Expo hall, adoration, confessions among attractions at America’s Center
Hours before the beatification Mass, the faithful lined up outside The Dome at America’s Center early in the morning to visit the exhibit hall for prayer, adoration and confessions and to visit among 100 Catholic exhibitors from across the United States on display in the expo hall.
Standing up for the truth
Laurel Stein grew up hearing about Fulton Sheen from her grandparents, who were frequent viewers of his television show, “Life Is Worth Living.” She didn’t realize how intimately familiar she’d become with him when she moved to Peoria, Illinois, about 20 years ago.
The Steins, who attended the beatification with three of their four daughters, grandparents, several nieces and a friend, are members of St. Mark Parish in Peoria, where Blessed Sheen’s parents attended and are buried in the parish cemetery, and where their son would come home for Christmas Mass.
The family also homeschools under the name Sheen Academy and participates in the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Co-op with other homeschooling families — all examples of how they’ve integrated his name into their daily lives. When Archbishop Sheen’s remains were relocated to Peoria in 2019, the Steins went to the Cathedral of St. Mary to pray before his tomb.
Laurel Stein prayed with other families in 2010 when baby James Engstrom was born without a pulse due to a knot in his umbilical cord. His miraculous survival has been attributed to Blessed Sheen’s intercession, paving the way for his beatification.
“One of the women that was present at the birth texted … and said we have to pray to Fulton Sheen right now because this baby died,” Stein said. “I get goosebumps every time I think about it, that I was part of that.”
Blessed Sheen “stood up for truth,” Stein said. “Whatever he was doing, he spoke the truth, regardless of how that would affect people’s view of him, and he spoke it beautifully. And if there’s one thing that I can pass along to my to my children, it’s to speak the truth without without fear, without shame, and to speak it as beautifully as you can.”
Laurel Stein’s daughter, Ellie, 16, did not live during his lifetime, yet she still feels a closeness to him, hearing stories from older generations who were familiar with him and the message he shared. “A lot of the saints feel very far away, so getting to see that and (know) people who just watched (him) on TV — he was just a priest who was trying to spread the Gospel, and he’s very inspiring to everybody,” she said.
A turning point and a conversion
Decked out in a baseball cap with the initials “J.M.J.” and covered in religious pins, James Jenkins of Cincinnati, Ohio, credited a renewal of his own faith in part to Blessed Sheen. The 36-year-old was away from the Church for nearly 13 years and experienced healing at Medjugorje on St. Padre Pio’s feast day, Sept. 23, which he said became a turning point in his life.
Now sober for about five years, Jenkins has returned to the Church and designs religious lapel pins, shifting from Grateful Dead-inspired art to what he calls “grateful living,” including multiple designs of Fulton Sheen and a Sacred Heart monstrance pin inspired by Sheen’s daily Holy Hour.
Jenkins dedicates at least an hour of his day listening to episodes of “Life Is Worth Living,” and noted that “it’s crazy to see how things that happened in the ‘50s, you can relate it to the 2020s. He could see what was going to happen — it’s like the Holy Spirit granted him those gifts to see where he comes from in these times, to the kids and the youth that are living in the now that are fighting to keep their faith alive.”
A celebration on Midwestern soil
Father Charles Samson has attended several beatifications while studying in Rome (his favorite was being among the last to get in for Pope John Paul II’s beatification in 2011), but Blessed Sheen’s beatification is the first time he’s experienced one in the U.S.
“That was one of my first experiences at the universal Church, where you look around (St. Peter’s Square) and you see all these colors and flags, and people with guitars and singing,” the assistant professor at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary said. “To be able to have an experience of the universal Church here in St. Louis, in the United States, it’s special to the local Church. It reminds us that the Church is bigger than St. Louis. Just like Fulton Sheen’s message reached millions, so too, we’re part of a larger body.”
Blessed Sheen’s beatification is a visible sign that holiness is real and attainable, Father Samson said. “It’s not a distant thing we hear about from ages past, across the ocean,” he said. “It’s one of our own, a Midwesterner who lived heroic virtue and who exhibited what it means to be a priest — to pour himself out like a libation until the end. I think the reality of our faith and the reality of our call to holiness will be on clear display today.”
Life is worth living well
Maggie Sieve was one of about 100 exhibitors who were on display in the expo hall. The parishioner at Sacred Heart in Florissant and owner of Sew Divine Custom Vestments said she was happy to share her custom-made vestments with people who have a love for Blessed Sheen and the Church. She also was struck by seeing so many people excited about someone on the path to sainthood especially in a culture that typically glorifies the bad things.
A convert to the faith, Sieve came to know Blessed Sheen through watching episodes of “Life Is Worth Living” on EWTN and YouTube. She was compelled by his teachings that were timeless and rooted in common sense. “You feel that deep in your heart what he’s saying, and you know it to be true,” she said. “He talks about … that life is worth living, and he’s telling us how to live our life well.”
Universal Church on display
Jake Heberer was among more than 200 Catholic Illini, members of the St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who made the nearly three hour drive to St. Louis via coach bus.
The 20-year-old sophomore grew up in Morton, Illinois, in the Peoria Diocese, so Blessed Sheen was a household name growing up. Heberer also is a graduate of Peoria Notre Dame High School, which is the result of several merged schools that include Spalding Institute, where Sheen attended high school.
Attending his beatification has been meaningful because it marks a historic step in the canonization cause of an American connected to his own community, Heberer said.
“I’m looking forward most to seeing … people from around the world, and there’s kind of a combination of cultures here,” he said, “Because Catholicism is universal, and seeing how people celebrate differently but we’re all here under the same purpose … so I’m excited for that.”
