Panelists reflect on American pope, conclave coverage at EWTN Family Celebration
Pontifical Missions Society USA National Director Monsignor Roger Landry speaks during a panel at the 2025 EWTN Family Celebration. / Credit: EWTN/Screenshot
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 2, 2025 / 19:30 pm (CNA).
The team that led the Eternal Word Television Network’s (EWTN) coverage of this year’s conclave reflected on the significance of having a pope from the United States, along with the intense preparation and excitement that surrounded the network’s historic coverage during a roundtable discussion at the 2025 EWTN Family Celebration.
The 1,600-seat capacity Capital One Hall in Tysons, Virginia was the venue for this year’s celebration. The Aug. 30 event featured talks from various EWTN personalities and a closing Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington,Virginia and the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word.
During an afternoon panel discussion, the Pontifical Missions Society USA’s National Director, Monsignor Roger Landry, recalled announcing Leo’s papacy on EWTN during live conclave coverage: “I had the chance to announce that history has been made in the Vatican: Not only do we have the 267th Peter, we have the first successor of Peter born in the United States of America.”
*'The Church needs some of the particular gifts God has given to Americans'*
Reflecting on the election of the first American pope, Landry said “The Church needs some of the particular gifts God has given to Americans: our directness, our capacity to confront rather than run away from problems, our general optimism, [and] our can-do attitude.”
“All of these things are necessary, complemented by his missionary spirit, his deep faith, his Augustinian heritage,” Landry said of Pope Leo XIV. Landry said Americans and the whole Church are “very lucky to have him.”
“The Holy Spirit did his job,” he continued. “Now it’s time for us as Americans not just to say we’ve exported Robert Francis Prevost to the Apostolic Palace, but we’ve got to help him, as Americans, fulfill his mission.”
Meanwhile, EWTN News President Montse Alvarado said the most emotional part of the coverage was the announcement of "Habemus papam," which means "we have a pope,” and said she had “tears running down my face” when it was announced.
“It was a moment of just incredible joy to know that we had a new Holy Father,” she said.
Alvarado noted the significance of the whole world waiting to see the white smoke appearing from the chimney. “That chimney exposed a lie and that lie it exposed is that Christ and the Catholic Church are irrelevant,” she said.
Paola Flynn, Vatican correspondent for Spanish-language EWTN Noticias, called the coverage “a beautiful experience” and noted the interest among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
EWTN News Vice President Matthew Bunson noted “the unique position of EWTN to cover an event like this.” “We bring this tradition [of Catholicism], not just a pop culture [perspective]” like much of the coverage does. He noted that EWTN’s coverage operates “to bring the faith,” rather than to present coverage based on a “secular cultural mindset.”
*Speakers offer advice, testimony*
During the gathering, other network personalities such The Doctor Is In host Dr. Ray Guarendi and EWTN News In Depth host Catherine Hadro, also addressed the audience.
Guarendi, a clinical psychologist who has authored several books on parenting, spoke about raising children. His talk mixed in humor with advice and expressed concern over the lack of discipline by many parents today. “Love without discipline is child abuse,” he noted.
He also addressed the suffering of parents whose children fall away from the faith. Speaking of the perfection of Jesus Christ, he asked the crowd, “Could he get most people to follow him?” to which the crowd responded in unison, “No.” He warned parents to not fall into the trap of blaming themselves, thinking they can be better than Christ himself.
Dr. Ray Guarendi, host of the EWTN television series "The Doctor Is In" is shown here during his address to the 2025 EWTN Family Celebration. Credit: EWTN/Screenshot
Hadro, who gave birth to her first child Lily in January, discussed her spiritual journey and her struggle with being unable to become pregnant in the first six years of her marriage, noting “God is united to us in our sufferings.”
She said that through this journey she learned “a child is good, but a child is a pure gift.” She said “no one is entitled to a child” and “you can’t plan parenthood,” so “I found myself a beggar in prayer — I may not deserve a child, but I desired one.”
Hadro spoke about the spiritual impact of traveling for pilgrimages in deepening her faith and helping her through that ordeal, which included a trip to Lourdes and Lisieux in France. Nine months after placing a prayer intention for a child in the crib of St. Thérèse of Lisieux and after years of continued prayer, Hadro became pregnant with Lily. She said she thanked God for “this most abundant gift, this most undeserved gift.”
Catherine Hadro, anchor of "EWTN News in Depth" speaking at the 2025 EWTN Family Celebration. Credit: EWTN/Screenshot
“We named her Lily in honor of St. Joseph, who’s often depicted holding a lily flower, but of course also Lily as a tribute to St. Thérèse, as she is our own little flower,” Hadro said.
Many people who attended the celebration said they came to see the network’s personalities in person and expressed a strong love for EWTN Foundress Mother Angelica, who died in 2016. Several attendees also emphasized the need for a Catholic perspective in the news.
Hugh Kelly, from Maryland, told CNA he decided to attend because of “everything that’s going on in the world, particularly attacks on Christianity, particularly attacks on Catholicism.” He said he has become more active in professing his faith and highlighted the need for Catholics to profess “the beauty of the Catholic Church, the importance of the Catholic Church, and prayer.”
He expressed concern about some media personalities and public officials criticizing prayer in the aftermath of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, saying that rhetoric is “diabolical, whether they know they’re being diabolical or not.”
David DeRegis, who traveled to the celebration from Syracuse, New York with his wife Michele and their son Matthew, told CNA “we follow EWTN and we think the world of Mother Angelica and Father Joseph Mary Wolfe.”
“[It’s] wonderful work that this ministry does and it’s worth every mile we traveled,” he said.
Pamela, who declined to give her last name, told CNA that she and her husband Michael are “really glad that we came,” noting they watch EWTN to get “the Catholic perspective on the news.”
Her husband added that he frequently watches reruns of Mother Angelica’s show, saying “she put the ‘wit’ in ‘witness,’ and I really miss her.”