In Peoria and around the globe, Catholics continue to be inspired by his holy example
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, pictured in an undated photo, was a popular evangelist who was well-known as the host of “The Catholic Hour” radio show in the 1930s and ’40s and as the host of the “Life is Worth Living” television program in the 1950s.
PEORIA, Illinois — Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria learned he was responsible for the cause for canonization of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as he sat in his office in the Chicago suburbs, participating in Zoom calls about his new appointment.
It was 2020, and he had just been named coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Peoria, where Archbishop Sheen was born and raised.
“I was trying to wrap my head around what it means to be a bishop, let alone now a bishop with a cause for a saint,” Bishop Tylka said. “I realized very quickly that I was going to have to understand what this man was all about.”
Bishop Tylka describes himself as the generation “in between” Archbishop Sheen’s era of fame and his more recent renown; he was a young boy when Sheen died in 1979, and he didn’t hear about him much in seminary formation in the 1980s and ’90s.
As he began visiting parishes and talking with priests and laypeople around his new diocese, though, Sheen and his canonization cause came up again and again.
“I quickly realized that I needed to come to understand the fullness of the life of Fulton Sheen, so I started to learn about him, started to read and to come to appreciate how significant his life and his witness of faith means for the Church and for the United States and for the world,” Bishop Tylka said.
On Sept. 24, Archbishop Sheen’s witness of faith will be recognized worldwide as he is beatified at a Mass at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.
Archbishop Sheen will join just three other U.S.-born priests who have been beatified: Blessed Stanley Rother, a priest from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, and Blessed Solanus Casey, a Capuchin Franciscan who served in Detroit, both beatified in 2017; and Blessed Michael McGivney, a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, who founded the Knights of Columbus and was beatified in 2020.
While the beatification is a natural source of hometown pride for the Diocese of Peoria, Bishop Tylka has also found that Archbishop Sheen’s influence extends far beyond his home state.
On a trip to Peoria’s partner diocese in Tanzania, Bishop Tylka brought copies of Sheen’s book “A Priest is Not His Own” to give to several bishops. One told him he had read the book as a young man and had been inspired to become a priest.
During a pilgrimage to France, an 83-year-old priest similarly told Bishop Tylka that listening to Sheen as a child had inspired his own vocation.
“Literally no matter where I go in the world, if I say I’m from the Diocese of Peoria, it leads to a conversation about Fulton Sheen,” he said.
Kathy Bruch prayed at the tomb of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, at Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois. Bruch is a parishioner at St. Jude in Peoria. Archbishop Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24 at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. (Photo by Jacob Wiegand | St. Louis Review | jacobwiegand@archstl.org)
Rooted in prayer
Archbishop Sheen became well-known around the country starting in the 1930s for sharing the Gospel through the day’s latest media: first radio, then television, debuting his weekly series “Life is Worth Living” in 1952. He went on to win an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality and reached an estimated 30 million viewers each week.
A television shows an image of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen at the Fulton J. Sheen Museum inside the Diocese of Peoria’s Spalding Pastoral Center in Peoria, Illinois. Archbishop Sheen was well-known for his work on the television program, “Life is Worth Living.”
Archbishop Sheen had a natural charisma and spoke the truth with conviction, Bishop Tylka said. Many people have told the bishop that when they watched Archbishop Sheen’s show, they felt as if he were speaking just to them.
“He wanted people to know what the truth of the Gospel was. He wanted to save souls. He wanted to convert people for Jesus, and so that genuineness and authenticity and truth really rang through everything he said and everything he did,” Bishop Tylka said.
Msgr. Jason Gray, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria and executive director of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation, has seen the same appeal among people who are just discovering Sheen now, especially young people.
“A lot of young people have discovered Sheen because he was someone who spoke with such clarity and such integrity and such courage, and I think young people appreciate that,” Msgr. Gray said. “…He talks about the needs, the anxieties of the human heart and the need we have for the Lord. And that wasn’t only true in the 1950s or 1960s — it’s true today.”
Archbishop Sheen was a “hall of fame” preacher, Msgr. Gray said, but his greatest lesson isn’t a specific speaking style to imitate.
“There’s something deeper for Sheen, because the source of his preaching, the source of his insight came from a deep personal relationship with the Lord, and especially from his time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament,” Msgr. Gray said. “So even if I may not have the oratorical style, everyone and every priest can spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.”
‘You can be a saint’
Dolores Sheen got to know the famous archbishop away from the cameras.
Dolores Sheen, left, posed for a picture with her husband, John Eugene Sheen, right, and John’s uncle, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
Dolores married Archbishop Sheen’s nephew, John. John died in 2007, but Dolores is now a board member of the Archbishop Sheen Foundation and a parishioner at St. Anthony in Bartonville, a suburb of Peoria.
She met Archbishop Sheen when she picked him up at the airport for a visit. John, a psychiatrist, had invited his uncle to participate in a panel discussion at a workshop on psychiatry and religion.
“I think he was taken aback because I’m very Polish, and I just went up and hugged him,” Dolores said. “The Irish are a little bit more standoffish. But we had a good time.”
Archbishop Sheen arrived a day earlier than originally planned and stayed at their home. That first evening, the archbishop answered the door each time a guest arrived for a previously scheduled meeting and got a kick out of the surprised reactions when they saw who was standing there, Dolores recalled.
A friend later told her that she had sat next to him on the couch and exchanged recipes with him. He spent time with her kids but gently declined to baptize their brand-new kittens, she said with a laugh.
When friends and family heard Archbishop Sheen was coming to town, they would ask Dolores when they could see him.
“I would call him and say, ‘Bishop, what do you want to do?’ And he’d say, ‘I want to be with family,’” she said. “So I would gather his cousins together and we would have brunch or dinner or lunch and just have a good time. And he really cherished that.”
With family, he was “just down to earth and just very real, never coming across as a celebrity at all. Just wanted to be part of everyone.”
“He was always attentive to saying grace at meals, and reminding us how much Jesus loves us, and I was glad that the children were able to hear that,” she added. “…You could feel the presence of our Lord around him, and that was very special.”
Dolores continues to pray each day for Archbishop Sheen’s canonization and asks his intercession for her family, especially for those who have fallen away from the Church. She has seven children, 21 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and 12-great-great-grandchildren, and a large contingent of them — plus several cousins and other relatives — will travel to St. Louis for the beatification Mass.
“My life has been enriched because of him — my prayer life, my spiritual life — because he made it so down to earth,” she said. “He said, ‘you can be a saint,’ and I thought, ‘wow, OK, I can be a saint; you can attain holiness too. I pray for that.”
Holy Cross Seminarian Gabriel Polaniecki toured the Fulton J. Sheen Museum on Aug. 11 inside the Diocese of Peoria’s Spalding Pastoral Center in Peoria, Illinois.
Sharing Sheen with the world
Last fall, Bishop Tylka started hearing rumblings that Archbishop Sheen’s cause might move forward. He began gathering people who had worked on the beatification preparations in 2019 and others to start dreaming up what the celebration should look like.
One major decision was moving the Mass from Peoria to The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis to accommodate a much larger crowd.
Artifacts on display at the Fulton J. Sheen Museum.
“My contention has always been that Sheen is a native son of Peoria, but Peoria shared him with the world, and we have to share this moment with the world as well,” Bishop Tylka said.
The beatification Mass itself isn’t too different from a typical Mass, with the addition of the rite of beatification at the beginning, Bishop Tylka explained. After the entrance procession and the sign of the cross, Bishop Tylka will formally request the beatification. Archbishop Sheen’s great-nephew will read a brief biography. Cardinal Luis Tagle, the principal celebrant, will proclaim the apostolic letter declaring Sheen blessed in Latin, followed by Bishop Tylka with the English translation.
“At that moment, he’s declared blessed by the Church,” Bishop Tylka said. A relic and official image of Archbishop Sheen will then be presented and blessed with incense before the Mass continues, using the new prayer texts written for Blessed Sheen.
Sheen’s feast day will be Dec. 9, the anniversary of his death. As a blessed, it will be celebrated in the Diocese of Peoria and other dioceses that request permission. If he is canonized a saint, the feast day becomes universal.
The Diocese of Peoria was also responsible for the process of “identifying and extracting relics,” where the person’s body is examined and a bone, typically, is removed to create first-class relics to be venerated. Most first-class relics are tiny pieces of bone, hair, fingernail or such, but a few “substantial” relics — in Archbishop Sheen’s case, bone from his hand — were also prepared and will be presented to the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rochester.
The work doesn’t stop after the beatification. The foundation will continue to pursue his sainthood cause; there are already more reported miracles to be investigated.
Work has also begun in Peoria on the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Experience, a cultural center in the former Spalding Institute, where Archbishop Sheen attended high school.
“I’m hopeful this is a moment where people are able to see, through Sheen, how they are called to participate in the work of the Gospel, so that we can all walk away from this experience giving gratitude for the witness of Sheen,” Bishop Tylka said. “We can continue to deepen that friendship with him and pray to him for his intercession and his strength, so that we can go forward, living out the faith we’re called to do as part of the mission today.”
Jacob Fitzpatrick, right, and Ailan Peralta toured the Fulton J. Sheen Museum on Aug. 11 inside the Diocese of Peoria’s Spalding Pastoral Center in Peoria, Illinois. Archbishop Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24 at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. Fitzpatrick, whose home parish is St. Gabriel the Archangel in St. Louis, and Peralta are seminarians with the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Sheen beatification events
Tuesday, Sept. 15 – Wednesday, Sept. 23: Nine-day novena of Holy Hours, 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria
Saturday, Sept. 19: Family Holy Hour and tours, 10 a.m.-noon at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria
Sunday, Sept. 20: Anniversary Mass of Sheen’s ordination, 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria
Wednesday, Sept. 23: Vespers (Evening Prayer), 5 p.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis. This is a private event but a livestream will be available.
Wednesday, Sept. 23: Young Adult Holy Hour with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, 7:30-9 p.m. at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France (Old Cathedral). The evening will include eucharistic adoration with music, preaching and confessions.
Thursday, Sept. 24: Beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen at The Dome at America’s Center. Doors open at 8 a.m. Celebrate Sheen Pre-Mass Show starts at 10 a.m. Beatification Mass is at 2 p.m., followed by veneration of Sheen’s relic from 4-6 p.m. Adoration, confession and an expo will also be available.
Friday, Sept. 25: Masses of Thanksgiving, 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria
Friday, Sept. 25: Parish talks, 10 a.m. at St. Jude in Peoria, noon at St. Philomena in Peoria, and 2 p.m. at St. Thomas the Apostle in Peoria Heights
Friday, Sept. 25: Sheen Awards Gala honoring individuals who use their platform to promote faith, 6 p.m. at the Peoria Civic Center
Saturday, Sept. 26: Masses of Thanksgiving, 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria
Saturday, Sept. 26: Byzantine Divine Liturgy, 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria
For more details and to purchase event tickets, visit celebratesheen.com.
Sheen’s cause for canonization
Dec. 9, 1979: Archbishop Fulton Sheen dies in New York City.
2002: Sheen’s cause for canonization is officially opened by the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints. He is given the title Servant of God.
2008: On Feb. 3, a Mass is held at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria to mark the end of the inquiry into Sheen’s life and works. Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, postulator for the cause, was commissioned to take the boxes containing Sheen’s writings and thousands of pages of testimony to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The investigation into Sheen’s heroic virtue is opened in Rome on April 15.
2010: James Fulton Engstrom was nonresponsive for 61 minutes after birth before his heart began to beat. His family and friends asked for miraculous healing through Sheen’s intercession.
2011: The positio on the life and works of Archbishop Sheen was presented to Pope Benedict XVI on May 25. On Sept. 7, a tribunal was opened to investigate the alleged miraculous healing of James Engstrom through Sheen’s intercession. The tribunal is closed on Dec. 11 after three months of interviewing witnesses and gathering information.
2012: Pope Benedict declares Sheen “Venerable” on June 28. The medical positio on James Engstrom’s healing is submitted to the congregation.
2014: The medical experts and theological advisors to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints approve the alleged miracle, affirming no natural cause could be found for his recovery and it had happened because of faith in Jesus and Sheen’s intercession.
2019: Sheen’s remains are moved from New York to the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria. On July 6, Pope Francis approves the miracle, opening the way for Sheen’s beatification. On Dec. 3, the cause was paused after a request by a few U.S. bishops for more time for study and deliberation.
2026: On Feb. 9, the Diocese of Peoria announces that the Vatican has given the green light to proceed with Sheen’s beatification. Sheen will be beatified on Sept. 24 in St. Louis.
Visit the Fulton J. Sheen Museum and tomb
Archbishop Fulton Sheen Museum
Located in the Spalding Pastoral Center, 419 NE Madison Ave. in Peoria
Regular hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-noon Saturday
Admission: free
For special hours during the week of beatification, visit celebratesheen.com/museum.
Archbishop Sheen’s tomb
Located in the Cathedral of St. Mary, 607 NE Madison Ave. in Peoria
Regular hours: noon-2 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon-3 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sunday
For special hours during the week of beatification, visit celebratesheen.com/tomb.
