Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen declared 'Blessed' at Mass in St. Louis

A major relic of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen is displayed next to his official portrait at his beatification Mass Sept. 24, 2026, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. (OSV News photo/Margaret Murray)

ST. LOUIS — Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen -- the 20th-century American theologian, evangelizer, Catholic communications pioneer, teacher and preacher -- is now Blessed Fulton Sheen.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a pro-prefect for the Holy See's Dicastery for Evangelization, pronounced the Church's declaration on Archbishop Sheen's life and witness at a Sept. 24 Mass celebrated in the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis.

The location had been selected by Archbishop Sheen's home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims on hand for the beatification and its surrounding events. Around 50,000 people were in attendance, according to organizers.

The beatification officially occurred between the liturgy's Penitential Rite and the Gloria. Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, made a formal request for Archbishop Sheen's beatification to Cardinal Tagle, the papal delegate. A short biography of Archbishop Sheen was read, followed by the formal decree of beatification from Pope Leo XIV.

With the decree's public proclamation, Archbishop Sheen is formally counted among the Church's "beati," from the Latin word for "blessed."

James Fulton Engstrom -- whose revival from stillbirth in 2010, attributed to Archbishop Sheen's intercession, was formally declared the miracle that moved Archbishop Sheen to beatification -- presented a major relic of Archbishop Sheen.

Enclosed in a special case called a reliquary, the relic is Archbishop Sheen's mandible, or jawbone, chosen because it represented the archbishop's tremendous gifts as an orator, teacher and evangelist.

With the beatification, a portrait of a haloed Archbishop Sheen was also unveiled. In the image, he is notably holding a piece of chalk, which he famously used (along with a blackboard) during his Emmy-winning television show "Life Is Worth Living."

— Gina Christian, OSV News

Cardinal Tagle: Blessed Fulton Sheen, a 'tireless preacher of the Gospel'

Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, elevates the book of the Gospels at the beatification Mass for Blessed Fulton J. Sheen held Sept. 24, 2026, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. (OSV News photo/Margaret Murray)ST. LOUIS — Maria Wiering, OSV News Blessed Fulton J. Sheen is truly "blessed" or "fortunate" because of his communion with Jesus Christ during his life, said Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle in his homily during Archbishop Sheen's beatification Mass Sept. 24 in St. Louis.

"To choose yourself and to go wherever you want to go is not mission, and it is not blessedness," he said. Rather, unity with Christ and proclaiming God's wisdom is "blessedness," he said, which is what Archbishop Sheen experienced by fully surrendering his gifts as a preacher and teacher to God's will, and not his own.

Cardinal Tagle serves as a pro-prefect in the Holy See's Dicastery for Evangelization, leading its Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, and is the archbishop emeritus of his native Manila, Philippines. The cardinal presided over the beatification Mass in St. Louis as Pope Leo XIV's delegate.

In his homily, Cardinal Tagle said Pope Leo rejoiced in the beatification of his fellow countryman and Illinoisan. In his apostolic letter declaring Archbishop Sheen blessed, the pope described him as "a tireless preacher of the Gospel through the modern means of communication, and a diligent shepherd animated by missionary zeal."

"What a description," Cardinal Tagle reflected. "Among many of his virtues and ministries, two stand out: his being an evangelizer or proclaimer of the Gospel, and his being a missionary shepherd."

Preaching at The Dome at America's Center, where the Mass was held to accommodate its estimated 50,000 attendees, Cardinal Tagle focused on Archbishop Sheen's unity with Christ and his mission, and his sincere attention to the poor and vulnerable, while connecting these qualities to the liturgy's readings from Scripture.

The cardinal said that a "missionary evangelizer ... is known by Jesus and is called to know Jesus and his Gospel, is called to labor humbly with Jesus."

"In the process, a missionary evangelizer gets to know oneself, himself or herself in Jesus," he said. "Blessed are you when Jesus sees you, knows you, calls you, sends you and labors with you. Blessed are you when you come to know your true self and mission because Jesus knows you and you know Jesus. Blessed are the authentic missionary evangelizers."

He relayed an anecdote from Archbishop Sheen's life, in which Pope Pius XII asked him how many conversions he could attribute to his evangelization. He told the pope that he did not count, lest he be tempted "to believe that they were mine."

Despite Archbishop Sheen's fame and talents, he saw himself as "a 'porter' who is sometimes able to lead people to the open door of the house of God," Cardinal Tagle said.

"I have had some success as a porter," Archbishop Sheen told the pope.

Archbishop Sheen also told a friend who asked why he became a priest that he was called to share the Gospel and tell the story of Jesus.

"I never tire of telling it; I never tire of improving my telling of it. I love my calling," Archbishop Sheen said, as Cardinal Tagle recounted.

"How blessed are you, storyteller of Jesus!" Cardinal Tagle exclaimed of Archbishop Sheen.

The cardinal commended Archbishop Sheen for making genuine connections with the people he met and to whom he preached and ministered.

"The missionary evangelizer is blessed by the communion with persons and peoples, especially the poor and vulnerable, and this is communion in the name of Jesus Christ," he said.

Jesus told his disciples "to preach the Gospel to every creature, not to an abstract world or society," Cardinal Tagle said.

"To use preaching as an excuse to avoid concrete persons and to be blind to God's action in them is not mission. It is not blessedness. ... Blessed are you when you count yourself as an earthen vessel ... so that the power may be of God and not from you."

Speaking at the Second Vatican Council, then-Bishop Sheen asked his brother bishops to "affirm" the notion of poverty and the bishops who came from poor and suffering parts of the Church. "As only a wounded Christ could convert a doubting Thomas, so only a Church wounded by poverty can convert a doubting world," he said.

Archbishop Sheen "took up his own challenge by giving to the poor whatever remunerations he received from his various commitments, and by animating missionary commitment ... of the Church in the United States towards the poor churches of the world," Cardinal Tagle said.

"For Archbishop Sheen, caring for the poor was not ideological propaganda, but an imperative for the following of Christ, of the joining of the Church and the missions, and of the conversion inspired by the Holy Spirit," the cardinal said.

Blessed Fulton Sheen was a "missionary who digs deep into the heart of the poor to meet Jesus there," Cardinal Tagle said.

Like Archbishop Sheen, Cardinal Tagle, 69, is an alumnus of The Catholic University of America in Washington. In 2024, Cardinal Tagle served as the Holy See's envoy to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. Earlier in the week, he venerated Archbishop Sheen's relics at his tomb at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois. There he celebrated Mass Sept. 22 and participated in a special Holy Hour that evening.

— Maria Wiering, OSV News

Sheen beatification 'a gift' and a call to mission, say pilgrims in St. Louis

Pilgrims arrive ahead of the beatification Mass for Venerable Fulton J. Sheen Sept. 24, 2026, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. The archbishop is remembered as one of the most influential and innovative evangelists in American history. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)ST. LOUIS — From across the United States and around the world, faithful of all ages have traveled to St. Louis for the Sept. 24 beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen -- and several pilgrims described the occasion as both a "gift" and a call to be missionary disciples.

Dominique Abagi of Sydney traveled 12 hours from her vacation lodgings in Colombia to attend the celebration, which she described as a "must-go" opportunity.

"I love his writing and I love his videos," she said, speaking to OSV News after a Sept. 23 scheduled midday Mass at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, located near the iconic Gateway Arch.

Pilgrims filled both the pews and the confessionals at the basilica, prompting basilica rector and celebrant Father Nicholas W. Smith to quip that had he anticipated such a crowd, he would have "called in reinforcements."

Abagi said that she particularly appreciated Archbishop Sheen's ability to make the truths of the Catholic faith accessible.

"I love that he explains things that seem complex, but when he says them, I'm like, 'Oh no, that's just true,'" she said.

Fellow pilgrim and Mass attendee Carolyn Kwapich of Ave Maria, Florida, echoed that view.

"I think he speaks so clearly that he's almost a man for the common man," she told OSV News. "He's not speaking at a level that's so high that people can't relate to him. I think that you could always take something away from any of his preaching."

Archbishop Sheen's keen awareness and spiritual foresight made him "a man of our times," she said, noting that "Life of Christ" was one of her favorite books by Archbishop Sheen.

Kwapich, a self-described Catholic "revert," fought back tears as she said, "I love Fulton Sheen."

Kathleen Hastings of Phoenix, who was also at the Sept. 23 Mass, told OSV News she had an additional reason for being on hand.

"He and my grandmother are second cousins. Their grandmothers were sisters," she explained. "So I'm on the Fulton side; that's why I came."

Hastings described the beatification as "very exciting."

"We hope he becomes a saint fairly soon," she said.

Ukrainian Catholic pilgrims attending the beatification pointed to Archbishop Sheen's closeness to Eastern Catholics.

Yuriy Melnik, a western Ukrainian native who along with his wife, Helena, now lives in Chicago, noted that Archbishop Sheen had priestly faculties in the Byzantine Catholic rite.

"He was bi-ritual," said Melnik, citing St. John Paul II's metaphor of the "two lungs," Eastern and Western, which both enable Jesus Christ's Catholic Church to breathe fully.

In a homily during a 1960 Melkite Divine Liturgy in Birmingham, Alabama, Archbishop Sheen pointed to the Byzantine rite as "the door" through which the Russian Orthodox Church would enter if it ever sought full communion with Rome.

Melnik, who spoke with OSV News Sept. 23 following pre-beatification vespers at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, also stressed Archbishop Sheen's passionate opposition to communism.

"He was a fierce fighter against communism, and that's exactly what we (in Ukraine) experience in our life," said Melnik, referencing Russia's war on Ukraine. Initiated in 2014 and accelerated by Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, the conflict has been classified as genocidal in multiple human rights reports.

"We share so much in common with Fulton Sheen," said Melnik. "That's why he is so dear to our Ukrainian heart as well."

Fellow Ukrainian Catholic Olga Salheska -- originally from Ternopil, Ukraine, and currently living in Chicago -- said that Archbishop Sheen's passion for the Gospel inspired hearts everywhere to become missionary disciples.

"We need to evangelize as much as we can," Salheska told OSV News. "It doesn't matter where we live; it doesn't matter what language you speak."

Archbishop Sheen's beatification and its surrounding events have provided pilgrims renewed energy for their own missionary journey as fellow followers of Christ.

"It's a gift to be able to come," Abagi said.

— Gina Christian, OSV News

'Pivotal' Archbishop Sheen 'opened the door to the evangelization of the world,' says Bishop Barron

Seminarians watch as prelates process in at the start of the vespers for Venerable Fulton J. Sheen Sept. 23, 2026, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, the eve of his beatification. Archbishop Sheen is remembered as one of the most influential and innovative evangelists in American history. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)ST. LOUIS — Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen -- the 20th-century theologian, evangelizer and Catholic communications pioneer -- "opened the door to the evangelization of the world," said Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.

The bishop shared his thoughts on Archbishop Sheen in a Sept. 23 homily at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, where hundreds gathered for vespers a day before the archbishop's beatification in that city.

Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis presided over Evening Prayer, part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church's continuous cycle of daily prayer at set times.

Although Archbishop Sheen's canonization cause was introduced in 2002 by his home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, organizers selected St. Louis as the beatification site in order to better accommodate the thousands in attendance.

Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful from around the country -- along with Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the U.S. -- were on hand for the vespers, which took place on the memorial of St. Pius (Pio) of Pietrelcina.

Addressing the congregation, Bishop Barron said, "I consider it one of the single privileges of my life to be able to preach this homily on the vigil of Fulton Sheen's beatification."

He described Archbishop Sheen as "my model and inspiration," and as "one of the pivotal players in the modern history of the Catholic Church" who emerged amid a mid-20th-century Catholic "renaissance" that included "Graham Greene, Dorothy Day, Jacques Maritain, Henri de Lubac, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Waugh and many others."

Bishop Barron said Archbishop Sheen was "by common consensus" regarded as "the premier preacher in the English language in the 20th century."

What made Archbishop Sheen "a blessed, saintly man of God" was his friendship with Jesus Christ, said Bishop Barron.

Archbishop Sheen's description of his vocational discernment in his autobiography, "Treasure in Clay," offers "a template for anyone's relationship to the Lord," said Bishop Barron.

Citing passages from the book, Bishop Barron said three stages mark the development of that relationship: recognizing God's transcendent holiness, reckoning with one's need for redemption and the mandate for mission "as a bearer of grace to others."

Archbishop Sheen embraced "unmerited divine love," exemplified in Mary, whom he viewed in accord with Catholic theological tradition as "the prime instance of a human being receiving the unmerited love of God," said Bishop Barron.

He noted that Mary "haunts the spiritual life of Fulton Sheen, from his baptism in the Church of St. Mary to his ordination in the cathedral dedicated to Mary, to his deep devotion to the rosary, and finally to his more than 30 journeys to Lourdes to visit, as he put it, 'the woman I love.'"

Bishop Barron said that "nowhere was Fulton Sheen's rootedness in the grace of Christ more apparent than in his practically lifelong dedication to the Holy Hour -- the daily, uninterrupted, hour-long prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament."

The bishop stressed the importance of that practice in his own life, admitting he learned to embrace it from his students while he was rector of Mundelein Seminary from 2012-2015.

"I now savor the Holy Hour … in my private chapel every morning before commencing my work day," he said.

As he contemplated God's holiness, Archbishop Sheen was ready "to admit his failures, his bad judgments, his personal weaknesses," said Bishop Barron.

Through radio and television broadcasts, extensive writings, speaking engagements and missionary travels, Archbishop Sheen devoted his life to making Christ known to the world, said Bishop Barron.

"No one in the 20th century walked the great path of mission with more flair and dedication than Fulton Sheen," said the bishop.

And, he added, "I believe that Fulton Sheen is, par excellence, the saint of the New Evangelization," the Church's renewed commitment -- called for in particular by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II -- to fulfill Christ's command to bring the Gospel to all people.

"Anyone who seeks fresh language to bring the Gospel to our culture, anyone who preaches the ancient word with a heart on fire, anyone who dares to use the media of communication available to us today, is indebted to Fulton Sheen and finds in him a powerful heavenly friend and intercessor," said Bishop Barron.

— Gina Christian, OSV News