Today in St. Louis, MO, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is going to be beatified at a special Mass. This is the third step in the canonization process. In 2002, Archbishop Sheen was named a Servant of God (the first step) based on his life’s work and extensive writings. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared Archbishop Sheen Venerable (the second step) because he lived a life of “heroic virtue.” After the beatification process, Archbishop Sheen will be called Blessed.
To be beatified, a documented and fully researched miracle must have occurred, and Archbishop Sheen’s miracle is one for the ages.
On September 16, 2010, James Fulton Engstrom was stillborn during a home birth in Washington, Illinois. The umbilical cord had knotted during the delivery, depriving the infant of a fresh supply of oxygenated blood. When James was born, he was not breathing and had no heartbeat or identifiable pulse. First responders rushed the baby to the hospital, and his mother, Bonnie Engstrom, and other family members invoked the prayers of Archbishop Sheen to intercede on the baby’s behalf. After a full 61 minutes without oxygen or a pulse, the doctors working on him were ready to declare that baby James had died. Inexplicably, James suddenly began breathing on his own!
Initial MRI’s showed James had sustained severe brain damage from the lack of oxygen. However, by 3 months of age, he showed no signs of any physical or cognitive defects or impairments. James grew into a healthy child and is now 16 years of age. He will attend the beatification Mass. Pope Francis officially approved this miracle in July of 2019.
This beatification has been long in coming. In 2002, the Diocese of Peoria took up Archbishop Sheen’s cause for sainthood. Peoria has financed and led Sheen’s cause for canonization, as he was both raised and ordained there. Peoria requested that the Archdiocese of New York transport his remains to the Cathedral of St. Mary, where they could examine the body and extract the relics needed for the beatification. The Archdiocese of New York, under Cardinal Timothy Dolan, refused to relinquish the body, claiming it was Archbishop Sheen’s dying wish to be interred in New York.
Years passed in a virtual stalemate, and finally, in 2016, Sheen’s niece, Joan Sheen Cunningham, filed a civil lawsuit. Eventually, in May of 2019, the New York Court of Appeals sided with Sheen’s niece and the Diocese of Peoria. Archbishop Sheen’s remains were exhumed and shipped to Peoria the following month.
Archbishop Sheen had a robust intellect, a wonderful sense of humor, persuasive communication skills, and good looks. As a result, he authored 60 books and appeared on radio and TV shows for over thirty-two years. Archbishop Sheen was featured on TIME magazine and TV Guide and even won an Emmy for his show Life is Worth Living. During his Emmy acceptance speech, he thanked his writers, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
Despite these accolades, Archbishop Sheen was humble. He inherited $68,000 and donated most of it to help build a maternity hospital for Black women in Mobile, Alabama. When the hospital was renovated, he raised $600,000. Unfortunately, this facility is now closed.
In his 60 years as a priest, he never missed a Holy Hour. He was greatly devoted to the Blessed Mother and was fond of saying, “The closer we get to the Mother, the closer we get to the Son,” and “No one can love Christ without loving the Mother who gave Him to us.”
Archbishop Sheen was also prophetic in his justified criticism of Communism. He frequently and fearlessly spoke out against Communism as an anti-God system which dehumanizes society. He warned those sympathetic to it that “Communism treats man as if he were only an ox to be fattened or a beast of burden to be driven.” He also cautioned Christians to reject Communism because, in his words, “It is a religion without a God, where the State takes the place of the Divine, and the Party becomes the infallible Church.”
In the latter part of the 20th century, he directed his reproaches specifically toward the U.S.S.R. and the other Eastern Bloc countries in Europe. Little did he know that some sixty years later, New York City would have a Communist mayor, and other Communist candidates would lead the polls in places like Michigan and Massachusetts.
Blessed Archbishop Sheen is a man for our times. Patriotic Catholics and Christians should revisit his written works and listen to his countless lectures. We could learn much about the allure of Communism and how to circumvent this cancerous ideology with increased spiritual renewal. His cautionary tale seems to be playing out right now, and we should heed his warning that “Unless there is a moral revival in our Western world and a rebirth of family life, Communism will become the instrument for the liquidation of the bourgeois civilization that has forgotten God.”
Let us heed this advice. Blessed Archbishop Sheen, pray for us. We need your help!