Watch: Grandson of Roscommon emigrants moves one step away from sainthood
The official image of 'Blessed Fulton J. Sheen' was unveiled at his beatification ceremony in St. Louis, Missouri.
A grandson of Roscommon emigrants has moved one step away from sainthood following a special ceremony in the US on Thursday.
The beatification of the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the grandson of emigrants from Croghan in North Roscommon, attracted an estimated 50,000 worshippers to St. Louis, Missouri on Thursday.
The ceremony at The Dome arena, which officially honoured him as ‘Blessed Fulton J. Sheen’, now moves him one step away from canonisation.
The historic event was attended by 89 bishops, close to 1,000 priests, along with hundreds of seminarians, religious sisters and brothers, and deacons.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, presided at the Beatification Mass on behalf of Pope Leo XIV.
Cardinal Tagle read Pope Leo XIV's apostolic letter in Latin, before the Bishop of Peoria, Bishop Louis Tylka, proclaimed the text in English for the assembled faithful.
In the decree, Pope Leo XIV praised Sheen as an "untiring preacher of the Gospel through modern means of communication" and as "a devoted shepherd driven by a strong missionary spirit".
After the proclamation, the official image of the new blessed was unveiled.
Archbishop Sheen’s maternal grandparents, John and Mary Fulton, were natives of Croghan and emigrated to the United States in 1855, settling in Illinois.
