CHARLOTTE — People across the Diocese of Charlotte are thrilled about tomorrow’s beatification of the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen - the soon-to-be saint who has local ties.
The television evangelist was not only a familiar face on the first television screens to grace most American Catholics’ living rooms, but he also left his mark in the diocese.
Parishes including St. Mark in Huntersville prepared for the beautification by making World Peace rosaries, St. Ann in Charlotte presented talks for youth and Our Lady of Grace in Greensboro parishioners are journeying to St. Louis to witness the beatification in person.
Here are some fun facts about Archbishop Sheen’s links to our diocese:
1. Archbishop Sheen visited Our Lady of Grace in Greensboro 50 years ago – Nov. 14, 1976 – for the dedication of a new school building. He blessed the entire building.
2. Father William Gurnee III served as an altar boy during that visit and later became a priest. Father Gurnee is now the pastor of St. Joseph on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and remembers the event in great detail:
Dedication Day through the eyes of eighth grader Bill Gurnee:
“Father Christian, the parochial vicar at the time, came to me and said he needed me to serve Mass because I was one of the senior altar boys. There were probably eight of us that day.
I went home and told my dad, but I had absolutely no idea who Fulton Sheen was. He meant nothing to me as an eighth grader, but my dad was instantly thrilled. He was truly excited that Sheen was coming to dedicate our new school building. Seeing my dad’s reaction made me intrigued.
At the time, our junior high had a one-page school paper called Panther Pages. I was the editor. I asked the Father Christain if I could interview Bishop Sheen for the paper, and he replied, "Absolutely not."
The next day, he came and found me and said I was going to interview Archbishop Sheen.
But he had some demands, 'This is what’s going to happen. You will walk into that room, and you will address him as 'Your Excellency.' You will ask him your one question. There is one question—and only one question. You ask that single question, you say, 'Thank you, Your Excellency,' and you walk out. Are we clear?'
I was so excited. When dedication day arrived, my father drove me over, and I joined the pastor and another altar boy to head inside the rectory. I had never been inside a rectory before; everything felt exciting and new. We walked into the common room, It was obvious they just finished lunch. Bishop Sheen was sitting there with three or four other priests and monsignors. I think he was smoking a cigarette.
My pastor announced, 'This is Bill Gurnee, and he would like to ask you a question.'
Sheen clearly hadn’t been prepped for this, but he smiled and said, “Yes, what’s your question, son?'
I looked at him. I spent three days figuring out the one question I wanted to ask.
‘Your Excellency, what do you think is the importance of dedicating a new Catholic school in the Protestant South?’
He looked right at me and said, ‘That’s my whole homily! Next question.’
Well, there was no next question. I stood there completely frozen – I felt scared, I felt stupid, I had no idea what to say. Fortunately, the other altar boy jumped in with a question. I don’t recall what he asked or how Sheen answered. After that, we left.
My column ended up being about how I froze up.
I can’t recall his exact homily word for word, but the message went something like this: Catholics could be proud of their faith. Though we were a minority in the deep Protestant South, we belonged to the mother Church, and we had a mission to evangelize.
He had everyone fired up about the new school and the vital importance of a Catholic education. That was the gist of it."
3. Archbishop Sheen created what will be a second-class relic at OLG during his stay. The school building he blessed will become a second-class relic upon his sainthood. Many times, when Principal Catherine Rusch walks past the railings shown in the picture above, she stops and touches the same spot, where she says a little prayer for her students and staff.
4. An OLG student was named Fulton Sheen after the soon-to-be saint. His birthday coincidentally falls on the same day of the future saint’s visit - November 14. The young Sheen is pictured with principal Rusch and Father Casey Coleman, standing on the patio of the same building Sheen blessed. To read more about the archibishop's diocesan connection, read this 2020 Catholic News Herald article.
5. The part of the school Archbishop Sheen dedicated in 1976 was renamed and blessed by Bishop Michael Martin as the “Sheen Wing” in 2025. As Father Gurnee recalled, “The whole point of Fulton Sheen coming here was to bless the new building. There was a movement at the time to get a new Catholic high school in Greensboro…they started to build slowly to see how it would go. OLG went from eight grade to nine grades, and they built a gym, and some other things, but the purpose was to build another school. The point was to build this beautiful new addition to the parish.”
6. Coincidence or intercession? Five of the diocese’s priests are from Sheen’s hometown of Peoria, Illinois: Father Matthew Kauth, Father Christopher Gober, Father Matthew Buettner, Father Lucas Rossi and Father John Eckert. Read more about the impact he had on their vocations here.
7. Archbishop Sheen visited Belmont Abbey College on June 4, 1957, and was the keynote speaker for the 79thcommencement address. During Sheen’s visit two of the nation’s most iconic religious leaders, the northern Catholic Archbishop Sheen and the Southern Baptist Evangelist Billy Graham, met in Belmont for the first time.
8. Although it did receive as much publicity as his other visits, Archbishop Sheen celebrated daily Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte while he was in town for an ecumenical conference on March 17, 1974.
— Lisa M. Geraci