Today Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen will be Beatified at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
Long before Catholic influencers had to worry about algorithms, follower counts, or whether anybody was actually watching the reel they spent three hours making, Fulton Sheen had already conquered the problem. At the height of his fame, an estimated 30 million people were tuning in each week to watch a Catholic bishop talk about faith on television.
When you look closer at his achievements, his chosen medium really was modern. When Life Is Worth Living began in 1952, television was still finding its place in American homes. Into this exciting new technology stepped a bishop in full clerical dress, armed with little more than a blackboard, a wonderfully expressive face, and an extraordinary ability to talk directly to the person sitting at home. Somehow, it worked spectacularly well.
Yet perhaps the most interesting part of Sheen’s extraordinary media career happened well away from the cameras.
On the day of his ordination in 1919, he made a resolution to spend one continuous hour every day in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. He kept it throughout his priesthood. But it also meant that behind the bishop addressing millions was a priest spending an hour each day in silence before Christ.
Today, influence comes with numbers attached: followers, likes, views, shares, and engagement. Sheen had the 1950s equivalent in extraordinary quantities, yet the number that seems to have mattered most to him was one: the hour he spent each day before the Blessed Sacrament.
At the heart of it all was the faith that gave his extraordinary talent its purpose. Before trying to bring Christ to millions of people, Fulton Sheen made sure he had spent an hour with Christ Himself.
By Cerith Gardiner
My Commentary:
I am so blessed myself to have had a personal connection with Archbishop Sheen. A year after we opened the Worship Center of Our Lady of the Brook in Northbrook, Illinois in 1972, the Pastor, Fr. Robert Herne was concerned that attendance on Sundays was already declining. Being young and brash in 1973, I was 28 and only a priest for three years, I told him I could alleviate his concern.
I called Archbishop Sheen’s office in New York and asked his assistant if he would come and talk to our parishioners. Even though he was 80 years old, he said he would be happy to do so. So he came on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in November. What a perfect date. Father Herne picked him up at O’Hare at 4:00 PM on a snowy, frigid afternoon.
The three of us sat and had dinner together in the rectory at 5:30 PM. Fr. Herne was at the head of our small table and I was seated across from Sheen. Just the three of us. I knew at the time I was having an experience of a lifetime. The piercing eyes and the indelible spirit of the man that once had looked at 30 million Americans every week were now riveted on me. His eyes surely took a glimpse into my soul.
I did not feel that I was sitting across from a churchman, someone grounded in protocol, or who had a role to play. Looking into his eyes I saw a man who was totally at peace— with himself, his world and his God. In those eyes I saw character and integrity — built like a cathedral over the 80 years of his lifetime of prayer and service.
The dinner conversation was relaxed, yet stimulating. How the Church and parishes were adapting to Vatican II that had ended in 1965. To say that the Archbishop ate sparingly was an understatement. He feasted on only a few forkfuls of pork, potatoes and beans. A few sips of water. No coffee. Just two spoonful’s of a delicious dessert. That was it.
Archbishop Sheen was most gracious at dinner, yet he did not say much. He mostly listened to us. We were all relaxed. He did not ask any questions. But when he spoke, his rich, resonant baritone voice registered in my ears like soft church bells that were ringing.
At 6:45 PM, just 45 minutes after we sat down, he announced in a declarative statement: “I must go and prepare for my talk.” I was thinking, he must have given this type of talk a thousand times. What does he need to prepare for? Selfishly I wished the three of us could sit and visit more. “Where is your chapel and the Blessed Sacrament?” he inquired. We all got up and we led him to our space with a kneeler in front of the Blessed Sacrament in our Worship Center.
For well over an hour this 80-year old man knelt in front to the Blessed Sacrament. I’d look over at him once in a while as people were arriving. The entire time he knelt there still as a statue. He seemed frozen in time, transfixed. He was in total communion with his God.
When 7:30 PM arrived, I had to go and rouse him. I said, “It’s time for you to start.” He got up, we put a mic on him and he immediately went out and spoke for 40 minutes. The range of what he covered was immense. He touched every heart of the 1,200 in attendance, double what we normally could fit in our Worship Center. People nodded, laughed and many had tears in their eyes.
The Archbishop finished to a sustained applause that seemed to last an eternity. He took a quick sip of water, put a cope on over his shoulders and led the assembled crowd in Benediction. People responded verbally and in song like I have never heard before or since. The final hymn was, “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name,” which everyone present knew. I had hired trumpeters to accompany the music. To hear all 1,200 people in a confined Worship Center space, singing at the top of their voices with trumpets blaring in the background is an experience I fondly remember and cherish.
Afterwards, still wearing his dazzling red robes, Fulton Sheen stood in our Narthex to individually greet each person. I did not recognize the first man in line. He appeared to be about 40 years old. I stood far enough back to not hear what he or others were saying. But this man went on and on with what he had to say, oblivious to the long line behind him. Sheen would say a few words as the man would take a breath and then proceed to talk without hesitation. I debated whether I should step in and invite him to move on. What I observed in that 5-minute encounter continues to amaze me today. Fulton Sheen’s eyes never left the man’s eyes even once. He never once glanced up to see how long was the line. His eyes and his whole being were centered on the man in front of him.
When the line finally ended and the crowd left to continue their Thanksgiving weekend, Fr. Herne said he would show Archbishop Sheen to his room for the night. Sheen looked at his watch and said, “There’s an 11:00 PM flight at O’Hare to Milwaukee. I think I can still make it. I’m starting a retreat for 400 nuns in Milwaukee tomorrow morning.” I helped him put on his coat on that cold, snowy November night. We had a warm handshake using both of our hands. His eyes captured mine one more time — and he was gone….but never forgotten.
I witnessed how the hour Fulton Sheen spent before the Blessed Sacrament every day brought a flesh-and-blood Jesus into his heart — and then into the hearts of millions of others, especially mine.
What are YOUR thoughts on Blessed Fulton J. Sheen?
GOD IS ABLE TO DO MORE FOR YOU THAN YOU CAN EVER UNDERSTAND!
