Fulton J. Sheen
Fulton John Sheen was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Rochester from 1966 to 1969. He was known for his preaching, especially on television and radio.
Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois, in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and served as a parish priest before he was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached and was made archbishop of the titular see of Newport.
For 20 years as "Father Sheen", later monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC before he moved to television and presented Life Is Worth Living. Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program with a format that was very similar to that of the earlier Life Is Worth Living show. For that work, Sheen won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. His contribution to televised preaching resulted in Sheen often being called one of the first televangelists.
The cause for his canonization 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, and he is now referred to as venerable. On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a reputed miracle that occurred through the intercession of Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but this was postponed after Bishop Salvatore Matano of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's alleged assignment of a priest who had been the subject of a 1963 sexual misconduct case might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that the priest had been assigned not by Sheen but by his successor, and that Sheen had been "exonerated" following thorough examination of the matter, having "never put children in harm's way." In January 2026 it was reported that the Holy See would soon announce a date for Sheen's beatification.
Early life
Fulton Sheen was born on May 8, 1895, in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton and Delia Sheen. His parents were of Irish descent, and their own parents were from Croghan, County Roscommon, Connacht. He was known as "Fulton", his mother's maiden name, but he was baptized as "Peter John Sheen". As an infant, Sheen contracted tuberculosis.After the family had moved to nearby Peoria, Illinois, Sheen's first role in the Catholic Church was as an altar boy at Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria.
Sheen graduated in 1913 from high school at Spalding Institute in Peoria with valedictorian honors. He then entered St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Deciding to become a priest, he started his studies at Saint Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Ordination and further education
Sheen was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria at the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Peoria on September 20, 1919 by Bishop Edmund Dunne. After his 1919 ordination, Sheen continued his studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.. He celebrated his first Christmas Mass at St. Mark Parish in Peoria. His youthful appearance was still evident on one occasion when a local priest, unaware of his identity, asked Sheen to assist as altar boy during the celebration of the Mass.After finishing his studies at Catholic University of America, he entered the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, earning a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1923. His doctoral thesis was titled "The Spirit of Contemporary Philosophy and the Finite God". At Leuven, he became the first American to win the Cardinal Mercier Prize for the best philosophical treatise. In 1924, Sheen went to Rome to attend the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, where he was awarded a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree.
Priestly life
After Sheen returned to Peoria in 1926, Bishop Dunne assigned him as curate at St. Patrick's, a poor parish in Peoria. At that time, both Columbia University in New York and Oxford University in England wanted Sheen to teach philosophy. However, Sheen took the assignment at St. Patrick's without any complaints and later said that he enjoyed his time there. Nine months later, Dunne summoned Sheen to his office. Dunne told him:I promised you to Catholic University over a year ago. They told me that with all your traipsing around Europe, you'd be so high hat you couldn't take orders. But Father Cullen says you've been a good boy at St. Patrick's. So run along to Washington.However, instead of Catholic University of America, Sheen chose to teach theology at St. Edmund's College in Ware, England, where he met Reverend Ronald Knox. He also assisted the pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in the Soho section of London. In 1928, Sheen finally returned to Catholic University of America, where he would teach philosophy until 1950.
In 1929, Sheen delivered a speech at a meeting of the National Catholic Educational Association in which he encouraged teachers to "educate for a Catholic Renaissance" in the United States. Sheen was hoping that American Catholics would become more influential through education, which would help attract others to Catholicism. He believed that Catholics should "integrate" their faith into the rest of their daily life.
In 1950, Sheen became the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. During his 16 years as director, Sheen raised millions of dollars for missionary efforts worldwide. He also donated $10 million that he earned from his later television programs.
Auxiliary Bishop of New York
On May 28, 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Sheen as an auxiliary bishop for New York. He was consecrated in Rome at the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paulo on June 11, 1951. The principal consecrator was Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza. The co-consecrators were Archbishop Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris and Archbishop Martin John O'Connor.Bishop of Rochester
On October 21, 1966, Pope Paul VI named Sheen as bishop of Rochester. While serving in Rochester, Sheen created the Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation. He also spent some of his energy on political activities such as his denunciation of American involvement in the Vietnam War in late July 1967. 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 black Americans. There was a protest since Sheen acted on his own accord. The pastor disagreed by saying, "There is enough empty property around without taking down the church and the school." The deal fell through.On October 6, 1969, Sheen resigned as bishop of Rochester. Paul VI then named him as archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.
Ecumenical efforts
In the 1950s and 1960s, Sheen made notable efforts to seek common ground with Christians from non-Catholic churches, both Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. He occasionally celebrated the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, with papal permission awarding him certain bi-ritual faculties. He often commended the Protestant devotion to Bible study:"The first subject of all to be studied is Scripture, and this demands not only the reading of it but the study of commentaries. ... Protestant commentaries, I discovered, were also particularly interesting because Protestants have spent more time on Scripture than most of us."Sheen's autobiography summarized his ecumenical outlook:
"The combination of travel, the study of world religions and personal encounter with different nationalities and peoples made me see that the fullness of truth is like a complete circle of 360 degrees. Every religion in the world has a segment of that truth."
Media career
Radio
In 1930, Sheen began a weekly NBC Sunday-night radio broadcast, The Catholic Hour. During one broadcast, Sheen termed World War II as not just a political struggle but also a "theological one". He referred to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler as an example of the "Anti-Christ".Time Magazine referred to Sheen 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 to 6,000 letters weekly from listeners. By 1950, The Catholic Hour had a weekly audience of four million listeners.Television
At the Catholic University of America, Sheen in 1940 provided voice-over commentary for an Easter Sunday Mass. Broadcast on the experimental station W2XBS, it was one of the first televised religious services in the United States. During the sermon, Sheen remarked,"This is the first religious television in the history of the world. Let, therefore, its first message be a tribute of thanks to God for giving the minds of our day the inspiration to unravel the secrets of the universe."On February 12, 1952, Sheen began a weekly television program on the DuMont Television Network called Life Is Worth Living. Filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City, the program consisted of Sheen speaking extemporaneously before a live audience. The show did not have a script or cue cards, although Sheen occasionally used a chalkboard. He was not paid for the program. Life is Worth Living was scheduled in a prime time slot on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. Its competition was the Texaco Star Theater on NBC, a variety show starring comedian Milton Berle and the Frank Sinatra Show, another variety program on CBS.
Defying all expectations, Life is Worth Living became very popular. The Frank Sinatra Show was canceled in April 1952, leading to speculation that it was due to the success of Sheen's show.Berle, known as "Uncle Miltie", frequently used old vaudeville material on his show. Joking about Sheen, he said. "He uses old material, too." Berle also observed, "If 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." Sheen responded to Berle, saying that perhaps people should start calling him "Uncle Fultie".
Life and Time magazines ran feature stories on Sheen. The number of stations carrying Life Is Worth Living jumped from three to fifteen in less than two months. The show started receiving 8,500 letters per week. The show received four times as many requests for studio tickets as could be fulfilled. The sponsor Admiral, a manufacturer of TVs and appliances, paid the production costs in return for a one-minute commercial at the show's opening and another minute at its close.
In 1952, Sheen won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding personality. In accepting his Emmy, Sheen, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." At that time, Berle quipped, "We both work for 'Sky Chief, a reference to God and Berle's sponsor, Texaco. Time called Sheen "the first 'televangelist and the Archdiocese of New York could not meet the demand for tickets. Sheen received a second Emmy nomination in 1953.
One of Sheen's best-remembered presentations came in February 1953, when he forcefully denounced the Soviet Union. Sheen gave a dramatic reading of the burial scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. He substituted the names of Soviet leaders for those of characters in the play. Sheen concluded the presentation by saying, "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." Days later, Stalin suffered a stroke and died within the week.
Sheen was often quick to rebuke what he considered wrongful conduct. For example, in his televised sermon "False Compassion", he shouted:
"There are sob sisters; there are the social slobberers who insist on compassion being shown to the muggers, to the dope fiends, to the throat slashers, to the beatniks, to the prostitutes, to the homosexuals, to the punks, so that today the decent man is practically off the reservation."Sheen then told his viewers to "hate the sin ... and love the sinner."
Life Is Worth Living ran until 1957, drawing as many as 30 million people weekly, mostly non-Catholics. He received his third Emmy nomination in 1957.
Sheen returned to television in 1961 with a nationally-syndicated series, The Fulton Sheen Program. Running until to 1968, it was broadcast first in black-and-white and later in color. The format of the series was essentially the same as Life Is Worth Living.