Catholic Actress Cathy Moriarty Talks Clinging to Prayer in Tinseltown
Although she spent 30 years in Los Angeles while working as an actress, Moriarty found the city to be very ‘lonely’ and relied heavily on prayer.
In a new EWTN+ podcast taking the internet by storm — Catholics and Cappuccinos — seasoned actress Cathy Moriarty appears with host and fellow actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, discussing her vast career on the silver screen, working with such well-known names as Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Joe Pesci, among others.
As a devout Catholic, Moriarty attended Mass every Sunday, remarking that the “faith in L.A. was very alive inside the Church” in the 1970s.
The versatile actress known for Raging Bull and Kindergarten Cop says her family always made time for an evening Rosary and also had a great devotion to Padre Pio, thanks to her father.
When she was in eighth grade, the New York City native moved with her family to Yonkers, and there wasn’t enough room for her to attend St. John the Baptist Catholic School there. She recalls to Hogan, “I had a great appreciation for Catholic school because of that. What I was learning in eighth-grade public school, I had already learned in fifth-grade Catholic school.”
Although she spent 30 years in Los Angeles working as an actress, Moriarty recounts that she found the city to be very “lonely” and relied heavily on prayer. The mother of three now lives in New York with her family. Although her children are grown, faith sustains them all.
“Their dad was very faithful, and we raised them with prayer,” she says. “My son Joey teaches religion at St. Matthew’s on Long Island; he’s been doing it since he was 15. We go to Mass on Sundays. We try to go together on Sundays, but they’re grown now. My daughter Kathy loves to go. They make fun of me because I still sing all the hymns. I find great peace there.”
In the episode, the Academy Award-nominated actress, who has appeared in such projects as Casper, Soapdish, The Bounty Hunter, Cop Land, Elsbeth, and most recently the biopic Reagan, also talks about her Irish immigrant parents and her advocacy for people living with autism and disabilities.
Watch the full interview below:
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Alyssa Murphy Alyssa Murphy is the Register's Managing Editor of Digital Assets. Starting her career on the airwaves in San Francisco, she has worked in all facets of media. Alyssa enjoys writing and covering stories that inspire and uplift. Register readers may be familiar with her voice from EWTN radio's Morning Glory. Alyssa currently lives in New Jersey just outside Manhattan with her husband Andrew and young daughter, Annabelle.
