Olivia Newton-John Attended Catholic Mass, Said ‘Favorite Prayer’ Daily by EWTN
The prayer was, she revealed in a 2021 interview, the
Lord’s Prayer.
She
began reciting it daily after she became pregnant with her only child, Chloe,
she said on the podcast “A Life of Greatness.”
“I
was close to losing her at one point,” she recalled. “I asked God to please
save Chloe and, if he did, I would say the Lord’s Prayer every night for the
rest of my life.”
“So
I have,” she said. “I think it’s a beautiful prayer. It’s a powerful prayer. I
believe in prayer, I think prayer is very powerful.” Chloe was born in 1986.
Newton-John
learned the Lord’s Prayer as a child, she said, adding that her family attended
church while her father served as the head of a Presbyterian college — Ormond
College at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
“I believe all the beliefs have validity and meaning to a
lot of people,” she added, “but I find that prayer a very powerful one.”
In
response to her death, which came after a decades-long struggle with breast
cancer, Capuchin friar and deacon Brother Vince Mary remembered Newton-John on
Twitter. He shared that Newton-John attended Catholic Mass.
“She was a frequent visitor to our Capuchin Novitiate in
Santa Ynez for masses,” Brother Vince Mary tweeted. “God grant her eternal
rest!”
He
told CNA that Newton-John attended Mass frequently at the novitiate that has
attracted other celebrity visitors — San Lorenzo Seminary in Santa Ynez,
California.
Newton-John
lived near the friars. According to the Santa Barbara Independent, she passed away
at her 12-acre residence in Santa Ynez Valley.
In
March 2020, she publicly shared her appreciation for one Capuchin Franciscan.
Newton-John posted a poem on Instagram written by a Capuchin Franciscan in
Ireland, Brother Richard Hendrick, where he wrote about responding to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“I
was sent this poem by a friend and it said many things I was thinking — because
I also believe that good things are coming out of this difficult time — which
too will pass,” she commented. “Father Richard Hendricks says it so beautifully.”
