Baldwin has more Catholics than anywhere else in Alabama

Baldwin has more Catholics than anywhere else in Alabama
Avondale is home to largest Catholic media network in the world

Baldwin County, at 13.6 percent, has the most number of residents who affiliate as Catholic, according to a 2020 survey from the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. Mobile, at 10.7 percent, was second.
The estimated 250,000 Catholics in Alabama lost their spiritual leader with the death of Pope Francis on April 21. The pope died within 24 hours of celebrating Easter publicly at St. Peter’s Square.
“He was a remarkable leader who devoted his life to service of God and neighbor. He was constant in urging the nations of the world to strive for peace,” Archbishop Thomas Rodi of Mobile said in a released statement following the Pope’s passing.
Alabama is also home to EWTN Global, the world’s largest Catholic TV network, which has been extensively covering the pope’s life and ministry and will carry the Holy Father’s funeral Mass live on YouTube, and its app and digital platforms. Info: ewtn.com.
The EWTN Global Catholic Network, founded by Mother Angelica at Our Lady of Angels Monastery in Irondale in 1980, began broadcasting on August 15, 1981, as a satellite television station in Avondale. It has grown to become the world’s largest Catholic media organization, reaching 145 countries and territories with 24/7 programming. The network is entirely funded by viewer contributions.
Armed with only a high school education, $200, and 12 cloistered nuns with no television experience, Mother proceeded to turn the monastery garage into a television studio. EWTN received its FCC license on Jan. 27, 1981, making it the first Catholic satellite television station in the United States. A few months later, on Aug. 15, 1981, EWTN began broadcasting four hours a day to 60,000 homes.
Mother hosted the popular and still running EWTN television show, “Mother Angelica Live,” and founded the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, a religious community of men based in Irondale.
In 1995, Mother Angelica was inspired to build Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in rural Hanceville, to which her order relocated in December 1999.
On Christmas Eve 2001, Mother Angelica suffered a debilitating stroke which left her unable to speak. She died on Easter Sunday 2016, but her great faith continues to inspire millions around the world.
The Network continues to grow: From the original four hours of broadcasting a day to 24 hours a day; from pre-taped programs only to live programs in the U.S. and around the world; from one network in English to 11 networks broadcasting in multiple languages; from radio services transmitted domestically and internationally to the largest Catholic website in the U.S; from 60,000 homes to more than 435 million homes in more than 160 countries and territories; from a series of small pamphlets to electronic and print news services.
Mother Angelica wrote a letter to Archbishop Toolen, bishop of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham, in Jan. 1957 asking if he would allow her to build a cloistered community in his diocese. Archbishop Toolen said yes, and the seeds of an apostolate were planted.
Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, from which EWTN would spring, had its share of start-up problems. Despite Archbishop Toolen’s approval, it was five years before Rome granted Mother Angelica permission to establish an Alabama Foundation. Archbishop Toolen broke ground for the monastery, built on 15 beautiful acres of mountainside in the city of Irondale, on July 24, 1961.
In those days, only 2 percent of the population was Catholic, and not everyone was happy about the new monastery. The nuns were shot at, the monastery site vandalized every Saturday, and the project was plagued with costly overruns. But the general population eventually embraced it.
The new monastery was dedicated on May 20, 1962, and Mother immediately began giving speeches in its parlor. In 1969, Rome gave Mother permission to continue her parlor talks as a missionary activity. The talks were taped and sold and she began to speak to Catholic groups outside the cloister, record a radio program, and publish mini-books that would eventually be printed on her own printing press and distributed throughout the country by a group of dedicated lay people when only a few before, the sisters sold fishing lures and roasted peanuts to support themselves.
Mother’s first foray into television was a 60-part series for the Christian Broadcast Network, filmed from May to August 1978. But when she discovered that the station where she was filming her second series planned to air a blasphemous movie, she threatened to pull out.
The station manager told that her television work would end without his facilities. Mother told him she’d build her own studio. The station manager said she couldn’t do it.
Mother said: “You just watch me!”