Tens of thousands of Catholic believers gathered Thursday in St. Louis, Missouri, as Fulton Sheen, the celebrated radio and television priest, was beatified in a Mass at the Dome at America’s Center.
Organizers with the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation and the diocese said about 48,000 tickets had been distributed for the ceremony, according to the source material. The event marked a major step in Sheen’s cause for sainthood: beatification is the final stage before canonization.
Sheen’s official title is now Blessed Fulton Sheen.
A media priest with an enormous following
Sheen rose to national prominence as a Roman Catholic priest who explained Catholic doctrine first on radio and then on television during the 1950s and 1960s. He became widely associated with his television program, Life Is Worth Living, where he addressed moral and religious questions of the day while standing at a chalkboard.
He is described in the source material as the first television evangelist and as a figure credited with helping pave the way for the election of John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president of the United States.
Sheen appeared on the cover of Time, met with popes, and traveled internationally on behalf of Catholic missions. He died in 1979 at age 84.
The miracle claim at the center of the case
In most cases, the Catholic Church requires documentation of a miracle attributed to a candidate’s intercession before beatification and sainthood can proceed.
The source material cites a 2010 case involving an infant born without a pulse. The baby’s family prayed to Sheen, and the child was resuscitated.
“I remember sitting on my bedroom floor and watching them do CPR and in my head repeating over and over and over again, ‘Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen,’” Bonnie Engstrom, the baby’s mother, recalled.
Engstrom’s family attended the beatification Mass with the child, now a teenager named James Fulton Engstrom. They presented relics of Sheen during the ceremony.
Why the ceremony was delayed
The beatification had been delayed for years. According to the source material, organizers found there was no venue large enough in Sheen’s home diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate those who wanted to attend.
The process also faced a delay while the Diocese of Rochester investigated allegations over whether Sheen had any complicity in clerical sex abuse. The source material states that the church confirmed he was innocent.
Pope Leo XIV approved Sheen’s beatification earlier in the year, according to the source.
Praised by Pope Leo XIV
Pope Leo XIV praised Sheen’s media ministry in remarks cited by the source material.
“Archbishop Sheen was a beacon of faith, hope, and love who shone through radio and television for decades,” Pope Leo said in a June speech. “I myself witnessed his evangelization efforts as I was growing up.”
Ahead of the ceremony, Pope Leo also said, “May the example and the intercession of this holy bishop, known for his evangelizing work through the media, inspire many others likewise to find new ways of spreading the gospel message with joyful enthusiasm.”
Sheen was also known during the Cold War for philosophical and theological arguments against communism and materialism. His television success earned him an Emmy, and the source material notes that in his acceptance speech he thanked his “four writers” — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
