When Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) was launched on August 15, 1981, many felt there would be little demand for a Catholic network. In fact, when Mother Angelica, a cloistered nun, fulfilled a promise to our Lord in the early 1960s by founding Our Lady of Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama, she had no idea she would one day found the largest religious media network in the world.
Who could have imagined that a cloistered nun would found a global television network? Who could have predicted that a network funded entirely by donations from ”people in the pews” instead of advertising would become a global giant whose sole purpose is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ as proclaimed by the Catholic Church to a hurting world? Yet that is the story behind the EWTN Global Catholic Network.
Today, EWTN, which is now in its 36th year, transmits programming 24 hours a day to more than 265 million homes in 145 countries and territories on more than 5,000 cable systems, wireless cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), low power TV and individual satellite users.
Even though EWTN provides extensive satellite coverage, relatively few cable TV operators in Europe carry the Network as they consider that, in the highly secularized environment which prevails in Western Europe, Catholic religious programming would have a very limited following.
Such is the case in the Nordic countries where Christians of many traditions have been falling away from their faith. However, with many Catholic immigrants coming to live in the Nordic countries, and the increasing interest in Catholicism, the Saint Romfar Association was formed to provide a Swedish ”information hub” for making a selection of EWTN programs, subtitled in the Swedish language, available either by broadcast and/or through a coming EWTN website. It will be linked from here also.
The Association also plans to produce programs, news, interviews, and liturgy at the local level for viewers in Sweden, and in other countries, who want to know more about how Catholics in Sweden are living out their faith.
Today we have about $200, which just happens to be the exact amount with which Mother Angelica started. Our most urgent needs at the outset are for studio equipment and technical services. If you would like to help spread the Eternal Word in the spirit of Mother Angelica in this corner of our beautiful world, please consider sending in a contribution to the Saint Romfar Association today.
IBAN: SE46 6000 0000 0008 9955 2978
BIC: HANDSESS
Sankt Romfars Förening 