Fulton J. Sheen

Interior of Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception (Peoria, Illinois)

Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton and Delia Sheen. His parents were of Irish descent, tracing their roots back to Croghan, County Roscommon, Connacht. Though he was known as Fulton, his mother's maiden name, he was baptized as Peter John Sheen.[1][9] As an infant, Sheen contracted tuberculosis.[10] After the family moved to nearby Peoria, Illinois, Sheen's first role in the Church was as an altar boy at St. Mary's Cathedral.[1][9]

After earning high school valedictorian honors at Spalding Institute in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois, in 1913, Sheen was educated at St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Kankakee County, Illinois, and attended Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota before his ordination on September 20, 1919.[1] He continued studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, District of Columbia.[9][11] He performed his first Christmas Mass at St. Mark Parish in Peoria, Illinois, which remains the only altar in the Peoria area where he held a Mass. His youthful appearance was still evident on one occasion when a local priest asked Sheen to assist as altar boy during the celebration of the Mass.[9]

Sheen earned a Doctor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1923.[11] His thesis was titled, "The Spirit of Contemporary Philosophy and the Finite God".[12] While at Leuven, he became the first American ever to win the Cardinal Mercier award for the best philosophical treatise.[9] In 1924 Sheen pursued further studies in Rome, earning a Sacred Theology Doctorate at the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.[13][14]

Sheen was the assistant to the pastor at St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square in London for a year, while teaching theology at St. Edmund's College, Ware, where he met Ronald Knox. Although Oxford and Columbia wanted him to teach philosophy, in 1926 Bishop Edmund Dunne of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, asked Sheen to take over St. Patrick's parish. After nine months, Dunne returned him to Catholic University, where he taught philosophy until 1950.[15][9]

In 1929, Sheen gave a speech at the National Catholic Educational Association. He encouraged teachers to "educate for a Catholic Renaissance" in the United States. Sheen was hoping that Catholics would become more influential in their country through education, which would help attract others to the faith. He believed that Catholics should "integrate" their faith into the rest of their daily life.[16]

According to the foreword written for a 2008 edition of Sheen's autobiography, Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, Catholic journalist Raymond Arroyo wrote why Sheen "retired" from hosting Life is Worth Living "at the height of its popularity ... [when] an estimated 30 million viewers and listeners tuned in each week."[29] Arroyo wrote that "It is widely believed that Cardinal Spellman drove Sheen off the air."[29]

Arroyo relates that: "In the late 1950s the government donated millions of dollars' worth of powdered milk to the New York Archdiocese. In turn, Cardinal Spellman handed that milk over to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute to the poor of the world. On at least one occasion he demanded that the director of the Society, Bishop Sheen, pay the Archdiocese for the donated milk. He wanted millions of dollars. Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion and influence in Rome, Sheen refused. These were funds donated by the public to the missions, funds Sheen himself had personally contributed to and raised over the airwaves. He felt an obligation to protect them, even from the itchy fingers of his own Cardinal."[29]

Spellman later took the issue directly to Pope Pius XII, pleading his case with Sheen present. The Pope sided with Sheen. Spellman later confronted Sheen, stating, "I will get even with you. It may take six months or ten years, but everyone will know what you are like."[29] Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman cancelled Sheen's annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from befriending the Bishop."[29] In 1966, Spellman had Sheen reassigned to Rochester, New York, and caused his leadership at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to be terminated (a position he had held for 16 years and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for, to which he had personally donated US$10 million of his own earnings).[29] On December 2, 1967, Spellman died in New York City.

Sheen never talked about the situation, only making vague references to his "trials both inside and outside the Church."[29] He even went so far as to praise Spellman in his autobiography.[29]

While serving in Rochester, he created the Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation. He also spent some of his energy on political activities such as his denunciation of the Vietnam War in late July 1967.[30] On Ash Wednesday in 1967, Sheen decided to give St. Bridget's Parish building to the federal Housing and Urban Development program. Sheen wanted to let the government use it for black Americans. There was a protest since Sheen acted on his own accord. The pastor disagreed, saying that "There is enough empty property around without taking down the church and the school." The deal fell through.[31]

On October 15, 1969, one month after celebrating his 50th anniversary as a priest, Sheen resigned from his Rochester position and was then appointed Archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales (Latin: Neoportus) by Pope Paul VI. This ceremonial position gave him a promotion to Archbishop and thus helped to allow Sheen to continue his extensive writing. Archbishop Sheen wrote 73 books and numerous articles and columns.[25]

On October 2, 1979, two months before Sheen's death, Pope John Paul II visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and embraced Sheen, saying, "You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a loyal son of the Church."[32]

Beginning in 1977 Sheen "underwent a series of surgeries that sapped his strength and even made preaching difficult."[29] Throughout this time he continued to work on his autobiography, parts of which "were recited from his sickbed as he clutched a crucifix."[29] Soon after an open-heart surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital,[25] Sheen died on December 9, 1979, in his private chapel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.[33] He was interred in the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral, near the deceased Archbishops of New York.

The official repository of Sheen's papers, television programs, and other materials is at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester, New York.[34]

Joseph Campanella introduces the reruns of Sheen's various programs that are aired on EWTN. Reruns are also aired on Trinity Broadcasting Network. In addition to his television appearances, Sheen can also be heard on Relevant Radio.

The Fulton J. Sheen Museum, which is operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria and located in Peoria, Illinois, houses the largest collection of Sheen's personal items in five collections.[35] The Museum is located one block south of Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception, where Sheen served as an altar boy, had his first Communion and confirmation, was ordained and celebrated his first Mass. Another museum is located in Sheen's home town of El Paso, Illinois. This museum contains various Sheen artifacts, but is not connected to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria.[36]

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, located along Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan, is named after him.[37]

Actor Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez adopted the stage name of Martin Sheen partly in admiration of Fulton J. Sheen.[38]

The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation was formed in 1998 by Gregory J. Ladd and Lawrence F. Hickey to make known the life of the archbishop. The foundation approached Cardinal John O'Connor of the Archdiocese of New York for permission to commence the process of his cause, which was under the authority of the Diocese of Peoria.[4] In 2002, Sheen's Cause for Canonization was officially opened by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria, and from then on Sheen was referred to as a "Servant of God." On February 2, 2008, the archives of Sheen were sealed at a ceremony during a special Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois, where the diocese was sponsoring his canonization.[25] In 2009, the diocesan phase of the investigation came to an end, and the records were sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican in Rome.

On June 28, 2012, the Vatican announced officially that it had recognized Sheen's life as one of "heroic virtue",[39] a major step towards an eventual beatification. From this moment on, Sheen is styled "Venerable Servant of God". According to Catholic News Service and The Catholic Post (the official newspaper of the Peoria Diocese), the case of a boy who as an infant had no discernible pulse for 61 minutes (who was about to be declared dead at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, as a stillborn infant) and yet allegedly still lived to be healthy – without physical or mental impairment – was in the preliminary stages of being investigated as the possible miracle needed for Archbishop Sheen's potential beatification. If the miracle is approved at the diocesan level, and then by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican (being both medically unexplainable and directly attributable theologically to Sheen's intercession according to expert panels in both subject areas), then beatification may proceed. Another such miracle would be required for him to be considered for canonization.

On September 7, 2011, a tribunal of inquiry was sworn in to investigate the alleged healing. During a special Mass at 10:30 am on Sunday, December 11, 2011, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, the documentation gathered by the tribunal over nearly three months was boxed and sealed. It was then shipped to the Vatican for consideration by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concluding the diocesan tribunal's work.[40]

On Sunday, September 9, 2012, a Mass of Thanksgiving and banquet was held at St. Mary's Cathedral and the Spalding Pastoral Center in celebration of the advancement of Archbishop Sheen's cause, with Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., and his predecessor as Bishop of Peoria, Newark Archbishop John J. Myers (celebrating his 25th anniversary of episcopal ordination), in attendance, along with many of the clergy and religious of the diocese and from around the country. Copies of the "Positio", or the book detailing the documentation behind his cause, were presented to Myers, to representatives of the Church in other states, and to a delegate from the Archdiocese of Chicago, and to other patrons and supporters of his cause. According to statements made during the service by clergy connected to the Cause, the medical and theological study of the potential miracles needed for his beatification and canonization is currently well underway and at least one is seriously being considered. Due to new rules under Pope Benedict XVI stating that a beatification should occur locally, ideally in the candidate's home Diocese (which is usually but not always the Diocese that sponsors the Cause), it would likely take place in Peoria, the first there. Should he be beatified and canonized, he would be among a select few natives of the U.S. to hold that distinction.[41][42][43]

• God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy (1925, Longmans, Green and Co.)
• The Seven Last Words (1933, The Century Co.)
• Philosophy of Science (1934, Bruce Publishing Co.)
• The Eternal Galilean (1934, Appleton-Century-Crofts)
• Calvary and the Mass (1936, P. J. Kenedy & Sons)
• The Cross and the Beatitudes (1937, P. J. Kenedy & Sons)
• Seven Words of Jesus and Mary (1945, P. J. Kenedy & Sons)
• Communism and the Conscience of the West (1948, Bobbs-Merrill)
• Peace of Soul (1949, McGraw–Hill)[56]
• Three to Get Married (1951, Appleton-Century-Crofts)
• The World's First Love (1952, McGraw-Hill)
• Life Is Worth Living Series 1–5 (1953–1957, McGraw–Hill)
• Way to Happiness (1953, Maco Magazine)
• Way to Inner Peace (1955, Garden City Books)
• Life of Christ (1958, McGraw–Hill)
• Missions and the World Crisis (1963, Bruce Publishing Co.)
• The Power of Love (1965, Simon & Schuster)
• Footprints in a Darkened Forest (1967, Meredith Press)
• Lenten and Easter Inspirations (1967, Maco Ecumenical Books)
• Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen (1980, Doubleday & Co.)
• Finding True Happiness (2014, Dynamic Catholic)

• Reeves, Thomas C. (2001). America's Bishop. The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen. Encounter Books, San Francisco.
• Riley, Kathleen L. (2004). Fulton J. Sheen: An American Catholic Response to the Twentieth Century. St. Paul's/Alba House, Staten Island.
• Sherwood, Timothy H. (2010). The Preaching of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: The Gospel Meets the Cold War. Lexington Books.
• Sherwood, Timothy H. (2013). The Rhetorical Leadership of Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham in the Age of Extremes. Lexington Books.
• Winsboro, Irvin D. S., Michael Epple, "Religion, Culture, and the Cold War: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and America's Anti-Communist Crusade of the 1950s", Historian, 71:2 (2009), 209–233.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fulton J. Sheen.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Fulton J. Sheen

• Official website
• The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation
• Library Catalog Record for Sheen's PhD thesis
• FBI file on Bishop Sheen
• Archbishop Fulton Sheen: 200 talks given by Archbishop Fulton Sheen available in MP3 format, along with streaming video of his Family Retreat in color.
• TIME cover, Fulton J. Sheen, April 14, 1952
• Fulton J. Sheen Spiritual Centre – El Paso, IL
• Sheen Mass – Cause for Canonization on YouTube