Raymond Arroyo

Fawning in the extreme to make Rita Rizzo out to be saint, or soon to be venerated religious sister, this biography is more of a journalist take on the American Catholic church in general in the post-Vatican II era. Worth reading since it is more of a time capsule than serious Catholic biography, (more hagiography to be honest) this is one of the early works of this author who now spends his time writing YA fiction with his career on FOX news. He has worked at Mother Angelica’s media station for many years so you could say he owes his career to Mother Angelica. He has written other volumes about her since. Thus, he would be the perfect person to write this unauthorized book on her “accomplishments”. The book is tedious as we find out all the things which frustrated Mother Angelica. There are a lot of things on the list. In this book we find out there are only allies and enemies of Mother Angelica, who is sometimes referred to as the abbess. It’s a small world after all. There seems to have been some animosity between Mother Angelica and the Los Angeles archdiocese led by Cardinal Mahony at the time. Mother Angelica and others had founded a monastery for nuns in 1962. This is related to the Franciscan tradition which associates itself with Our Lady of the Angels chapel near Assisi where St Francs had a mystical experience which he unintentionally misinterpreted. Since 1924 Los Angeles has had a cloistered monastery called Monastery of the Angels founded by Dominican nuns. When Mahony decided to build a new cathedral and call it Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels that seemed to conflict with Mother Angelica’s namesake in Hanceville, Alabama. Mother Angelica seemed to have thought it distasteful to have anything in common with what Mahony was doing. The Los Angeles Cathedral was dedicated in 1997, but actually its name had been previously approved in 1945. Some more important issues regarding Los Angeles also come up in the book regarding teaching authority and jurisdiction of airwaves connected to the Catholic Church. Arroyo belongs to the Latin mass advocacy group which often relies on ephemeral elements to justify their preference over English language mass celebrations. Arroyo seems at times to claim his southern heritage and New Orleans Catholic ancestry.… (plus d'informations)