1.What signs of hope do you see for women in the modern world?

    So many influences have worked to derail women in the last 30 years. The radical elements of the women’s movement have done much to damage women’s notion of who she is and who she should be. In many ways, we, as a gender, have sold our birthright for a lie -- that true happiness and fulfillment can only be known by denying the essence of  our womanhood. This lie, and our investment in it, has done much to create an identity crisis for today’s woman.

    But there are many positive signs of hope. Throughout the world groups of women are rising up to reclaim the truth -- that woman has been created by God for a unique and holy purpose -- she has been created by God to bring life to the world. Spiritual life as well as physical life. Organizations like Women for Faith and Family, and our new organization, Women of Grace™magazines and periodicals like Canticle, voices like Rosalind Moss, Mary Jo Anderson, Dale O’Leary, Mercedes Wilson,  Janet Smith, Genevieve Kineke, and countless others; the increasing numbers of women throughout the country who are choosing to stay home to be with their children in their early years; the homeschooling movement; women religious who have been icons of God’s life -- Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Angelica, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), St. Faustina; women religious orders faithful to the Holy Father and the Magisterium; all of these are have been lights and are lights shining in the darkness. They are heralds of the new day I believe is coming for women.

    In their closing messages, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council address women and tell them that “ The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of woman is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.” As woman comes to reclaim the truth of her identity in God, we can indeed become the healers of the world.

    In addition to those signs of hope particular to women, I am also encouraged by the number of Catholic apostolates, faithful to the Roman Magisterium, that are blossoming all over the world. Our Holy Father has told us that the Year of Jubilee will usher in “a new springtime of Christianity if we are docile to the Holy Spirit.” In my work, I have an opportunity to interact with many of these groups. All seem to be sensing the urgent call to evangelism.  And I believe that this sense is prophetic. Everything seems to indicate that we are entering a graced moment in the history of man. Many have said this is the time of Mercy. I agree. God the Father is pouring out His mercy upon His people. He wants for all of us to experience it, be transformed by it, and become conduits of His life in the lives of others. These many apostolates, as well as the evangelistic work of many individuals, are fonts of His mercy, dispensers of His love, to the world.

    However, we cannot be ignorant to the fact that our culture and the world in general are becoming more and more post-Christian. We may well be entering a time of great persecution, both exterior and interior. Church history tells us that the first springtime was the time of the martyrs. In his Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, “The Mystery of the Incarnation,” Pope John Paul II gives, what I consider to be, an exhortation to martyrdom. I find this telling.

2.    What would you identify as the mission of the Catholic woman?

    When we look to the mission of the Catholic woman, we look to our Blessed Mother. In Luke 1:26-45, we see Our Lady’s Annunciation. This moment, which so radically alters the destiny of this humble maiden woman, and ultimately alters the eternal destiny of mankind, shows us the true call of all women who are daughters of the Most High God. Here, Mary is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and conceives the Son of God. When the angel departs, Mary makes haste to be of service to her cousin Elizabeth who has become pregnant in her old age. Elizabeth, upon hearing Mary’s greeting cries out, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears the baby leapt in my womb for joy. Blest is she who trusted that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled.”
    These lines tell us much. First, they tell us that to be filled with the life of God, we must be receptive to the word of God, we must trust that His word to us will be fulfilled, and we must surrender our will to His. Mary’s “Fiat,” her “Yes,” tells us that to conceive Jesus Christ in our hearts, we must be docile to the Holy Spirit. This docility to God’s holy will makes us fruitful. It increases our fecundity and causes us to be a catalyst of new life in others. This is readily demonstrated when Mary greets Elizabeth. Mary has become a vessel of the Divine Life and even her greeting is pregnant with the presence of God. When it sounds in the ear of Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist leaps for joy, his assent to the Father’s will for him, and Elizabeth declares that the child in Mary’s womb is her Lord. Salvation comes to Elizabeth and her child and it comes through the person of Mary.
    This passage points to our mission as Catholic women. We must be bearers of life in full cooperation with God’s plan for us. Our call is to motherhood, and our motherhood is both physical and spiritual. When Catholic women assume their God-given call to spiritual motherhood, great things will be done for the Kingdom of God in the world and in the lives of others.

3.    How is this practically lived out? How should women respond?

    This is an important question. Our mission as spiritual mother is not to be confined to this job or that, to this role or that, to this time in our lives or that. It is meant to imbue our entire consciousness. For those of us who have children, it is easy to understand. A change begins to take place within us from the earliest moments of our pregnancy. And this change is pervasive. Everything about us from the physical to the emotional, from the emotional to the psychological, from the psychological to the intellectual undergoes a transformation. All begins to be filtered through a maternal perspective. We become “mother” long before our baby is placed in our arms. And this “becoming” forever changes us.
    The same is true of spiritual motherhood. It is not to be confined to a function, to a role that we play, or a job that we perform. We are meant to “become” spiritual mother. And, as such, it is  the lens through which we see the world. Our spiritual motherhood should infuse our every thought, word, and deed. Thus, even the most mundane and ordinary of events can become moments of great transformation. As Our Lady shows us, even our “hello” can bring salvation when we are conformed to the will of God.
    However, to be spiritual mother requires a response from us as it did from Mary. We must say yes and we must cooperate with the grace of God. This cooperation is lived out through our interior life. Daily prayer, daily attendance at Mass when possible, frequent reception of the Eucharist, regularly scheduled Confession, virtuous living, Scripture study -- in all of these ways we cooperate with the grace God gives us to live out our mission as Catholic women.

4.    How did you come to found LHLA?

    I had been away from the Church for eight years. My homecoming was the result of a Catholic woman who shared her life of faith with me at a time when she was suffering greatly because of the dissolution of her marriage. She trusted that even in the midst of this great trial, God had a plan for her and would work this difficult situation to the good. I saw something in her that I deeply wanted.
    After I came back into relationship with God, I sensed that He was calling me into ministry. However, I had no idea what He wanted me to do. For three years I sensed His call in my daily prayer time, and for three years I told Him I would do what He wanted me to do. One day during prayer, I sensed Him telling me that He wanted me to go into the media ministry. I was certain this thought came from me instead of Him, and so I prayed against it for six months. The harder I prayed for Him to take this desire away from me, the stronger the desire grew. It seemed to withstand every test of discernment I could put to it.
    I was involved on a diocesan commission at the time and had become friendly with a woman who had begun a house of prayer in our area a few years prior to this and was known as woman of discernment. At work one day she called and asked me to come and see her. As I walked into the House of Prayer, she asked me what was on my heart. I told her “media ministry.” Her response caused me to drop back in astonishment. She said, “Johnnette, it’s right. Just this morning our diocesan radio station called and asked me if we would produce a radio program. Will you do it?” I said yes. That was late November, 1986. By February, 1987 we were on the airwaves. And by February 1988, we were producing television programming for EWTN.
    My greatest blessing in ministry is the patient and understanding support of my husband. With true unselfishness and love, he has given me the courage and faith to pursue this call on my life. He is the unsung hero.
   
5.    You always dress so nicely on television. Do you believe a woman’s appearance is important?

    Growing up as a child, I remember the sisters telling all of us in Catholic school that cleanliness is next to Godliness and that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. As such, we have a responsibility to present an appearance that is commensurate with such a privileged call. A woman’s goal should be to not draw unnecessary attention to herself. Such attention can be drawn by an appearance that is garish and immodest, and it can be drawn by an appearance that is slovenly and unkempt. If we are the representatives of the Father, we must do our best to represent Him well in word and deed -- including the way in which we present ourselves.

6.    Who would you hold up as role models for the contemporary Catholic woman?

    Of course our best role model as women is the Blessed Virgin Mary. I could read Luke 1: 26-45 for the rest of my life and never plumb its depths. Every other moment in Scripture where we see Our Blessed Lady is a reflection of what we discover in this section of Luke’s Gospel. Reading what the great saints have written about her, reading what the Documents of Vatican II tell us about her, reading what the Holy Father has written about her, in all of these ways we discover more about the woman after whom we should pattern ourselves.
    In addition to Our Lady, we have all of the great women saints. Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Catherine of Siena, Edith Stein all give us marvelous example. And I would be remiss if I did not mention the many women of today whose lives are testimonies to the grace of God active among us. Mother Teresa, Mother Angelica, Alice von Hildebrand -- each of these and so many others give us reason to pause and consider how seriously we are taking God’s call in our lives.

7.    What do you regard as the most important challenge for women in the new millennium?

    This challenge is the same challenge as it has been for women of every age. The greatest challenge is to live our lives rooted in Jesus Christ, to be a sign of contradiction in the face of the culture of the day, and to inspire others to walk the narrow road that leads to eternal life.