By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

This is the second of two articles on the Church and Cable Television

Terry McGuirk, right-hand of Cable Television tycoon Ted Turner, is in great admiration of Mother Angelica. The Franciscan sister is the darling little lady who has started a television network at her enclosed convent in Birmingham, Alabama.

"Who is this Mother Angelica?" asks Terry from his office at Turner headquarters in Atlanta. "I hear her name everywhere I go."

McGuirk agrees that "miracle" is the word that fits Mother Angelica's accomplishments. However, having said that, Terry McGuirk adds a question in great haste. "But Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network is not the entire effort of the American Catholic Church, is it? We are going to do more, are we not?"

The answer is, "Yes we are, Terry." And soon.

Many would say that the American Catholic Church is a latecomer to the crowded field of cable. But better late than never. And when the case is properly examined, it is clear that the effort of the Catholic Bishops, which has now begun, will be a proud addition to religious broadcasting in America.

Through the efforts of Bishop Louis Gelineau of Providence and Mr. Richard Hirsch, director of the National Catholic Communications, Catholic Cable was initiated in the summer of 1980. The Bishops voted to support and finance the plans placed before them and agreed to found a system that would take Catholic programming to the homes of the American Church.

Hirsch and the Bishops launched a search for the person who would lead their network. The choice was made in August 1981. The man chosen was Wasyl Lew, an Eastern Rite Catholic and an expert in the field of telecommunications.

Lew set up headquarters in New York and proceeded, with the mandate from the Bishops, to found the Catholic network. It is called the Catholic Telecommunications Network of America (CTNA). "We set about organizing each diocese," says Betty Haig, assistance to Lew, "and attempted to set a date to begin. At first we though we could get the Network started in the Spring of 1982. But no way. We have now set the date of next September and we are holding to it. Meetings go on, but we are counting on that date to begin."

So it will begin. And when it does what will we have?

The CTNA will transmit programming for all dioceses to receive on that September date. The programs collected from Catholic producers (like the Paulist Fathers, who have been producing programs for years) and some new ones now in production will be placed on a satellite. Dioceses who have become members of CTNA, and who have a receiving station (a dish) may take the programming for its use on cable television. The cost for membership during this first year is $5,000 per diocese.

So, the structure is there, the programming is there, and with the disk in place or leased, a diocese may bring the programming down. Then the question remains, what will a diocese do with six hours programming each day? (Ultimately the goal is to have 24-hour-a-day programming).

The cost of placing good programming today on prime time television is at an all-time high. "It is almost impossible to buy time on local television stations," says Terry McGuirk, "especially in evening prime hours." Churches have to look to cable systems, which is still an infant industry. However, by 1990 seventy percent of all American homes will have the capability of receiving cable. All of us, including the Churches, are working for those golden days ahead."

So, with programming in hand from CTNA the dioceses must look to cable stations and inform their people where to look and find Catholic programs.

"Many dioceses have no access to cable," says Betty Haig. "But the search to be a part of some cable system will now begin. Apart from giving programs to schools, hospitals and other institutions, dioceses will have only one place to go with the CTNA programming. Cable."

The Archdiocese of Atlanta considers itself blessed in this respect. For two years, the Communications Office has been a member of the cable operation of Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting (AIB) which has a channel on six different metropolitan Atlanta cable systems. Heading up this ecumenical effort is Rev. John Allen, who is a Presbyterian minister.

"When we started two years ago," says John, "at most, we could reach 1,500 homes in the city of Atlanta. Now we have the potential of reaching 75,000 homes in Metro Atlanta. And this is only the beginning. The other cable systems, and there are a total of 11 in Metro Atlanta, will one day have our programming too. It's coming along."

The membership of AIB is the major Christian denomination in Atlanta along with the Jewish community. Any church having official recognition may join. More and more are doing so.

"We started with a channel on Cable Atlanta, by the way it's Channel 8," says John Allen. "Then we went to Channel 9 in DeKalb County, Channel 31 in North DeKalb County, Channel 25 in Clayton County, Channel 25 in Hapeville and Channel 8 in East Point and College Park. We have our sights set on the other metro counties now. We are growing."

For an annual fee of $2,000 plus a small fee for weekly programming, the Archdiocese, through the Office of Catholic Communications, is a part of this small religious effort to be a part of the crawling, infant cable industry. When the real growth comes, this small beginning will pay off.

AIB broadcasts for six hours each evening, and for six-and-a-half hours on Sundays. As programming is made available and more churches join the broadcast, the hours will grow.

Such a cable television will be service oriented in the future years for commercial business, it will be service oriented also for the Church. "We in the business world will use it," says Terry McGuirk, "for news, for shopping, banking schooling. The Churches will use it for other things like religious services, retreats, teacher training, adult education -- a host of services which people now obtain only if they go and seek them out. Cable, one day, will entertain yes, but it will also serve. Your small investment now will pay off handsomely 20 years from now."

Cable, which is pay television, has become the new rage in America and markets in Europe, Japan and other places are beginning to open. Since it is "pay television," if you like, a kind of gigantic closed-circuit television system, it is not governed by any governmental agency. Many undesirable channels are appearing and all kinds of X-rated material is finding audiences.

"However, as many of the denominations, including the efforts of Mother Angelica, are proving," says Terry McGuirk, "it is where the Church should be. A foothold now means a presence and maybe a voice in the future. It is where you should be."

Beginning in September, 1982, it is where Catholic Telecommunications, a project of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, will be.