EWTN's CEO emulates Mother Angelica, seeks holiness in the workplace

Published: 2007-05-30

IRONDALE, Ala. (CNS) -- While working as a successful lawyer and senior partner in his firm, Deacon Bill Steltemeier saw a flier on "sounding the call to holiness" at a church in the Chicago suburbs near a legal convention he was attending in 1978. Deacon Steltemeier, now CEO of Eternal Word Television Network, was tired and there was a blizzard outside, but he felt compelled to go. "I had never heard anything like this in my life -- this call to holiness for every man, woman and child," said the deacon, who was ordained in 1975. He took a seat, and a few minutes later Mother Angelica looked straight at him; Deacon Steltemeier heard an interior voice say "until the day you die." He said he "just knew" that meant he would be with Mother Angelica until he died, but he couldn't accept it because his whole life was planned. He had his own law firm in Nashville, Tenn., was involved in real estate and was Catholic chaplain at a 2,000-man prison. The deacon tried to ignore what he'd heard, but about three months later drove to the Poor Clares monastery in Irondale where Mother Angelica was superior. When Mother Angelica came to the door, she smiled and said, "I wondered when you were coming!"

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