A mid-20th-century media star in a clerical collar just moved closer to the Catholic Church's highest honor. The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the Illinois-born televangelist whose radio and TV sermons were heard around the country from the 1930s through the 1960s, has been cleared by the Vatican for beatification—the step before canonization, leading to potential sainthood, per AL.com. The decision, relayed to the Diocese of Peoria's Bishop Louis Tylka, would give Sheen the title "Blessed" and permit limited public veneration once the ceremony is held.
Sheen, ordained in 1919 and later a theology professor at the Catholic University of America, became a household name via NBC's radio program The Catholic Hour and his later TV shows Life Is Worth Living and The Fulton Sheen Program, even picking up an Emmy for his on-air work and showing up on the cover of Time, per the AP. Sheen was declared "Venerable" in 2012 after the church recognized his "heroic virtue," and Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to him in 2019, per AL.com.
However, Sheen's beatification was postponed that year, after a probe was launched into his handling of priest sexual misconduct cases, per the AP. A drawn-out fight over his remains between his family and the New York Archdiocese also held things up. One more verified miracle after beatification would be required for canonization, which would extend formal veneration of Sheen from local observance to the global church, per AL.com. Meanwhile, Sheen's old programs have found a second life on the EWTN Catholic network since 2009. The National Catholic Register has more nuggets about Sheen, including his friendships with actors Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason.
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