ARCHBISHOP

FULTON JOHN SHEEN

May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979

 

The most influential and best-known American Catholic of the Twentieth Century was Archbishop Fulton John Sheen, who was born in El Paso, Illinois, on May 8, 1895. He was ordained a priest in 1919; earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Louvain, Belgium, in 1923, and received the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy that same year.

 

While still in his twenties, he became a renowned professor of philosophy, which he first taught in the 1920's at Saint Edmund's College, the oldest Catholic school in England. He returned to the United States to serve as pastor of Saint Patrick's Parish in Peoria, Illinois, and thereafter resumed teaching philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

 

In 1930, Sheen became the host of The Catholic Hour, a national radio program that was broadcast for twenty years and eventually had an audience of over 4 million listeners. In 1951, Sheen was consecrated a bishop in Rome, began his tenure as the Auxiliary Bishop of New York, and also embarked on an immensely successful television career as the host of the television program Life is Worth Living. The program, which was broadcast for six years to an audience of over thirty million viewers, won Bishop Sheen national acclaim and an Emmy award for Most Outstanding Television Personality in 1952.

 

Just when his television career seemed to be over, Bishop Sheen was appointed, in 1958, as National Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, where he broke all previous fundraising records by raising hundreds of millions of dollars to support Catholic missionaries throughout the world. From 1961 to 1968, he was back on television hosting The Fulton Sheen Program. In 1966, he was consecrated Bishop of Rochester, New York, where he served for three years, until he resigned and became Archbishop of the Titular See of Newport, Wales, in England.

 

In addition to all of his other achievements, Archbishop Sheen also distinguished himself as a prolific author, writing a total of seventy-three books. The most significant are Communism and the Conscience of the West (1948); The World’s First Love (1952); Life of Christ (1958); and Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen (1980). One of his last services to the Church, and possibly his greatest and most enduring, was the initiation of the Spiritual Adoption Program. He died on December 9, 1979.

Prayer For Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s Intercession

 

Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and by the working of the Holy Spirit. If it be according to Your Will, glorify Your servant, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, by granting the favor I now request through his prayerful intercession (mention your request). I make this prayer confidently through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.