of Peoria read the request for beatification to thousands who attended Mass on Sept. 24 at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.
Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story that will be updated throughout the afternoon.
In the midafternoon on Sept. 24, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen became the first U.S.-born bishop to be declared blessed.
Blessed Sheen, a native of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, was beatified at a Mass at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis as 50,000 faithful celebrated.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect for the Dicastery for Evangelization, celebrated the Mass and served as the papal delegate for the beatification.
“Dear brothers and sisters, we thank our loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who has gathered us as a family of faith on the solemn occasion of the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen — son of Illinois, son of the United States of America, son of the world!” Cardinal Tagle said to increasing applause.
The rite of beatification began as Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria requested the beatification of Fulton John Sheen on behalf of the Diocese of Peoria and faithful throughout the world. Sheen’s great-nephew Paul Cunningham then read a short biography of his great-uncle’s life.
In an apostolic letter read first in Latin by Cardinal Tagle and then in English by Bishop Tylka, Pope Leo XIV officially granted that Sheen, whom he called “a tireless preacher of the Gospel throug the modern means of communication and a diligent shepherd animated by missionary zeal,” may henceforth be called “blessed.”
Cardinal Tagle unveiled the official portrait of Blessed Sheen on the raised sanctuary platform. Video displays showed Blessed Sheen’s tomb at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, where a new plaque with his updated title was uncovered on his tomb.
The Engstrom family, the family of James Fulton Engstrom whose miraculous healing as a baby was the verified miracle required for Blessed Sheen’s beatification, presented Sheen’s relic.
Bishop Tylka, wearing one of Blessed Sheen’s pectoral crosses, expressed his “profound gratitude” for the permission to celebrate the beatification today, joined by clergy, religious, lay faithful and members of the Sheen family.
“We are grateful for the heroic witness of this great evangelist, who dedicated his life to the proclamation of the Gospel and the support of the missions,” Bishop Tylka said. “We pray that the Church in the United States and in mission territories throughout the world will benefit from the example of his holiness.”
Blessed Sheen is not “blessed” because he was a radio and TV celebrity, or because he gained a large following from his writing or global travels, Cardinal Tagle said in his homily. Instead, we can see his blessedness in two areas in particular.
“First, the missionary evangelizer is truly blessed, fortunate and happy because of the gift of communion with Jesus,” Cardinal Tagle said. “That’s the root of blessedness, communion with Jesus. As the Gospel clearly states, the risen Lord chooses and sends His friends to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Blessed are you to be seen, chosen and sent by the Lord Himself.”
It is not blessedness to preach your own wisdom, nor to use preaching as an excuse to avoid the individual person in front of you, nor to choose yourself and go wherever you want, he said. Blessed Sheen referred to himself once as “a porter who is sometimes able to lead people to the open door of the house of God,” Cardinal Tagle quoted.
“The second aspect of blessedness of a missionary evangelizer is this: the missionary evangelizer is blessed by the communion with persons and peoples, especially the poor and the vulnerable, and this is communion in the name of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Blessed Sheen showed this through his commitment to mission work around the globe — not just dedicating time and resources to those in need, but also spending time with people with leprosy in Uganda, Cardinal Tagle said.
“Blessed is the evangelizer converted by beholding and touching the wounds of the risen Christ in wounded brothers and sisters,” he said. “Blessed is the missionary who digs deep into the heart of the poor to meet Jesus there. Blessed Fulton J. Sheen!”
People from more than 10 countries and at least 49 states were registered for the Mass, said Msgr. Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation and a priest of the Diocese of Peoria.
