Founded in 1980 by Mother Angelica, EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) was created to bring Catholic programming to a global audience . The idea was born after Mother Angelica, a cloistered nun, visited a television studio in Chicago in 1978 and felt a calling to build her own network to reach the masses . With only $200 and a group of 12 nuns who had no prior experience in television, she transformed her monastery's garage in Alabama into a broadcast studio . Today, the network is owned by Eternal Word Television Network Inc., a non-profit corporation, and is currently led by Chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw . Today, EWTN News provides a wide range of coverage, including daily news services for television, radio, and digital platforms . They focus on religious news, extensive reporting on the Vatican, and political issues from a Catholic perspective, including reports from Capitol Hill . While their main headquarters is located in Irondale, Alabama, they also maintain a dedicated news facility in Washington, D.C., to cover national and international events . One interesting fact: A unique fact about EWTN is that it has grown to become the world's largest religious media network, reaching an estimated 425 million people in over 160 countries . Despite this massive global reach, the network operates entirely without commercial advertising, relying instead on donations from "people in the pews" to fund its operations .