Fulton Sheen to Be Beatified in St. Louis, One Step from Sainthood

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the pioneering radio and television priest who became a household name across mid-century America, will be formally beatified in St. Louis on Thursday, advancing him one step closer to sainthood.

Tens of thousands of Catholic faithful are expected at the Dome at America's Center for the afternoon ceremony, at which Sheen will be given the title Blessed Fulton Sheen. Organisers with the Diocese of Peoria and the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation said about 48,000 tickets had been distributed by Tuesday. The St. Louis stadium was selected because no venue in Sheen's home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, was large enough to hold the anticipated crowd.

The event follows years of postponements. The beatification was first planned for 2019, but the Vatican held it back after the Diocese of Rochester — which Sheen briefly led in the 1960s — sought a delay as a precaution amid legal investigations into how priests accused of sexual abuse were supervised across New York state. Church officials later determined that Sheen's record offered no reason for further delay, and preparations resumed. Pope Leo XIV approved the beatification earlier this year.

Sheen was born in 1895 in El Paso, Illinois, and raised in Peoria. Ordained a priest and holding a doctorate in philosophy, he served a short pastorate in Peoria before joining the faculty of The Catholic University of America in Washington. He gained notice both for his academic lectures and for his plainspoken preaching, first on radio and later on television.

In the 1950s he began hosting "Life is Worth Living," appearing in a cassock, cape and skullcap at a chalkboard to deliver moral and religious lessons that reached beyond a strictly Catholic audience. The programme held its own against entertainers Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra on rival networks. Accepting an Emmy, Sheen thanked his writers — the Gospel evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He has been described as America's first televangelist and often closed his broadcasts with the words, "God love you."

His reach extended well beyond the studio. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine, guided celebrities and others converting to Catholicism, met with popes and addressed the reformist Second Vatican Council. He spoke out against communism while opposing the Vietnam War, raised funds and travelled widely for Catholic missions, and served as a bishop in New York state before retiring as an archbishop. He died at 84 and was buried at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York until his niece won a court battle in 2019 to have his remains moved to Peoria's Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception — the church where he had served as a young altar server and was later ordained. Pilgrims now leave crucifixes and other items at his marble tomb, giving them the status of relics.

Pope Leo XIV has spoken of watching Sheen's broadcasts while growing up in Chicago, describing him as a fellow Illinois native. In a June address to directors of The Pontifical Mission Societies, which Sheen headed in the United States for 16 years, the pope called him "a beacon of faith, hope, and love who shone through radio and television for decades" and said he had witnessed Sheen's evangelisation efforts as a child. On Wednesday, on the eve of the ceremony, Leo said he hoped the bishop's example would inspire others to find new ways of spreading the gospel.

Beatification normally requires the Vatican to recognise one miracle attributed to the faithful seeking the candidate's heavenly intercession. The late Pope Francis approved the step, attributing to Sheen the revival of an infant born in 2010 without a pulse who was brought back only after prolonged efforts by medical workers. The child, now a teenager named James Fulton Engstrom, is scheduled to present relics of Sheen at the ceremony, accompanied by his family, who had sought Sheen's intercession for his healing.