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Catholic World News News Feature

EWTN celebrates 25th anniversary August 12, 2006

The Eternal Word TV Network (EWTN), the worldwide radio-TV apostolate built by Mother Angelica, celebrates its 25th anniversary this weekend, with "Family Celebration" near the network headquarters in Alabama.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, will be the principal celebrant at a Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday, August 13. The weekend events will include presentations by EWTN hosts and prominent guests including Father Andrew Apostoli, Scott Hahn, Father John Corapi, and Bob and Penny Lord.

All of the weekend's events-- taking place in the Jefferson Event Center in Birmingham, Alabama-- are open to the public and free of charge, although seating may be limited. Further information is available in the EWTN web site. Launched in 1981, from the garage of a Poor Clare monastery, EWTN today is the world's largest religious broadcasting network, transmitting programming 24 hours a day to more than 105 million homes in 110 countries.

Mother Angelica, whose spiritual insight, feisty commentary, and infectious sense of humor made her own "Mother Angelica Live" program the most popular feature in the EWTN line-up, has retired after a severe stroke. But the network she founded continues to live by her credo, combining an unswerving adherence to the Catholic faith with a firm reliance on Divine Providence.

Having succeeded in building a radio-TV network that media magnates would envy, starting with nothing but enthusiasm and faith, Mother Angelica explained that her success was merely the result of God's generosity. Her own role, she said, was simply to follow His lead. In one of her characteristically pithy quotes, the EWTN founder said: "Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous."