On September 24, 2026, Pope Leo XIV’s representative, Cardinal Luis Tagle, beatified Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in a ceremony which was held at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri, to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims who gathered for this momentous occasion. 

Beatification is the Church’s formal declaration that a deceased Christian may be called “Blessed.” It is an important step toward sainthood, and it acknowledges that a person lived with notable holiness and is now with God. Beatification is the Church’s authoritative recognition of a holiness that is present through God’s grace.

Fulton J. Sheen was declared “Venerable” in 2012, but his beatification, which was originally planned for 2019, was delayed in order to allow for further reviews of his administrative record as the Bishop of Rochester, New York. Those reviews concluded without issue, clearing the path for his beatification. The Miracle which was required before his beatification could be celebrated was approved by Pope Francis in 2019. This miracle involved the unexpected recovery of a stillborn infant who in 2010 survived without a pulse for over an hour after his parents prayed for Archbishop Sheen’s intercession. 

Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach 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 appointed Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached and he was named archbishop of the titular see of Newport (a diocese in Wales).

For 20 years Fulton Sheen hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before he moved to television and presented Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957) and the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968). In 1952, Sheen won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and in the same year, he was featured on the April 14th cover of Time magazine.

Archbishop Sheen was a philosopher, a humorist, a media personality, and a diocesan bishop, but his beatification and his future claim to sainthood do not result from any of these qualities or accomplishments. The Church invites us to call Fulton J. Sheen “blessed” because he was a holy man of prayer whose public life and ministry offered millions of people here in the United States and throughout the whole world a chance to see Jesus Christ reflected in his words and actions.

Let’s pray that one day soon this holy man of God will be formally recognized as a saint. And let’s seek his intercession for all of us as we strive to carry out in our own ways the evangelizing mission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Daniel Conway