By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

This is the first of a two-part series on the Church and Cable Television. Part 2 will appear in the next issue of the Georgia Bulletin on July 1.

She was the very first.

The little nun with the brown Franciscan habit and the eyes twinkling like stars, was the first Catholic to boldly open her own television network.

That's right. The word we use is "network." Mother Angelica, in her tiny Poor Clare convent and studio in Birmingham, Alabama, is not merely broadcasting religious shows on local television, she is broadcasting to the nation. Her Eternal Word Television Network is a smaller edition of Ted Turner Productions.

"Who is this Mother Angelica anyway?" asks Terry McGuirk, the special projects man for Turner Broadcasting. "Everywhere I go around the country to cable meetings, I hear that name. I can't believe what she has done."

The rest of the broadcast world is in the same kind of shock. It is true that this is the age of the Cable Networks. All over America, homes are being wired for the new television craze called Cable.

"Cable is really closed-circuit television," says Terry McGuirk. "It is not sent out over the air waves, like the three networks are or your local station is. Cable is sent out through wires. It is private, if you like, and if you want it, you have to pay for it."

Presently only 30 percent of the homes in the nation are wired for cable. However, by 1990, 75 percent of the nation will be wired. "Just about everyone wants this new system," says McGuirk from his plush office down the hall from the famous "Ted." "By the end of this century everyone will need it."

McGuirk is just echoing what the experts have been saying about cable for some years. "The economy is not going to allow us to drive our cars to the bank just to deposit 25 dollars," says Terry McGuirk. "Energy is just too costly. We will do it from our homes by cable. We will shop, use the library, go to school, and more."

"Ted Turner is already saying," continues the tall, handsome executive, "that newspapers are almost obsolete. They are just too expensive. With the flick of a switch, we can bring them to you on cable. In fact, if you have Cable News Network one or two, you have the newspaper now -- 24 hours a day."

Satellites began the miracle. The principle is simple. The home station bounces the programming off the satellite floating overhead in the atmosphere. Around the nation, receiving stations, with their now-familiar dishes, receive the programming for reproduction. The process is instantly taking place. "Not only is it instant," says Terry McGuirk, "it is relatively cheap to do. The receiving station needs very little equipment. He puts it straight on the air from the satellite, right into your home."

Turner has three networks on America's cable systems, The Super Station, CNN-1 and CNN-2. "The growth is unbelievable," says Terry McGuirk. "CNN-1 is showing a growth of half-a-million homes per month."

And where does the little Franciscan nun from Birmingham, Alabama, fit into this maze of telecommunications? She is the Catholic pioneer.

For many years, the Bishops of the United States have been formulating a plan to use satellite communications. The plan has now been drawn up and will become a fact in the fall of 1982. Mother Angelica also had a plan. Hers became a fact August 15, 1981. Her Eternal Word Network is on the air and reaching into the life of America.

Marketing director for the creative little nun is Ginger Scalici. The pretty southern lady, who is married to one of the network's technicians, explains that mother Angelica's programming now goes all over the country. "We are on 25 Cable Systems," says Ginger. "That means we have the potential of reaching 356,000 homes. We are in California in the west, Green Bay in the north, and Miami in the south. Of course, we are in many systems in between."

The Eternal Word Network broadcasts four hours each day from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. EST. "The highlight is, of course, Mother Angelica's half hour shows," says Ginger. "Those are very popular. Along with religious shows and interviews, we also broadcast family programs like 'Father Knows Best.' These are very popular."

CNN from the Turner organization in Atlanta is accepted by 2,200 cable systems. The Super State, also Turner's, is accepted by 4,000 systems. Mother Angelica, in comparison to those giants, is very small, but she is there, using the miracle means of cable and electronics to deliver the Gospel message.

From the little adjunct to her convent in Birmingham, Mother Angelica and her little community of 12 sisters have created this curious network. "We have two-and-a-half million dollars worth of equipment," says the director of uplink development, Mike Mooney. "It is all excellent equipment. Each day we place four hours programming on the satellite and for no charge at all, any cable system can have it. In fact when you get back to Atlanta, tell the cable systems they can have anytime."

The miracle of cable telecommunications, racing to completion throughout America and beginning to take hold in Europe has been grasped by this Poor Clare nun in Birmingham. After her arrival to the South from Canton, Ohio, in 1962, she began her communications apostolate with pamphlets and booklets on the faith. That means of bringing the message continues. Thousands of letters pour into her print shop every week. Recently John Belushi's mother wrote asking for Mother Angelica's and her sisters' prayers for her son.

But now Mother Angelica, with her new-found ministry to the nation through cable, is racing into the 21^st century. "We have no budget," says Mike Mooney. "Mother will not make one. She says who knows what the Lord wants us to spend. He will tell us as the year goes on. And so, the miracle goes on. We work without a budget."

Terry McGuirk had the question, "Who is this Mother Angelica anyway?" He asked it with alarming admiration. Her expanding Catholic religious programming -- the first Catholic network -- is answering the question. She is a dedicated sister, living out her vocation, carrying the message the best way possible.