Pope Benedict XVI has awarded EWTN foundress, Mother Mary Angelica, and Deacon Bill Steltemeier, Chairman of EWTN's Board of Governors, the Cross of Honor for distinguished service to the Church. The medal, officially known as "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice" (literally "For the Church and the Pope"), is the highest honor that the Pope can bestow upon laity and religious.
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The acknowledgement of Mother Angelica's work by the Pope is highly significant in light of high profile criticism that the EWTN foundress has sustained over her unwavering fidelity to the faith. Mother Angelica had to endure crushing criticism and even attempts to take over her station by various left-leaning Catholic bishops in the United States.
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Bishop Robert J. Baker of Birmingham conferred the awards in a brief ceremony following Sunday benediction at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. - Source
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H/T to PewsitterNews
An honor, well deserved!
ReplyDeleteI heart Mother Angelica 'cause she's a take no prisoner Italian. What's not to like...
ReplyDeleteAmen, amen, amen!
ReplyDeleteThanks be to God!
I'm here, blogging and ministering and a regular penitent largely because of Mother Angelica and her wonderful crew.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing the Holy Father at his masses, etc, which I'd never see if it weren't for EWTN.
ReplyDeleteMother Angelica has had the courage to do and to say the things that very few clerics and Bishops would...she's not perfect; but she's a woman of God and a daughter of the Church. May God bless her now and alwaysI
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