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Blessed Sheen’s prophetic warning for the modern Church
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In Short: Bishop Barron, who was baptized by Sheen, celebrated the Mass at St. Mary’s Church, which will now become part of the newly created parish named Blessed Fulton J. Sheen.
Blessed Fulton Sheen was beatified Sept. 26, with thousands of people gathering at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois, to celebrate the Mass of Thanksgiving.
Bishop Tylka highlighted Sheen’s balanced approach, noting that Sheen avoided falling into “conservative” or “liberal” labels, speaking forcefully against Communism while also advocating for social justice and racial justice.
Monsignor Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, said Sheen’s balanced approach was one of the reasons he was so popular, even with non-Catholics.
The Mass was celebrated at St. Mary’s Cathedral, where Sheen is entombed, and also at St. Mary’s Church in El Paso, Illinois, where Sheen was baptized.
Bishop Barron said, “We rejoice that one who responded to grace, who was docile to the Holy Spirit, who entrusted his gifts and talents to the Lord, who served wholeheartedly as a priest and bishop, who persevered through adversity and faithfully carried the cross, and who boldly lived the missionary mandate is now counted among the Blessed.”
The newly created parish will be named Blessed Fulton J. Sheen and will be the first parish in the world named for the blessed.
The beatification took place on the feast day of Blessed Sheen, which was established on Sept. 26, the first observance of his feast day.
What this adds
The beatification ceremony was held two days after Sheen was declared blessed.
The majority of the Masses took place at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, where Blessed Sheen is entombed.
What's still developing
- ABC Radio | Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons | colorized by imagecolorizer.com Blessed Fulton Sheen's balanced approach and warnings against division seem prophetic, as if he could have anticipated the deep divides yet to come.
- Although he died nearly 50 years ago, Blessed Fulton Sheen is still deeply beloved — as seen in the 50,000 people who traveled to St.
- 26 Mass in Blessed Sheen’s hometown had another special significance.
- Barres of Rockville Centre, New York, chairman of the board of trustees of The Pontifical Mission Societies, U.S.A., celebrated the Mass at what was Bishop Sheen’s hometown parish for about the first five years of his life.
- Mary’s Church, on the site of the current parish hall adjacent to the new sanctuary, four years earlier on May 12, 1895.