Focus TV partners: Abp. Hannan ‘never had a doubt’

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

For nearly 30 years, Janie Harney and Char Vance teamed up to operate Focus TV, the television evangelization ministry started by the late Archbishop Philip Hannan in his retirement that grew into a major Catholic online presence.

Now that Harney and Vance officially have retired from their full-time roles with Focus, which emphasizes the role of the Blessed Mother in salvation history, they have passed the torch to Chicago chemical engineer and pilgrimage leader Guy Murphy to keep Archbishop Hannan’s passion for evangelization alive. Murphy will work from his Chicago home.

Abp. Hannan ‘dream’

Archbishop Hannan died at the age of 98 on Sept. 29, 2011, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of the 82nd Airborne, in which Archbishop Hannan served as paratroop chaplain during WWII.

“The Times-Picayune once said that the archbishop was a man who never had a doubt in his life, and that’s about as good a description of him as it gets,” Harney said with a laugh. “Focus wasn’t all about him. God wanted the archbishop’s mission to continue after he died. Sometimes, we had just about two nickels left, and then all of a sudden, some big donation would come in.”

The archbishop was legendary for focusing on a project and not letting anything get in the way of what he thought was the right path, Harney said.

“When Archbishop Hannan retired, he wanted to be on the air and continue to do his shows,” Harney said. “The archbishop always said that for Catholics to be absent from television would mean they would be absent from the world. He always had a desire to have a station like EWTN.”

Internet casts a wide net

While that dream never materialized, Harney said, the archbishop slowly began to understand the significance of the internet in reaching a global audience.

“I’m astounded how many countries our broadcasts reach through the internet – England, Japan, Scotland, Italy,” Harney said. “That was beyond what he could imagine. He always was asking me to buy him a new typewriter, an IBM Selectric. We bought him two computers, and he never used either of them. But he believed in Focus, and we believed in it. We continued the mission, and the mission continues.”

A Medjugorje acquaintance

Murphy, 58, first met Harney and Vance when they both were on a jubilee pilgrimage in 2000 for the canonization of St. Faustina, which included several days in Medjugorje, site of Marian apparitions. Like Vance, who was cured of cancer after visiting Medjugorje, Murphy said a pilgrimage there led him to a deep conversion.

“I’ve been there more than 85 times,” Murphy said. “It’s like going home to visit your mother. You go there with people from all over the world, and they feel like sisters and brothers and experience the love of God in very powerful ways. It’s ‘to Jesus through Mary.’ It opens your mind and opens your heart to that reality.”

Murphy said the Focus website – www.focustvonline.com – is the hub of the evangelization ministry, offering spiritual programs, workshops and testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by experiencing God in a new and different way.

“I hope to continue the good work they have been doing,” Murphy said. “We have a new series that I’m hoping to do called ‘Journey With Jesus.’ I’ve talked about the Holy Land for 25 years, and Char has always referred to Our Lady’s simple school of faith.”

He also hopes to develop a series called “The 20 Proofs of Why Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

“I want people to see why it’s important and how they can apply that to their life,” Murphy said. “We’ve taken a lot of people to the Holy Land, and they’ve talked about their faith. As people read about Jesus, they’re looking for him. But when they pray, they find him.”

Go to Jesus through Mary

Murphy eventually may change the name of Focus to “Focus on the Immaculate Heart” because “we think this is the time of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart in the world – when we love Jesus the way Mary did, with her whole heart, mind, body and soul, in her simple way. We go to Jesus with the help of Mary.”

Harney will never forget Archbishop Hannan’s zest for life, which was manifested after Hurricane Katrina when he holed up in Focus’ Metairie Road headquarters for three days, eating peanut butter and jelly and crackers, and then driving himself across the Causeway at the age of 92 in order to minister to first responders.

“The police wouldn’t let anyone on that bridge,” Harney said. “It was only because of who he was that they let him on.”

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