EWTN News

About EWTN News

EWTN News is the news service of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the global Catholic media network based in Irondale, Alabama. It produces a daily news service for television and radio, reporting on the Vatican, the Catholic Church worldwide, American politics and culture from a Catholic perspective. Its flagship television program, EWTN News Nightly, airs weeknights with reports from the White House, Capitol Hill and Rome, and the division fields one of the largest Vatican press contingents of any English-language news organization. EWTN's news operation also encompasses the Catholic News Agency wire service and the National Catholic Register newspaper, making it one of the most far-reaching Catholic newsgathering enterprises in the world. The network itself was founded by Mother Angelica in 1980 and began broadcasting in 1981 from a garage studio at her monastery in Irondale. The news service's home on the web is ewtnnews.com.

Mother Angelica's Founding Vision

EWTN was founded by Mother Angelica, a Poor Clare nun of Perpetual Adoration born Rita Antoinette Rizzo in 1923. She had founded the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama, in 1962, and in 1980 — inspired by what she saw as the power of television evangelism — she launched the Eternal Word Television Network from a garage studio on the monastery grounds. The network began broadcasting on August 15, 1981. Mother Angelica hosted her own live call-in program, Mother Angelica Live, until a major stroke and other health issues forced her retirement in September 2001; she lived a cloistered life at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama, until her death on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016, at the age of 92. Her entrepreneurial drive — she once raised money by selling fishing lures and roasted peanuts — built a network that now reaches more than 160 countries and territories.

From Garage Studio to Global Network

What began as a small local broadcasting effort became a global Catholic media network spanning television, radio, print, publishing and digital platforms. EWTN now operates 11 television channels broadcasting 24 hours a day in multiple languages, with Spanish-language programming available on all platforms. The network began daily rosary broadcasts in 1987 and daily televised Mass in 1991, and it started high-definition broadcasting on December 8, 2009. Its radio arm is a 24-hour network carried by about 350 AM and FM affiliates around the United States, plus SiriusXM satellite radio and shortwave broadcasts reaching listeners worldwide. Regular programming includes daily Mass, the rosary, catechetical and discussion programs for adults and children, and extensive coverage of papal visits, conclaves, World Youth Days and the installation Masses of bishops and cardinals. The network's headquarters remain at 5817 Old Leeds Road in Irondale.

Building the News Operation

As EWTN grew, it built a professional news department that produces a daily news service for both television and radio. The department's reporters and producers cover breaking Catholic news worldwide, Vatican affairs, U.S. politics as they touch Catholic life, and religious-liberty and pro-life issues. The newsroom's growth has been deliberate: rather than relying on wire copy, EWTN invested in its own correspondents in Washington, at the Vatican and at its Irondale headquarters. The division's reporting is distributed across the network's television channels, radio affiliates, websites and social platforms, and it is also carried by partner outlets. Under the leadership of Michael P. Warsaw — who also serves as a consultant to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communications — the news operation has become one of the most visible Catholic journalistic institutions in the English-speaking world.

EWTN News Nightly

The flagship of the television news operation is EWTN News Nightly, a daily news and analysis program airing weeknights at 6 and 9 p.m. Eastern. The program presents breaking Catholic news worldwide, top stories of the day, and daily reports from the White House, Capitol Hill and Rome. Its on-air team includes White House correspondent Owen Jensen, Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales and Vatican correspondent Colm Flynn. The program mixes hard-news reporting with analysis from a Catholic perspective, covering papal activities, Vatican announcements, congressional action on issues of concern to Catholics, and cultural stories with a faith dimension. Episodes stream on the network's digital platforms, and a daily email edition delivers the night's stories to subscribers' inboxes.

Vatican and Rome Reporting

One of EWTN News's defining strengths is its Vatican coverage. The news department maintains about 30 staff members covering the Vatican — a contingent that, according to published accounts, far outnumbers those of other English-language media outlets. Its Rome-based reporters cover papal audiences, synods of bishops, Vatican dicastery announcements, consistories and conclaves, providing English-language audiences with same-day reporting from the center of the Catholic world. The bureau's work is a staple of EWTN News Nightly and the network's special event coverage, which has included extensive reporting on papal transitions, World Youth Days on multiple continents and the canonizations of recent popes. For English-speaking Catholics, the Rome bureau has become a primary window on the Holy See.

Catholic News Agency and the National Catholic Register

EWTN's news division expanded significantly with two major acquisitions. In January 2011, the network acquired the National Catholic Register, the long-running Catholic newspaper, adding a print and digital publication with its own reporting staff to the news operation. It also acquired the Catholic News Agency (CNA), a wire service providing Catholic news to diocesan papers, websites and broadcasters. Together, the three brands — EWTN News, CNA and the Register — form an integrated newsgathering operation: CNA supplies wire-style copy to Catholic media outlets, the Register publishes in-depth reporting and commentary, and EWTN News delivers broadcast coverage. The acquisitions cemented EWTN's position as not just a broadcaster but a full-service Catholic news organization with print, wire and television arms.

Radio and Digital Platforms

EWTN News's radio service carries its reporting to the network's 24-hour radio operation, which reaches about 350 affiliates across the United States along with SiriusXM and shortwave listeners worldwide. Some radio programming is the audio of television shows, including EWTN News Nightly, and some is produced specifically for radio audiences. On the digital side, ewtnnews.com serves as the news division's online home, while EWTN.com ranks among the most-visited Catholic websites in the United States. The network streams its channels live and on demand, operates the EWTN+ streaming platform, and maintains active presences on YouTube and social media — where clips of Mother Angelica's classic programs continue to draw new audiences. News content is optimized for each platform, from full newscasts to short digital video segments.

Funding and Governance

EWTN is a nonprofit organization with trustees but no shareholders or owners. The network is funded overwhelmingly by viewer donations and describes itself as 100 percent viewer-supported, which keeps it free of secular and non-Catholic advertising. Mother Angelica coined its famous fundraising plea: "Please keep us between your gas and electric bill." That donor-funded model extends to the news operation, giving it an independence from commercial advertising pressures that is unusual in television news. The network's finances are overseen by its board, with Michael P. Warsaw as chairman and chief executive officer. The viewer-supported structure has sustained the network through more than four decades of growth without the ownership changes that have reshaped much of American religious broadcasting.

Editorial Identity

EWTN News reports from an explicitly Catholic perspective, and its editorial identity reflects the network's overall orientation. In the early 1990s, EWTN shifted toward producing more of its own programming, a move that marked a distinctly conservative turn: programs focused on social reform gave way to programs on doctrine and dialogue, and the daily televised Masses began incorporating Latin into the liturgy. The news division shares that traditional sensibility, covering Church teaching, the pro-life movement, religious liberty and Catholic culture with sympathy for orthodox positions. Critics in more progressive Catholic circles have sometimes faulted the network's tone; its supporters counter that it provides the straightforward Catholic journalism that its audience wants. The division's leaders present its perspective as transparent rather than hidden — news reported by Catholics, for Catholics, from within the Church's tradition.

A Global Catholic News Voice

From its Irondale studios, EWTN News now speaks to a global Catholic audience across 11 television channels, hundreds of radio affiliates, a wire service, a national newspaper and some of the most-trafficked Catholic digital properties in the world. Its Vatican bureau is among the largest English-language press operations in Rome; its Washington correspondents cover the intersection of faith and American public life; and its reporters travel to the Church's frontiers, from World Youth Day host cities to persecuted Christian communities. The network that Mother Angelica built with a garage studio and a fundraising slogan has become the largest Catholic media organization in the world — and its news service is the journalistic engine of that enterprise, telling the Catholic story to Catholics every day.