‘Blessed the missionary who meets Jesus in the poor’: Fulton Sheen beatified

The Holy See had ruled that the intercession of Sheen, who died in 1979 aged 84, was responsible for the miraculous recovery in 2010 of James Fulton Engstrom, who spent 61 minutes without a heartbeat after birth.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, considered by many to be the first televangelist in the United States, was beatified on 24 September during a Mass that drew more than 50,000 people to a former football stadium in St Louis, Missouri.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the pro-prefect for the Section for First Evangelisation and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, presided over Sheen’s beatification, which advances him on the path to sainthood.

The Holy See had ruled that Sheen, who died in 1979 aged 84, lived a life of “heroic virtue” and that his intercession was responsible for the miraculous recovery in 2010 of James Fulton Engstrom, who spent 61 minutes without a heartbeat after birth.

A gifted speaker, Sheen beat Lucille Ball for the Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Personality in 1953. His radio show The Catholic Hour and television shows, including Life Is Worth Living reached millions.

In his homily, Tagle preached against priests “proclaiming destructive words and doing violent acts” and evangelisers who are “self-affirming”. He quoted Sheen’s address to the Second Vatican Council.

“To preach the Gospel from a posture of self-righteousness that prevents you from empathising with other people’s brokenness is not mission,” Tagle said. “Blessed is the missionary who digs deep into the heart of the poor to meet Jesus there.”

After the Mass concluded, attendees lined up to venerate a relic of Sheen’s mandible, or jawbone.

The day after the beatification, the bishop and clergy of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois – where Sheen was ordained a priest in 1919 – returned home to celebrate a series of Masses of thanksgiving.

“My heart is full of joy. It is overwhelming to have been a part in what God has done,” said Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, who celebrated Mass in the Cathedral of St Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria on 25 September.

“This is not what we have done,” Tylka said. “This is what God has done through the life and legacy, the witness of faith, of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen. And what God has done in us, at this moment, and what God will do in us for the salvation of the world.”

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