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Fulton J. Sheen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fulton J. Sheen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fulton J. Sheen

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The Venerable and Most Reverend
Fulton John Sheen
BpSheen.png
SeeRochester
AppointedOctober 21, 1966
Term endedOctober 6, 1969
PredecessorJames Edward Kearney
SuccessorJoseph Lloyd Hogan
Other postsTitular Archbishop of Neoportus
Orders
OrdinationSeptember 20, 1919
by Edmund M. Dunne
ConsecrationJune 11, 1951
by Adeodato Giovanni Piazza
Personal details
Birth namePeter John Sheen
Born(1895-05-08)8 May 1895[1]
El Paso, Illinois[1]
Died9 December 1979(1979-12-09) (aged 84)
New York, New York
BuriedSt. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
NationalityAmerican
DenominationRoman Catholic
Previous post
Alma mater
MottoDa per matrem me venire (English: Grant that I may come to You through Mary)
Coat of arms{{{coat_of_arms_alt}}}
Sainthood
Title as SaintVenerable
Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. His cause for canonization for sainthood was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues" – a major step towards beatification – so he is now referred to as "Venerable".[2][3]
Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919,[1] Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy as well as acting as a parish priest before being appointed Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made the Bishop of Rochester from October 21, 1966 to October 6, 1969, when he resigned[4] and was made the Archbishop of the Titular See of Newport, Wales.
For 20 years he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting Life Is Worth Living (1951–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier Life is Worth Living show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, the only personality appearing on the DuMont Network ever to win a major Emmy award.[clarification needed] Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks.[5] Due to his contribution to televised preaching Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.[6][7]


Childhood[edit]

Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton[8] and Delia Sheen.[9] Though he was known as Fulton, his mother's maiden name, he was baptized as Peter John Sheen.[10][1] As an infant, Sheen contracted tuberculosis.[11] 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][10]

Education[edit]

After earning high school valedictorian honors at Spalding Institute in Peoria in 1913, Sheen was educated at St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Illinois, attended Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota before his ordination on September 20, 1919,[1] then followed that with further studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C..[10][12] 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.[10]
Sheen earned a doctorate in philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1923.[12] While there, he became the first American ever to win the Cardinal Mercier award for the best philosophical treatise.[10] 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]

Priestly life[edit]

Sheen was for a year assistant to the pastor at St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square in London 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.[14][10]
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.[15]
He was consecrated a bishop on June 11, 1951,[16] and served as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1951 to 1965. The Principal Consecrator was the Discalced Carmelite Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina e Poggio Mirteto and the Secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation (what is today the Congregation for Bishops). The Principal Co-Consecrators were Archbishop Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris, Titular Archbishop of Philippi and the Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (what is today the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples); and Archbishop Martin John O'Connor, Titular Archbishop of Laodicea in Syria and President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Media career[edit]

Styles of
Fulton J. Sheen
Archbishop Sheen COA.svg
Reference styleThe Most Reverend
Spoken styleYour Excellency
Religious styleYour Excellency
Posthumous styleVenerable

Radio[edit]

A popular instructor, Sheen wrote the first of 73 books in 1925, and in 1930 began a weekly Sunday night radio broadcast, The Catholic Hour.[12] Sheen called WWII not only a political struggle, but also a "theological one." He referred to Hitler as an example of the "Anti-Christ."[17] Two decades later, the broadcast had a weekly listening audience of four million people. Time referred to him in 1946 as "the golden-voiced Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, U.S. Catholicism's famed proselytizer" and reported that his radio broadcast received 3,000–6,000 letters weekly from listeners.[18] During the middle of this era, he conducted the first religious service broadcast on the new medium of television, putting in motion a new avenue for his religious pursuits.

Television[edit]

In 1951 he began a weekly television program on the DuMont Television Network titled Life Is Worth Living. Filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City, the program consisted of the unpaid Sheen simply speaking in front of a live audience without a script or cue cards, occasionally using a chalkboard.
The show, scheduled in a graveyard slot on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m., was not expected to challenge the ratings giants Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, but did surprisingly well. Berle joked, "He uses old material, too", and observed that "[i]f I'm going to be eased off the top by anyone, it's better that I lose to the One for whom Bishop Sheen is speaking."[10] Sheen responded in jest that people should start calling him "Uncle Fultie".[19] Life and Time magazine ran feature stories on Bishop Sheen. The number of stations carrying Life Is Worth Living jumped from three to fifteen in less than two months. There was fan mail that flowed in at a rate of 8,500 letters per week. There were four times as many requests for tickets than could be fulfilled. Admiral, the sponsor, paid the production costs in return for a one-minute commercial at the opening of the show and another minute at the close.[20] In 1952, Sheen won an Emmy Award for his efforts,[21] accepting the acknowledgment by saying, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." Time called him "the first 'televangelist'", and the Archdiocese of New York could not meet the demand for tickets.[10]
One of his best-remembered presentations came in February 1953, when he forcefully denounced the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Sheen gave a dramatic reading of the burial scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, substituting the names of Caesar, Cassius, Mark Antony, and Brutus with those of prominent Soviet leaders Stalin, Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov, and Andrey Vyshinsky. He concluded by saying, "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." The dictator suffered a stroke a few days later and died within a week.[22]
The show ran until 1957, drawing as many as 30 million people on a weekly basis. In 1958, Sheen became national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, serving for eight years before being appointed Bishop of Rochester, New York, on October 26, 1966. He also hosted a nationally-syndicated series, The Fulton Sheen Program, from 1961 to 1968 (first in black and white and then in color). The format of this series was essentially the same as Life Is Worth Living.

International Cassette Tape Ministry[edit]

In September 1974, the Archbishop of Washington asked Sheen to be the speaker for a retreat for diocesan priests at the Loyola Retreat House[23] in Faulkner, Maryland. This was recorded on reel-to-reel tape, state of the art at the time.[24]
Sheen requested that the recorded talks be produced for distribution. This was the first production of what would become a worldwide cassette tape ministry called Ministr-O-Media, a nonprofit company that operated on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Parish. The retreat album was titled, Renewal and Reconciliation, and included nine 60-minute audio tapes.[24]
For several years, Ministr-O-Media was one of the largest distributors of non-musical tapes in the United States.[citation needed] The operation started in the St. Joseph’s rectory dining room and eventually grew into five temporary classrooms on the church property, employing nine parishioners full-time, and at one point 18 workers in all. At its height, Ministr-O-Media staff and volunteers were packaging and mailing 500 albums a week, and in ten years, shipped a million tapes to clients worldwide. The effort generated income of $15,000 per week.[citation needed]
St. Joseph’s Parish was targeted to be closed due to lack of funding for repairs before the chance connection between Sheen and Brady.[citation needed] The parish, founded in 1763, owed its continued existence to the intervention of Sheen and the tape ministry that rebuilt the church, in collaboration with a dedicated workforce of parish volunteers.[citation needed]
At Sheen’s direction, most of the tape ministry profits were turned over to the pope’s worldwide missionary effort, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. In its decade of existence, Ministr-O-Media routed over a quarter million U.S. dollars to this charity.[citation needed]

Evangelization[edit]

Sheen was credited with helping convert a number of notable figures to the Catholic faith, including agnostic writer Heywood Broun, politician Clare Boothe Luce, automaker Henry Ford II, Communist writer Louis F. Budenz, theatrical designer Jo Mielziner, violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler, and actress Virginia Mayo. Each conversion process took an average of 25 hours of lessons, and reportedly more than 95% of his students in private instruction were baptized.[10]

Later years[edit]

While serving in Rochester, he created the Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation, which survives to this day. He also spent some of his energy on political activities, such as his denunciation of the Vietnam War in late July 1967.[25] 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 African-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.[26]
On October 15, 1969, one month after celebrating his 50th anniversary as a priest, Sheen resigned from his position and was then appointed Archbishop of the Titular See of Newport (Wales) by Pope Paul VI. This ceremonial position allowed Sheen to continue his extensive writing. Archbishop Sheen wrote 73 books and numerous articles and columns.[21]
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."

Death and legacy[edit]

Sheen died of heart disease on December 9, 1979, having previously had open-heart surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital.[21] He is 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.[27]
Joseph Campanella introduces the re-runs 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.
In Sheen's home town in El Paso, Illinois, there is a museum dedicated to him. It is filled with authentic pieces of Sheen's history donated by family and those who were close to him.[28]

Cause for canonization[edit]

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 for cause, which was under the authority of the Diocese of Peoria.[5]
In 2002, Sheen's Cause for Canonization as a saint was officially opened, and from then on he 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.[21]
In November 2010, it was announced that it was expected that the Archdiocese of New York would likely take over his cause for canonization upon an unsettled debate concerning the return of Sheen's remains to the Diocese of Peoria.[29]
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[30] officially that it had recognized Sheen's life as one of "heroic virtue". This is 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 – is 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 as a saint. 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 will then be shipped to the Vatican for consideration by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concluding the diocesan tribunal's work – which makes up much of the diocese's work on the project.[31]
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 Archbishop 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.[32][33][34]

Selected books authored[edit]

  • 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)[35]
  • 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.)

Further reading[edit]

  • Reeves, Thomas C. (2001), America’s Bishop. The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen. Encounter Books, San Francisco.
  • Sherwood, Timothy H. (2010), The Preaching of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: The Gospel Meets the Cold War. Lexington Books. 137 p.
  • Sherwood, Timothy H. (2013). The Rhetorical Leadership of Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham in the Age of Extremes (Lexington Books; 2013) 158 pages
  • 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.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Fulton Sheen Biography and Inspiration". Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation. Retrieved 2010-05-16. 
  2. Jump up ^ Otterman, Sharon (June 29, 2012). "For a 1950s TV Evangelist, a Step Toward Sainthood". The New York Times. Retrieved July 5, 2012. 
  3. Jump up ^ "The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen: a model of virtue for our time". News.va. Pontifical Council for Social Communications. June 30, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2012. 
  4. Jump up ^ http://catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bsheen.html
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation". Retrieved 2009-09-14. 
  6. Jump up ^ Rodgers, Ann (August 29, 2006). "Emmy-winning televangelist on path toward sainthood: Sheen would be 1st American-born man canonized". Chicago Sun-Times (HighBeam Research). Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  7. Jump up ^ "Fulton J. Sheen". Nndb.com. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
  8. Jump up ^ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=69969900
  9. Jump up ^ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=69970067
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "Bishop Fulton Sheen: The First "Televangelist"". Time. 1952-04-14. Retrieved 2011-01-21. 
  11. Jump up ^ Fulton J. Sheen. Treasure in Clay, Ch. 2 "The Molding of the Clay", p. 9, 1980 .
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c "About Fulton J. Sheen". Fulton J. Sheen website. Archived from the original on October 20, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-20. 
  13. Jump up ^ Encyclopedia of American Religious History, 921; http://books.google.com/books?id=u-_6P2rMy2wC&pg=PA921#v=onepage&q&f=false Accessed 3-3-2013; http://www.allendrake.com/elpasohistory/sheen/shncaps1.htm Accessed 7-4-2011
  14. Jump up ^ "Fulton J. Sheen, Catholic Champion". Catholiceducation.org. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
  15. Jump up ^ James Hennesey, S.J., American Catholics, Oxford University Press, 1981, 255.
  16. Jump up ^ Cheney, David M. "Archbishop Fulton John Sheen". Catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2012-07-16. 
  17. Jump up ^ James Hennesey, S.J., American Catholics, Oxford University Press, 1981, 280
  18. Jump up ^ "Radio Religion". Time. January 21, 1946. Retrieved 2009-03-30. 
  19. Jump up ^ St. Fultie, The Next American Saint? Brennan, Phil, www.newsmax.com, Dec 14, 2004. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
  20. Jump up ^ Watson, M. A. (1999). And they said Uncle Fultie didn’t have a prayer. Television Quarterly, 30(2), 80–85.
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Bearden, Michelle (January 24, 2009). "Mass Today Promotes Sheen For Sainthood". Tampa Tribune. p. 10. 
  22. Jump up ^ Mikkelson, Barbara and David P. "Stalin for Time: Did Bishop Fulton Sheen foretell the death of Stalin?" Snopes.com, August 8, 2007.
  23. Jump up ^ Loyola Retreat House
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b An Enduring Journey of Faith: St. Joseph's Parish, Pomfret, Maryland, (2012 by St. Joseph's Church, Pomfret, MD, Harambee Productions, Inc. White Plains, MD 150 p
  25. Jump up ^ James H. Willbanks, "Vietnam War Almanac", Facts on File, Inc. (2009), p 215.
  26. Jump up ^ John T. McGreevy, Parish Boundaries: The Catholic Encounter with Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North, University of Chicago Press, 1996, 242
  27. Jump up ^ The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Archives accessed August 15, 2007 Archived February 28, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  28. Jump up ^ [1]
  29. Jump up ^ "THE DIRECTOR’S CORNER « Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen". Archbishopsheencause.org. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
  30. Jump up ^ Decrees of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, June 28, 2012. Vatican Information Service, June 28, 2012.
  31. Jump up ^ "The Catholic Post : Article – Entries sought for sacred art show planned in Rock Island". Cdop.org. 2012-01-29. Retrieved 2012-07-07. 
  32. Jump up ^ http://fultonsheen.blogspot.com/
  33. Jump up ^ http://www.celebratesheen.com/
  34. Jump up ^ http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1203795.htm
  35. Jump up ^ This book was Sheen’s response to Rabbi Joshua L. Liebman’s 1946 best-seller Peace of Mind.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Fulton J. Sheen
Catholic Church titles
New title
Titular see erected
— TITULAR —
Roman Catholic Bishop of Caesariana
1951–1966		Succeeded by
Angelo Felici
Preceded by
James E. Kearney		Roman Catholic Bishop of Rochester
1966–1969		Succeeded by
Joseph Lloyd Hogan
New title
Titular see erected
— TITULAR —
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Newport
1969–1979		Succeeded by
Howard G. Tripp
Authority control
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