Manhattan’s Catholic TV Preacher, Fulton Sheen, Is Beatified in St. Louis

Decades before Fulton Sheen was the focus of a beatification mass in St. Louis — and one step closer to sainthood in the Catholic Church — he spent Tuesday nights waiting for the lights to go up in a Manhattan TV studio.The priest and bishop was the star of a new, and unlikely, show called “Life is Worth Living.” The show ran on the DuMont Television Network from 1952 to 1955 and quickly attracted an audience of millions, including my German-Irish grandmother, then raising my Mom, and her five siblings on Lefferts Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn.My mother recalls being one of the last families on the block to get a television set. So she’s not quite sure if grandma watched “Life is Worth Living” when it premiered. Perhaps she made a well-timed visit to a neighbor’s flat. Or was a fan of Sheen going back to his radio days. Or caught later versions of the TV show which ran well into the 1960s.What my mother knows is that grandma loved Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who will soon become the first male U.S.-born saint of the Catholic Church. “May the example and intercession of (Sheen), known for his evangelizing work through the media, inspire many others likewise to find new ways of spreading the Gospel message with joyful enthusiasm,” Pope Leo said on Wednesday.The beatification Mass was celebrated Thursday afternoon at Saint Louis’ Dome at America’s Center, with almost 50,000 visitors expected. Final steps for Sheen’s sainthood case will be determined later this year. The White House today issued a presidential message marking the occasion with President Trump remarking: “Melania and I join all those celebrating the life and legacy of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen — the Catholic priest who pioneered the use of media to speak the truth…Archbishop Sheen shocked the entertainment industry by besting American legends like Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra in weekly ratings, winning an Emmy award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and appearing on the cover of Time magazine.”What is it that made Fulton Sheen not only a holy figure of historic import, but also a widely popular and appealing one to my grandmother and millions of others?It started with his comforting, almost unabashedly sentimental values. “God has given different gifts for different people,” Sheen once proclaimed. “There is no basis for feeling inferior to another who has a different gift. Once it is realized that we shall be judged by the gift we have received, rather than the gift we have not, one is completely delivered from a false sense of inferiority.”In other words: Count your blessings! “No matter who says what,” he also said, “you should accept it with a smile and do your own work,” compelling his audience to not linger on life’s many challenges.Sheen also said: “No man is good unless he is humble; and humility is a recognition of truth concerning oneself. A man who thinks he is greater than he actually is not humble, but a vain and boastful fool.”Such sentiments might seem like an obvious fit for 1950s America. Flush with post-war affluence, the popularity of a religious leader in a very religious nation may not seem unusual.But Sheen was, in other ways, an unorthodox figure. Start with his appearance. Many people make note of his piercing eyes, which could have unnerved many viewers. Then there was his choice to dress in the most conspicuous of Catholic ways – flowing cassock, large cross. This was pre-JFK America, when Catholicism remained a mysterious, even suspicious religion. A journalist named Paul Blanshard wrote several best-selling 1950s books spreading fear about growing Catholic power in American institutions. Sheen played an important role softening the image of Catholicism in the public eye, while at the same time staying true to specifically Catholic as well as broader Christian ideas.“The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host,” he liked to say, adding: “Faith makes things possible, not easy.” Indeed, Sheen did not shy away from harsh realities. “Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday,” he once said.While so much of what made Sheen popular seems particular to mid-20th-Century America, he remains very popular in the digital age. There are multiple YouTube channels dedicated to Sheen’s life in general and Life is Worth Living in particular, racking up millions of views and likes.One of his more dedicated recent fans was an Illinois woman named Bonnie Engstrom. When she was pregnant years ago, doctors warned Ms. Engstrom that health complications may make it impossible for her baby to survive. Engstrom consistently prayed with Sheen in mind – even watching his videos on YouTube. There were serious health problems for Ms. Engstrom’s son, who nevertheless, survived, which the Vatican has taken as proof that Sheen was responsible for a modern-day miracle.Perhaps Bonnie Engstrom came across the Life is Worth Living episode in which Sheen proclaimed: “Faith is the light that guides you through the darkness.”

Manhattan’s Catholic TV Preacher, Fulton Sheen, Is Beatified in St. Louis

Manhattan’s Catholic TV Preacher, Fulton Sheen, Is Beatified in St. Louis

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