Archbishop Sheen, media pioneer, ‘Hometown Hero’

By Tom Dermody · For the Catholic Journalist

With television and radio audiences in the millions, as well as authoring 66 books, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen earned the title “A Man for All Media.”

On Sept. 24, during a beatification Mass expected to draw as many as 75,000 and viewers around the globe, Archbishop Sheen will be granted a new title by the Catholic Church — Blessed. While the 20th century evangelist and media pioneer continues on the road to sainthood, thousands from his native Diocese of Peoria are excitedly planning to make the 3-hour drive to witness the historic event at The Dome at America’s Center in downtown St. Louis.

After all, Catholics living in central Illinois consider Archbishop Sheen, who died in 1979, their hometown hero in the faith. He was born in El Paso, just east of Peoria, and ordained a priest of the Peoria diocese at St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1919. A gifted orator, he would go on to worldwide prominence through his media outreaches — his television show “Life is Worth Living” earned him an Emmy Award in 1952 — and decades of global mission work.

It was the Diocese of Peoria that petitioned the Vatican to open Archbishop Sheen’s cause for canonization in 2002 and, in ensuing years, documented his heroic virtue through exhaustive research. The approved miracle that paved the way for his beatification — the restoration of a stillborn child after 61 minutes without heartbeat or respiration — took place in the Peoria area.

Since 2019, Archbishop Sheen’s remains have been entombed in the Peoria cathedral where he was ordained. The tomb, as well as a Sheen Museum two blocks away, already draw visitors from around the world. Fundraising is underway for a multimillion-dollar project that will transform his former high school building, Spalding Institute — from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1913 — into the “Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Experience.” The high-tech, interactive cultural center and museum will encourage further study of his life, teachings, and deep faith, including devotion to the Blessed Mother and his practice of a daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament.

Many Catholic schools across the diocese will close Sept. 24, with some offering to take their entire student body to St. Louis for the beatification. Parishes, too, have organized bus pilgrimages. Sister Jude Andrew Link, OP, who teaches at Peoria Notre Dame High School, the successor to Spalding Institute, is spearheading a grassroots effort to make 75,000 World Mission Rosaries to distribute at the beatification. While serving as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Archbishop Sheen designed the multi-colored rosary as a way to pray for souls around the world.

Msgr. Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, said central Illinois “gave Sheen to the world.” So, while the beatification Mass had to be moved outside the diocese to a venue large enough to host the anticipated throng, Peoria will host a series of pre- and post-beatification events.

Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka, the diocesan staff, and the Sheen Foundation have been working tirelessly since the Vatican gave its approval for the beatification in March. Bishop Tylka called the occasion “a moment of immense grace” for the church. Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, will represent Pope Leo XIV and preside at the 2 p.m. beatification Mass. More than 50 bishops were registered to attend by late July. The Mass will be preceded by a morning program featuring guest speakers and musicians, opportunities for prayer and reconciliation and the debut of a new Sheen biography video.

Bishop Tylka said the Peoria diocese regularly receives reports of God working as people pray through Archbishop Sheen’s intercession. One group that would do well to be among them? Catholic media professionals.

Noting that Archbishop Sheen utilized the emerging media of his age, “what he might have done with today’s media would be fascinating,” said Msgr. Gray.

Dermody served as editor of The Catholic Post, the former newspaper of the Diocese of Peoria, for 32 years. He retired in 2023.