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WASHINGTON (August 25, 2006)— Legendary former college football coach, Lou Holtz, internationally renowned Irish tenor, Anthony Kearns, and former network news anchor and radio personality, Nicholas Clooney, will speak about the role of faith in their lives during a one-hour special that will be distributed to ABC-TV affiliates on Sept. 17.
The program, Personally Speaking, is hosted by Msgr. Jim Lisante and produced by the
Catholic Communication Campaign (CCC) of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). A list of stations that have scheduled broadcasts of the special will be posted on the Internet at www.personallyspeaking.org as they become available. Viewers can also call their local ABC station to ask about plans to air the program.
Lou Holtz coached the University of Notre Dame football team for 11 years and won a national championship in 1988. He became the head coach at the University of South Carolina in 1999. One of the most successful college football coaches in history, Holtz is now a motivational speaker and author. His books include Winning Every Day: A Game Plan for Success, The Fighting Spirit: A Championship Season at Notre Dame and Wins, Losses and Lessons: An Autobiography. Holtz speaks with Msgr. Lisante about how his Catholic faith and prayer life helped strengthen him as his wife survived a battle with throat cancer and offers reflections from his many years as a successful coach.
Nicholas Clooney, the father of actor George Clooney, spent five years as a news anchor in Lexington, KY before becoming a radio and television personality in Cincinnati. In 1974, he earned national acclaim by hosting the ABC daytime game show The Money Maze. He began writing a column for The Cincinnati Post in 1989 and in 1994 became a host for the cable channel American Movie Classics. Clooney unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat in the 2004 election for a seat in the House of Representatives representing Kentucky's 4th Congressional district before returning to write his newspaper column. With his son George, Nicholas Clooney traveled to Africa in April 2006 to gather personal stories of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan to raise public awareness about the genocide through personal interviews with refugees.
Anthony Kearns and The Irish Tenors have sold millions of CDs and performed in the United States, Italy, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A native of a small Irish village in County Wexford, Kearns began attracting attention for his lyrical skills while working at a hotel, where he earned the reputation as "The Singing Barman" for his performances at weddings and other functions. He entered a contest in 1993 called "Ireland's Search for a Tenor" and won the competition singing "Danny Boy" and "Impossible Dream."
Kearns went on to a successful professional career and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Dermot Troy Trophy in 1995 and 1996, and the Best Male Singer at the 1995 Waterford International Festival of Light Opera.
Personally Speaking is part of the "Vision and Values" series created by the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission, of which USCCB is a member. Host Msgr. Lisante is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in West Hempstead, NY, and a regular columnist for The Long Island Catholic. For more than 15 years, Msgr. Lisante has been interviewing entertainers, athletes, artists and other prominent leaders about how faith and family intersect with celebrity and careers.
The Catholic Communication Campaign of the USCCB develops media programming, public service announcements, and other media resources to promote Gospel values. Donations from Catholic parishioners make possible the work of the CCC. For more information, please visit www.usccb.org/ccc.