Fulton Sheen Beatified in St. Louis, One Step From Sainthood
The Catholic Church has beatified Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the pioneering radio and television preacher, in a ceremony at a St. Louis stadium attended by tens of thousands. A miracle attributed to his intercession — the resuscitation of a newborn boy — paved the way for the beatification.
The Catholic Church has beatified Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the pioneering radio and television preacher whose broadcasts reached millions of American homes in the 1950s, moving him one step closer to sainthood. The ceremony took place at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, where tens of thousands of worshippers gathered to honor a man the Church now calls Blessed Fulton Sheen.
About 50,000 tickets were distributed for the beatification Mass, which was held in the indoor stadium because no venue in Sheen's home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, was large enough to accommodate the anticipated crowd. The service began with a formal procession of hundreds of priests and scores of bishops lasting more than half an hour, accompanied by organ, choral and orchestral music. The Vatican's top evangelization official, Cardinal Luis Tagle, served as the lead celebrant and brought greetings from Pope Leo XIV, calling Sheen a model for sharing the faith.
A central moment of the ceremony came when a teenage boy walked toward the makeshift altar carrying an ornate vessel containing Sheen's relics. James Fulton Engstrom, accompanied by his parents and siblings, is the person whose survival as a newborn the Church credits to Sheen's heavenly intercession. James was born at home without a pulse in September 2010 and was rushed to the hospital, where medical workers attempted resuscitation and were about to declare him dead. His parents and others prayed earnestly, asking Sheen to add his heavenly prayers, following the Catholic tradition of seeking the intercessions of departed holy people. After a formal inquiry, the Church determined that James' resuscitation was a miracle attributable to Sheen's prayers.
His mother, Bonnie Engstrom, said before the ceremony that she expected it would feel like a «foretaste of heaven.» She said she had been praying to Sheen throughout her pregnancy, and «it was just a very natural thing in the hardest hour of our life» to seek his help. The late Pope Francis approved the beatification, attributing the miracle to Sheen. To qualify for beatification, the Vatican typically requires one miracle attributed to the candidate.
Sheen was born in 1895 in the small town of El Paso, Illinois, and raised in Peoria. After becoming a priest and earning a doctorate in philosophy, he became a professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He became known for his academic lectures and his plainspoken addresses from the pulpit and the broadcast studio. In the 1950s he began hosting the Emmy-winning program «Life is Worth Living,» appearing in a cassock, cape and skullcap at a chalkboard to deliver moral and religious lessons without a narrow Catholic focus. He often signed off with the benediction, «God love you.»
Sheen appeared on the cover of Time magazine and guided celebrities and others converting to Catholicism. He met with popes and spoke at the reformist Second Vatican Council. He railed against communism, though he opposed the Vietnam War, and raised funds and traveled the world on behalf of Catholic missions. He served as a bishop in New York state, retiring as an archbishop. After his death at 84 in 1979, he was buried at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York until his niece won a court battle in 2019 to move his body to Peoria's Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, which now draws pilgrims to his tomb.
The halls and exhibit areas of the stadium were thronged in the morning by pilgrims — priests in cassocks, nuns in habits, families with young children, and elderly worshippers who recalled watching Sheen on television. Many stood in long lines to give confession, while others meditated in a makeshift chapel before a Eucharist displayed on an altar. The service reflected the modern media era, with a livestreamed liturgy and electrical signs urging attendees to use the social media hashtag #celebratesheen.
Attendees, many too young to have seen Sheen's broadcasts, said they have taken inspiration from his books and online videos. «There's just a revival in the American church as a whole,» said Joseph Punswick, a seminarian from the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas. «To have an American pope, to have an American beatified man, is amazing to see. Look around. You see kids, you see young families, you see college kids.» Others, such as Mary Chalupsky of Milford, Connecticut, recalled watching Sheen's original programs. «He brought so many to the faith,» she said.
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