Book Review: Mother Angelica, by Raymond Arroyo

The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles.

Folks, I picked it up in the bookstore and was unable to put it down. Written by Raymond Arroyo, EWTN's news anchor, the book captures the life story of this remarkable woman and her cadre of nuns who, against seemingly insurmountable odds, built up the world's biggest Catholic multimedia network virtually from scratch. Through vivid prose and a sense of wonderment, Arroyo captures the key moments in Mother Angelica's life and the network's development, as well as the personalities of those who shaped it.

Arroyo's narrative became riveting as he "tells it like it is," particularly in his detailed history of the feud that developed between Mother Angelica and Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles, when the latter published in 1997 what seemed to be a weak take on the Real Presence of the Eucharist and introduced several innovations in the Liturgy that are not approved in the rubrics. Mother Angelica reproved him on live TV with a 15 second statement filled with doctrinal truth but lacking somewhat in canonical tact. Although the letter has been widely criticized by others, Cardinal Mahoney took it upon himself to single-out the old nun and bring EWTN to heel. The story of how he attempted to do this and how he has failed so far is quite fascinating and Arroyo is a good storyteller.

I'm not done with this book, but I can tell so far that it is a gripper. If you have a chance, get it!