Exorcist: Devil Influences Abortion Industry

 

sHer first experience hosting a radio show was a disaster.

            “I don’t know how many callers I cut off,” said Kathleen McCarthy, the new president of In His Sign Network.  “The engineer would wave his hand at me through the window and I had no idea what he was talking about so I would just stop talking.  I had no idea about a thing called ‘dead air’ on radio.  If you don’t talk, people change the channel.”

            When she left the studio that day, she told the engineer, “You couldn’t pay me to ever to a radio broadcast again.”

            That was 25 years ago, and the first time she would fill in for her good friend and the founder of the popular Catholic radio ministry, Dominic Lettieri.

            “Dominic was a real pioneer for Catholic radio,” McCarthy said from behind the mic in the network’s small Rosemont studio.  “He was a man of courage and had a voice for life.  He was a man filled with holy boldness.  He was the epitome of an excellent broadcaster and interviewer.”

            She admired him immensely, but never wanted to succeed him in the ministry.  Besides, she was too busy with her own life.  A mother of 12, grandmother of 38 and great-grandmother of one, the now 64-year-old widow became a successful Catholic evangelizer and speaker in her own right.

            Involved in the Charismatic Renewal for 30 years, she is also the foundress of Morning Star New Dawn Ministries, a lay Catholic apostolate encouraging people to respond to their baptismal call, and is an active parishioner at Corpus Christi parish in Upper Gwynedd.

            But she and Lettieri always remained close.  Not only were they involved in one another’s ministries, they became family when McCarthy’s son Michael married Lettieri’s daughter Angela in May 2000.

            And then, in December 2006, tragedy struck.  Lettieri was diagnosed with cancer.  On Christmas night, only a few weeks before his death, he asked her for the second time if she would consider taking over the ministry. 

            McCarthy had good reason to resist.  The Network is a non-profit lay apostolate staffed by mostly volunteers and her only source of income was working as a corporate trainer for Record Trak in King of Prussia.  Taking over a network that encompasses all five counties in the Archdiocese, including some areas of New Jersey and Delaware, for a total of more than 75,000 daily listeners, would be a full-time job.

            She was approached several times by board members to take over, but continued to refuse until they were close to shutting the doors.  Finally, her son called to plead with her to consider it one more time.  She promised to pray over it, hung up the phone and went directly to a nearby adoration chapel.

            After praying for a few minutes, she sat down and picked up a book laying nearby.  The title was, “Saying Yes to God.”  She quickly put the book down and picked up another one.  She flipped it open to a page and read the words, “Your call is to be like a radio transmitter to evangelize… .”

            “I closed the book right then and there,” she said, “and said, ‘Yes, Lord.’”.

            It would not be the first time in her life that she said “yes” to the Lord, and followed Him into the unknown. 

            The first time came in St. Augustine, Florida on her 29th birthday.  Although raised Catholic in Roslyn, she had been away from the Church when she felt a strange urge to stop in a little chapel.  She went in and knelt before a statue of the Sacred Heart.

            “I was overcome by the presence of the living God,” she said.

            The experience was so powerful; it put a strange new fire in her heart.  “I had such a hunger for God, for the Eucharist.”

            Delving back into the faith, she “fell in love with Jesus through His word,” she said.  “It placed such a fire in my heart.  Ever since then, my favorite Scripture verse is Jeremiah 20:10 ‘Through your word, a fire burns in my heart, O Lord.’”

            That fire has sometimes been her only light.  She was a mother of eight in the late 1970s when her house burned down.  The family survived, only to suffer another stunning loss in 1985 when her husband died of colon cancer, leaving her with 12 children ranging in age from 19 to barely more than a year.

“The Church was wonderful to me during that time.” She said.  “I saw the glory of God in the face of his people.”

            Those people helped her make ends meet until her youngest was ready for kindergarten.  By then, she had remarried, only to suffer another heartbreak when the marriage later failed.

            Through it all, she held tight to Jesus’ hand, and He never failed to lead her out of the dark and into a new day.

            “He has been my strength, my hope, my life, and my light,” she says.

            Taking over In His Sign Network will be no different.  “I trust in the Lord and if He is calling me to this, He will take care of me.  I’m only responsible for giving Him my ‘yes,’” McCarthy said.

            Thankfully, she was able to keep her job on a part-time basis and now works for the network in the afternoons.  Strong support from Lettieri’s wife, Joan, and the network staff has been a real blessing.  But it’s still a stretch, she says.

            “First of all, I’m not an administrative person.  I preach and teach.  That’s what I’ve always done.  But as soon as I said my ‘yes,’ the Lord gave me such a vision.  He started to lead me,” she said.

            Since coming aboard in late May (2007), she as conducted a radiothon to raise money and is actively seeking corporate sponsors.  She is hoping to eventually upgrade their equipment and buy more radio time so she can offer authentic and professional Catholic programming.
           
            “Good Catholic radio time is addressing the issues in the Church,” she said.  “There should be a strong archdiocesan influence in the ministry and, first and foremost, we should address the pro-life issues.  When we stand for life, everything else falls into place.  I’m looking for more programs, very professional authentic Catholic programs that are true to the mission of the Church.”

            McCarthy recently met with Cardinal Justin Rigali and hopes to bring the ministry more into the diocesan structure.

            “There’s such a fire in my heart for this now,” she said.

            For a woman who once said she would never do radio again, she’s come a long way.

            “I know the task before me is great,” she said, “and I have no idea what to do, but every step the Lord leads me to, I will try to follow.”