F ulton J. Sheen, the TV evangelizer, died on December 9, 1979. Alexis Walkenstein has worked in media and Church communications, and has found the late archbishop to be a great help to her. In a compilation of Sheen quotes she’s put together, she focuses on some of the themes of his writings: the mystery of God, freedom, God’s love, sin, and Jesus. “As you sit at the feet of this great teacher,” she writes, “contemplate the inescapable love of God for you personally and how he is calling you through Sheen’s words. While reading, try to surrender your will to God’s divine will, and embrace your vocation of love in imitation of Christ’s.” Walkenstein talks about life with Archbishop Sheen, the book, and...
Visitors to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York’s First Judicial Department on Oct. 10 in New York City might have enjoyed a rather unexpected departure from the usual legal folderol: the latest arguments in Cunningham v. Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This legal battle is perhaps better known by the question both sides ask and offer answers for: “What is to be done with the body of Archbishop Fulton Sheen?” The Venerable Fulton John Sheen, the most famous Catholic evangelist in American history, was born in Peoria, Ill., and ordained there in 1919, and the diocese has long desired the return of the remains of its native son. When the Archdiocese of New...
Grassroots effort hopes the prayers will move his canonization cause along. Today is a good day to join more than 1,000 priests and an even greater number of the faithful in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in remembrance of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and with the intention of moving forward his beatification cause. May 8 marks the archbishop’s 122nd birthday. The beloved TV evangelist, who was friends with St. John XXIII and Blessed Paul VI, helped bring hundreds — and maybe even thousands of souls — into the Church, with notable converts such as Henry Ford II, politician Clare Booth Luce, actress Virginia Mayo and several of his day’s best-known communists. The actor Ramon Estevez took the archbishop’s...
Driven and sustained by his daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen lived an intense life of holiness, zeal to save souls and Christian love that helped make him the most influential Catholic in 20th-century America, biographer Thomas C. Reeves says. Reeves has released a previously unpublished conclusion to his 2002 Sheen biography, America’s Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen (Encounter Books). The concluding chapter, titled “Living Intensely,” covers Venerable Sheen’s spirituality, his inspiration and how others viewed his life. While Reeves does not directly promote Sheen as a candidate to be raised to the altars, his book’s concluding chapter is a very tidy summation of Sheen’s merits for sainthood. Reeves is making the chapter available...
The Bishop of Peoria has rejoiced at a Vatican medical panel’s unanimous approval of a reported miracle attributed to the famous television personality and evangelist, Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen. “There are many more steps ahead and more prayers are needed. But today is a good reason to rejoice,” Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria, Ill. said March 6. “Today is a significant step in the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of our beloved Fulton Sheen, a priest of Peoria and a Son of the Heartland who went on to change the world.” The approval came from a seven-member board of medical experts advising the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Diocese of Peoria reports. The...
