(OSV News) — When Bishop Louis Tylka was named bishop of Peoria, Illinois, in 2020, he inherited the responsibility for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s cause for canonization.
“People have been praying for this moment, they have been looking forward to it, and now that it’s happening, they’re overwhelmed,” Bishop Tylka said Sept. 24 during an interview a short time before Archbishop Sheen’s beatification Mass in St. Louis. “I hear so many stories, literally from around the world, of people whose lives have been touched by Fulton Sheen, and now there’s a whole new generation coming to know him.”
Bishop Tylka and other experts on the life and legacy of Archbishop Sheen joined Catholic media personalities and musicians for the three-hour “Celebrate Sheen Show,” which took place on the same stage at The Dome at America’s Center where the Mass would be celebrated later that afternoon.
Emceed by Katie Prejean McGrady, who hosts the morning show on SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel, the “Celebrate Sheen Show” included Bishop Tylka of Peoria, where Archbishop Sheen was ordained a priest and his remains are now interred; Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, retired archbishop of New York, where Archbishop Sheen served as an auxiliary bishop from 1951-1966; and Sister Josephine Garrett, a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth and prominent author and speaker.
Retired Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria, a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, who opened Archbishop Sheen’s cause for canonization, shared his reflections on Archbishop Sheen via video.
Musicians included Matt Maher, Sarah Kroger, Simon Dumas, and Dave and Lauren Moore.
World Mission Rosary
Around 50,000 tickets were sold for the Mass and related events at The Dome, organizers said that morning. As attendees prayerfully prepared for the Mass, priests from around the world led the faithful in a special multicolored rosary designed by Archbishop Sheen during his service as national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, from 1950 to 1966, to remind the faithful to pray for the whole world.
The Pontifical Mission Societies issued a call for rosaries on May 1, asking individuals and groups to donate 1,000 or more handmade rosaries to the cause. They announced that “thanks to the extraordinary generosity of thousands of rosary makers across the country, we have reached our goal of 75,000 rosaries,” which were blessed and distributed to those at the beatification.
Following the rosary, Sister Josephine reflected with those gathered on Archbishop Sheen’s prayer life, looking at “what God did in Sheen because Sheen prayed.”
‘Today is about your heart’
Through prayer, God “tethered” Archbishop Sheen to his priesthood, Sister Josephine said, quoting his reflection that “we tend to wander, but when you are tethered to a tabernacle, it gets harder to wander very far into other pastures.”
“When we want to know something of the Lord, when we want to know something of our faith,” she said, “we will spend hours in front of a computer and minutes in front of a tabernacle. But Sheen said that God gave him the gift of knowledge through his life of prayer.”
Archbishop Sheen loved the cross because he fell in love with Christ in prayer, she said, noting that physical suffering — including the recovery from open-heart surgery he described in his autobiography, “Treasure in Clay” — helped him discover what he called “areas of his heart where he was still an atheist.”
“Today is about your heart,” she told the crowd gathered in The Dome, inviting them to “prayer in the areas of your heart where there still may be a little atheism. Prayer in the areas of your heart where there may still be a little opportunity to hand something over.”
‘We’re praying for one more miracle’
Archbishop Sheen’s cause for canonization was opened by the Diocese of Peoria in 2002, and in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI recognized the archbishop’s heroic virtue, declaring him “venerable.”
Bishop Tylka told McGrady that “we’re praying for one more miracle” which is “the last step before being declared a saint.” In 2019, Pope Francis “signed off” on the beatification miracle, the 2010 recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, who had been stillborn and without a pulse for 61 minutes, and who is today a healthy 16-year-old living in suburban Peoria.
Any reported miracles attributed to Archbishop Sheen that have been reported after that date in 2019 could be investigated as the second miracle needed for the Holy See to approve Archbishop Sheen’s canonization, when the Church would recognize the archbishop as a saint. Already, there are potentially six reported miracles that may help move the cause forward, Bishop Tylka said.
He reflected on receiving Archbishop Sheen’s remains from New York for reinterment in Peoria’s cathedral, an event that corresponded with Bishop Tylka’s 30th anniversary of his priesthood. Reopening the casket and seeing Archbishop Sheen’s skeleton was a stark reminder of everyone’s mortality, no matter how great one’s accomplishments, he said.
The bishop was entrusted with redressing Archbishop Sheen’s remains in vestments, and before the casket closed, he added his own rosary from Lourdes.
Jawbone relic to be presented at Mass
Bishop Tylka also participated in selecting certain bones for relics. Among them was Archbishop Sheen’s jawbone, which was designated as the major relic that James Engstrom would present during the beatification Mass.
“The thought was that Sheen, who spoke so eloquently and who taught in word, and in the way in which he proclaimed the Gospel, that the jaw, from his very mouth, that would become the principal relic,” said Msgr. Jason Gray, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria who led the diocesan investigation into Archbishop Sheen’s sainthood cause, and who is now the executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation.
McGrady said it felt “quite stunning to think that the jaw that moved up and down in front of millions to bring the Gospel, we now get to stand in front of and say, ‘Pray for us,’ and to pray big prayers.”
Cardinal Dolan spoke just before the beatification Mass got underway and offered a reflection on Archbishop Sheen’s “passionate devotion to Jesus really and truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
Archbishop Sheen “would repeat, ‘All my life is centered around a piece of unleavened white bread, the size of a quarter, the Most Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion,'” the cardinal said.
He invited those gathered to “make this beatification an opportunity to exercise our faith muscle” and make their own practice of professing before the Eucharist, as Archbishop Sheen did, “My Lord and my God.”
McGrady asked Bishop Tylka for his message for people who pray for Archbishop Sheen’s intercession.
“When you pray for the intercession of Fulton Sheen,” he said, “I would hope that you pray that you are inspired by his witness first and foremost, that you develop that deep understanding of how much God loves you and why it is so important as people of prayer to spend time with Jesus, to allow Jesus to come into our lives.”
Lauretta Brown is OSV News culture editor, and Maria Wiering is OSV News senior managing editor. Gina Christian, OSV News multimedia reporter, contributed to this story from St. Louis.
