Home · Faith · Sep 29 archive
Fulton Sheen Beatified Amid Reflection on Missionary Work
Confirmed
In Short: Blessed Fulton Sheen was beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, with Cardinal Tagle emphasizing his role as a 'porter' to the Gospel.
Blessed Fulton Sheen was beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle emphasizing Sheen's role as a 'porter' to the Gospel.
Cardinal Tagle noted that Sheen's unity with Christ and his willingness to surrender his talents to God's will exemplified 'blessedness.
Sheen's beatification, which required a miracle attributed to his intercession, was marked by the presentation of a relic — his mandible — symbolizing his oratorical gifts.
Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, formally requested Sheen's beatification, and the Diocese of Peoria coordinated the Sheen Pilgrimage, which included nine days of holy hours and various events.
Sheen's legacy as a communicator and evangelizer is celebrated in Peoria, where many Catholic pilgrims visit his final resting place and a museum dedicated to his life.
Sheen's tenure as Bishop of Rochester was marked by efforts to modernize the Church, including electing a vicar general and setting up an advisory council of priests.
Despite his fame, Sheen saw himself as a servant of the Gospel, telling a friend he was called to share the story of Jesus.
Sheen's autobiography, 'Treasure in Clay,' details his early life on a farm and his later success in Washington, D.C.
What this adds
The beatification process underscores Sheen's impact on both Western and Eastern Catholic traditions, reflecting his broad influence within the Church.
Sheen's efforts to modernize the Church during his time as Bishop of Rochester were met with resistance from some priests, highlighting the challenges of reform.
The pilgrimage and events surrounding the beatification underscore the enduring interest in Sheen's life and teachings among contemporary Catholics.
Background
Bishop John Barres of Rockville Centre, New York, is reflecting on the significance of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s legacy in a new pastoral letter, urging Catholics to rediscover Sheen’s witness to the missionary nature of the Church.
However, the Catholic Church is actually composed of 24 autonomous Churches: the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which trace their origins to ancient Christian traditions in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, and India.
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous particular churches of the Catholic Church in full communion with the pope in Rome.
What's confirmed
- Blessed Fulton Sheen was beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle emphasizing Sheen's role as a 'porter' to the Gospel.
- Cardinal Tagle noted that Sheen's unity with Christ and his willingness to surrender his talents to God's will exemplified 'blessedness.
- Sheen's beatification, which required a miracle attributed to his intercession, was marked by the presentation of a relic — his mandible — symbolizing his oratorical gifts.
- Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, formally requested Sheen's beatification, and the Diocese of Peoria coordinated the Sheen Pilgrimage, which included nine days of holy hours and various events.
- Sheen's legacy as a communicator and evangelizer is celebrated in Peoria, where many Catholic pilgrims visit his final resting place and a museum dedicated to his life.
- Sheen's tenure as Bishop of Rochester was marked by efforts to modernize the Church, including electing a vicar general and setting up an advisory council of priests.
- Despite his fame, Sheen saw himself as a servant of the Gospel, telling a friend he was called to share the story of Jesus.
- Sheen's autobiography, 'Treasure in Clay,' details his early life on a farm and his later success in Washington, D.C.
What's still developing
- Sheen understood before many of his peers that the West was passing from Christendom to mission territory.
- Sheen wrote about the changing times with hope, comparing them to the veil of the Temple tearing open.
- More than a hundred priests signed a protest, and parishioners threw pebbles at the bishop’s car.
- When Sheen left, he apologized to his priests for having sometimes been “monologuing” when he should have been dialoguing.
- Make the city someone’s job, for a start, with a real title and the bishop behind it.
- But his years as Bishop of Rochester have stood out to me as a complicated part of his story.
- Just two years later he had his own diocese, complete with a chancery building, an annual budget, and a lot of priests who had never asked to be explorers, but rather were perfectly fine inside their churches, waiting for people to come.
- (Finks liked to call himself “an evangelist in reverse: instead of getting people to join the Church, I try to get the Church to join the people.”) Sheen had the priests elect their own vicar general and set up an elected council of 12 priests to advise him — something unheard of in 1967.
- Diocesan parishioners attend Blessed Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification Diocese of Charlotte priests share connections to Archbishop Sheen Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, elevates the book of the Gospels at the beatification Mass for Blessed Fulton J. Sheen held Sept. 24, 2026, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. (OSV News photo/Margaret Murray) ST. LOUIS — Maria Wiering, OSV News Blessed Fulton J. Sheen is truly "blessed" or "fortunate" because of his communion with Jesus Christ during his life, said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle in his homily during Archbishop Sheen's beatification Mass Sept. 24 in St. Louis.
- "To choose yourself and to go wherever you want to go is not mission, and it is not blessedness," he said.
- Rather, unity with Christ and proclaiming God's wisdom is "blessedness," he said, which is what Archbishop Sheen experienced by fully surrendering his gifts as a preacher and teacher to God's will, and not his own.
- "I have had some success as a porter," Archbishop Sheen told the pope.