US Archbishop with strong Roscommon roots to be beatified

The late US-based Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the grandson of Roscommon emigrants, will be beatified in Missouri this Thursday, September 24th.

The beatification ceremony will place him one step away from canonisation as a saint.

Archbishop Sheen’s maternal grandparents, John and Mary Fulton, were natives of Croghan. They emigrated to the United States in 1855, settling in Illinois. Their daughter Delia would marry Newton Sheen, himself the son of Irish-born parents.

Fulton J. Sheen was born on May 8th, 1895 in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton and Delia. He was baptised as ‘Peter John’ but came to prefer the name ‘Fulton”, his mother’s maiden name.

Ordained a priest in 1919, he went on to pursue advanced studies in Washington, Leuven in Belgium and Rome before embarking on an academic and pastoral career that would eventually make him one of the best-known religious figures in America.

He later served as Bishop of Rochester, New York, from 1951 to 1969 before being appointed Titular Archbishop of Newport, Wales. He died in New York on December 9th, 1979, aged 84.

A gifted communicator, his radio programme The Catholic Hour attracted millions of listeners during the 1930s and 1940s. His fame reached extraordinary heights with the television series Life Is Worth Living, launched in 1951.

Drawing audiences estimated at up to 30 million viewers, he brought theological and philosophical discussions into American living rooms with a style that combined scholarship, wit and dramatic flair. His popularity earned him two Emmy Awards and even a place on the cover of Time magazine in April 1952, a remarkable achievement for a Catholic bishop.

The path to beatification began many years after his death. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI recognised Sheen’s heroic virtues and declared him “Venerable,” an important step towards sainthood.

A major breakthrough came when the Vatican recognised a miracle attributed to his intercession. The case involved the extraordinary recovery of an Illinois infant who was apparently stillborn in 2010 and showed no signs of life for an extended period. Medical experts were unable to provide a scientific explanation for the child’s recovery following prayers offered through the intercession of Archbishop Sheen.

In 2019, Pope Francis authorised the decree recognising the miracle, thereby clearing the way for beatification.

The beatification ceremony on Thursday takes place in St. Louis, Missouri where tens of thousands of Catholics are expected to attend the ceremony at The Dome stadium, which can seat more than 82,000 people.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, will preside at the Beatification Mass on behalf of Pope Leo XIV.

Sheen was a regular visitor to Ireland and in a celebrated visited to Croghan on April 20th, 1952, while serving as Auxiliary Bishop of New York, he rededicated the rebuilt Church of St. Michael.

In a contemporary report, the Roscommon Herald described the occasion as a “day of major importance in the life of Croghan Parish” as “the grandson of a parishioner, now a world-famous bishop, returned to the land of his forefathers.”

Every house in the village had been painted or whitewashed. Papal, Irish and American flags fluttered from homes and church towers, while a large banner stretched across the church front bearing the words: “Welcome Dr. Fulton Sheen.”

One of the first places he visited was the house from which his grandmother Mary Fulton had emigrated nearly a century earlier. The house stood just yards from the church he had come to dedicate.

The Herald reported that, after arriving at the church, Sheen “shook hands with every man, woman and child in Croghan village.” Villagers presented him with an inscribed blackthorn stick and an antique flute said to have been played by his grandfather.

“Won’t I be proud walking down 6th Avenue next St. Patrick’s Day,” he told the gathering. “I often heard my grandmother talking about a blackthorn and now I have one.”

During his visit, he also noted: “If there is anything good in me it is because my people came from Croghan.”

During the rededication of the church, the Bishop of Elphin, Dr. Vincent Hanly, praised Sheen as a preacher and scholar known throughout the world but also as a man remembered for his kindness, simplicity and loyalty to Ireland.

Seventy-four years after he stood at the door of St. Michael’s Church greeting parishioners, the people of Croghan - and the county - can look on with pride as their famous descendant takes another historic step on the road to sainthood.