Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love? The above is a popular quote by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Sheen is an American Roman Catholic archbishop whose fame in preaching on TV and radio precede him. Seen as the first ever televangelist, his programs brought Catholicism to more than 30 million American households.
In May 1895, Sheen was given birth to and named Fulton John Sheen in Illinois. The family later moved to Peoria where Fulton attended mass in a local church and in fact became an altar boy there. In the same church, he was ordained into priesthood years later. He went to schools around his home area for his basic education.
After his degree, he went for his doctorate in philosophy in Belgium at the University of Leuven. While there, he became the first American to win the Cardinal Mercier prize an award seeking to recognize contribution to International Philosophy. After serving in different regions, he was ordained a bishop in New York.
Fulton began his media evangelism in 1930 through a Sunday night radio broadcast weekly. It was around the time for World War II which he associated with not a theological struggle. It was during this time that he conducted the first service ever to be conducted on new media that was radio and television. His television program became so popular that he won an Emmy Award.
Archbishop Fulton was not short of controversy. Probably one of his most remembered episodes was in 1953 when he denounced publicly the reign of Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. Using the burial scene from the Shakespeare play of Julius Caesar, he predicted doom to Stalin and other Soviet leaders. Shocking enough, a few days later Stalin suffered a stroke which killed him within the same week.
Fulton faced his death as a result of a heart condition having undergone an open heart surgery in 1979. He was buried in a crypt in the cathedral he served in New York which is to blame for his delayed journey to his sainthood. Cause for canonization was begun in the year 2002 and was granted the Servant of God title. A decade later, the Vatican approved the journey towards his beatification by bestowing him the title of Venerable.
Performing a miracle is one of the prerequisite for beatification. The miracle ought to be an event that cannot be explained by any scientific techniques. For Sheen, a mother to an infant who had delivered a still born baby boy claims to have prayed to him to heal his boy. Despite the fact that the boy was in that state for 61 minutes and doctors had failed to resuscitate him, he survived and does not bear any physical or mental impairment. This case was proven to be a miracle indeed by a specialized medical team from Vatican.
The infant miracle has brought the Sheen beatification journey into its final stages conferring to him the title blessed. Coincidentally, this is an important journey towards canonization. The present challenge is to have his remains examined at his home church in Peoria and the tussle with the church in New York has continuously delayed the process. All his followers can hope for is an eventual canonization.
In May 1895, Sheen was given birth to and named Fulton John Sheen in Illinois. The family later moved to Peoria where Fulton attended mass in a local church and in fact became an altar boy there. In the same church, he was ordained into priesthood years later. He went to schools around his home area for his basic education.
After his degree, he went for his doctorate in philosophy in Belgium at the University of Leuven. While there, he became the first American to win the Cardinal Mercier prize an award seeking to recognize contribution to International Philosophy. After serving in different regions, he was ordained a bishop in New York.
Fulton began his media evangelism in 1930 through a Sunday night radio broadcast weekly. It was around the time for World War II which he associated with not a theological struggle. It was during this time that he conducted the first service ever to be conducted on new media that was radio and television. His television program became so popular that he won an Emmy Award.
Archbishop Fulton was not short of controversy. Probably one of his most remembered episodes was in 1953 when he denounced publicly the reign of Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. Using the burial scene from the Shakespeare play of Julius Caesar, he predicted doom to Stalin and other Soviet leaders. Shocking enough, a few days later Stalin suffered a stroke which killed him within the same week.
Fulton faced his death as a result of a heart condition having undergone an open heart surgery in 1979. He was buried in a crypt in the cathedral he served in New York which is to blame for his delayed journey to his sainthood. Cause for canonization was begun in the year 2002 and was granted the Servant of God title. A decade later, the Vatican approved the journey towards his beatification by bestowing him the title of Venerable.
Performing a miracle is one of the prerequisite for beatification. The miracle ought to be an event that cannot be explained by any scientific techniques. For Sheen, a mother to an infant who had delivered a still born baby boy claims to have prayed to him to heal his boy. Despite the fact that the boy was in that state for 61 minutes and doctors had failed to resuscitate him, he survived and does not bear any physical or mental impairment. This case was proven to be a miracle indeed by a specialized medical team from Vatican.
The infant miracle has brought the Sheen beatification journey into its final stages conferring to him the title blessed. Coincidentally, this is an important journey towards canonization. The present challenge is to have his remains examined at his home church in Peoria and the tussle with the church in New York has continuously delayed the process. All his followers can hope for is an eventual canonization.
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