WATCH: Retired Croghan NS principal speaks about famous village descendant set to be beatified
The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who had strong Croghan roots, will be beatified in the US tomorrow.
The late US-based Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the grandson of Roscommon emigrants, will be beatified in Missouri tomorrow, 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.
A gifted communicator, the Archbishop's 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.
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. There is a plaque commemorating the special event at the church.
The beatification ceremony will take place tomorrow 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.
Retired Croghan NS principal Oliver Donagher reflects on the beatification of the village's most famous descendant, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and recalls meeting the Archbishop during his second visit to Croghan in the 1960s, when Donagher was a young boy.
