Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

HIS NAME | FULTON J. SHEEN

His mother named him Peter John, after each of his grandfathers, PJ for short. But whenever he would cry his mother would give him to her father, Mr. Fulton, to walk him. The townspeople called him “Fulton’s child” so often that the name stuck. He later took it to himself: Fulton J. Sheen.

A SIMPLE SET | CHALK AND CHURCH

I first learned of Bishop Sheen when Father McDonald gave me audio CDs of his radio talks, but the world knew him well already as the host of the award-winning TV program opposite Milton Berle called Life is Worth Living. His show was very simple - he had a chalkboard and the Church. But, as they said of Our Lord, “No man ever spoke as that man speaks,” Bishop Sheen was among the most gifted orators of the 20th century. Still, he was fond of thanking his writers at the end of the show: “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

AGAINST COMMUNISM | A VOCAL CRITIC

The 20th century is numbered among the bloodiest in history, and Communism had a lot to do with that. It wasn’t easy to speak publicly against the errors of that totalitarian ideology, but Bishop Sheen did not cower. History will remember him as one of the last century’s strongest voices raised on behalf of the oppressed.

THE HOLY HOUR | SOURCE OF HIS POWER

Bishop Sheen’s power and influence came not from the State but from God. And he was devoted to the telling of how he received it from God - his daily Holy Hour. If it has since become popular to speak of “making a Holy Hour,” that is because of Bishop Sheen. He would say things like, “When I speak, people listen! Why? It isn’t any power of mine. It is the Lord speaking through me. I am merely a poor vessel. Still, He offers us the treasure of Himself in the Eucharist.” The name of Bishop Sheen’s autobiography was Treasure in Clay.

AQUAINTED WITH SUFFERING | HIS CROSS

Pope Pius XII sided with Sheen in a dispute against Cardinal Spellman, the Archbishop of New York at the time. Enraged, Spellman barred Bishop Sheen from New York City churches and had him reassigned to the Diocese of Rochester. Sheen bore it humbly, choosing not to hate his enemy but to pray for him.

PROLIFIC AUTHOR | AND TIMELY TEACHER

Bishop Sheen wrote more than 50 books about the spiritual life and the Church, because he was a life-long student. A woman close to him recalled finding that he had written careful notes all throughout a book she had given him only a few hours earlier. He was a teacher at heart. Bishop Sheen came of age shortly after Pope Leo XIII called for a renewal of Aquinas’ theology. One of that revival’s greatest fruits, Bishop Sheen became one of its most effective popularizers. But ever the saint, he left all his writings and talks to the public domain so that no one publisher would have exclusive rights to the archive of his legacy.

MAN ALIVE | ALWAYS GOOD FOR A JOKE

Let’s end with a joke Bishop Sheen was fond of telling. “There are two types of people in the world: those who wake up and say ‘Good morning, God!’ and those who wake up and say, ‘Good God, morning.’” Bishop Sheen gave morning, noon, and night to God, until he died in his chapel. He often prayed for the grace to die on one of Our Lady’s Feasts, but was found dead on December 9th. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if he passed just before midnight, on the 8th. +