to be honest.

    Are the nuns better at chanting? When the ICRSS came to visit in 2008, the chant was really weak... I have no idea what their office and conventual Mass is like nowadays.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    The community wasn't always "traditional" in style. In the 1980s, Mother Angelica and the nuns were influenced by the charismatic movement. She spoke at charismatic events around the country, and the movement's forms of prayer became part of the nuns' life too. A rather conservative friend of mine visited there to look at the community of friars she was founding, and he was discomfited to find charismatic nuns who wanted to lay hands on him and pray over him.

    The adoption of tradition-friendly attitudes came in the 1990s.
    Thanked by 2Liam eft94530
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    Also, the Charismatic movement was dogmatically and culturally conservative.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    Well, their ecclesiology, among other things, wasn't always so sure....
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,946
    Nor their liturgy as we are well aware.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    This is a personal quibble, but I always thought that the precentor at the community's daily masses had a very awkward voice.
  • The booklet for Mother Angelica's funeral is now posted.
    Thanked by 2Steve Q eft94530
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,946
    Not too shabby. It is pleasing they went with the Canon. My guess is the Martini was the De Profundis...? Fauré would have used the TLM text. I still think the Requiem Mass as a whole is preferable, but if I were there, I would not be unhappy...
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Interesting line break on the Psalm.