Full Sheen Ahead

Just as a starting note: we launched a new segment on the show today to help prepare for the Beatification next month. It’ll feature “best of” moments from +Sheen’s body of work, on radio and television. I’ll share it intermittenly on the podcast, but the best way to listen to this segment is on SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel, weekday mornings during The Katie McGrady Show at 7:30 CT, with a replay at 10:30 CT.

I was sitting in the Midtown Manhattan SiriusXM studios, happily broadcasting away, when the text from Msgr. Roger Landry came through the morning of March 25th:

“I’m available”

In “media speak” that means that something is breaking and we’ve got the experts ready to comment.

The date for the Beatification of Fulton J. Sheen had finally been set, for the week of his priestly ordination, Thursday, September 24, and it was set to be held in St. Louis, Missouri.

I happily got Msgr. Landry on the air, and following our lovely conversation about what exactly this all meant and why it was so significant to finally have a date, I found myself walking down to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pray in the very same place Fulton Sheen frequented, and was first buried.

As I knelt in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in March, on the Feast of the Annunication no less, I couldn’t help but think that the delay from +Sheen’s beatification in 2019 was a bit of providence in action.

Back in December of 2019, +Sheen was set to be beatified in the Cathedral in Peoria, IL where he’d been ordained, where he once altar served, and where now his mortal remains rest, visited by thousands of pilgrims each year.

About a thousand lucky souls would’ve been there in person, with many more likely watching some sort of live stream, and the media apostle would’ve been raised to the altars with most people viewing it from a screen, as he was so often viewed in life.

But the delay from the Vatican, triggered by the various grand jury investigations happening in New York (though +Sheen was never really question), was a bit of a gut punch, saddening many and confusing more.

And yet, all things work together for God’s good.

7 years later, +Sheen will be beatified in the 250th birthday year of the United States, in the time of an American born Pope who watched +Sheen on TV as a boy in Illinois, elevated to the altars in a football stadium that once held a Papal Mass, with thousands able to be there in person to celebrate a beloved hero of the Church.

Somehow, because God is crafty and I think +Sheen pulled some heavenly strings, I’ve found myself part of the team helping to plan this Beatification.

I have the remarkable honor of hosting the Celebrate Sheen program happening in the Dome of the America Center in St. Louis on September 24, and throughout the morning and into the early afternoon before Mass begins at 2 p.m., we will guide you through a day telling the story of +Sheen and inviting us all to long and work for holiness as he did.

Doors open at 8 a.m. The rosary begins at 10, with the program to follow. Mass is at 2.

Join us for Celebrate Sheen

This will be the first Beatification on U. S. soil since Blessed Stanley Rother1 in 2017, and I’d go so far as to say the first Beatification on this scale maybe ever, and not because +Sheen is holier than anyone else beatified before, but because of the sheer scope and reach of his ministry.

A phrase has come up repeatedly throughout our planning these past few months: +Sheen belongs to the world. And he does.

There are watch parties for the Beatification being planned globally. There are people traveling from far and wide to be there in St. Louis when the proclamation is read and in Peoria after to pray in thanksgiving, not wanting to miss the chance to venerate his relics for the first time on the day we can call him Blessed. A man known for his radio and TV ministry, the life of Fulton Sheen is not just one of fame and fortune, but instead of every day holiness that was broadcast and shared around the world thanks to radio and TV. We anticipate thousands gathered in person and thousands more watching online as we begin to call him Blessed.

But just as much as we can say “Sheen belongs to the world,” I’ve also come to realize that Fulton J. Sheen belongs to each of us, personally.

This is what our saintly friends do. They sort of “hunt us down from heaven” and find a way to become embedded in our lives.

When I prayed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on March 25, in the end grateful for the 7 year delay that brought us to this 2026 beatification, I felt a very strong sense that I might not just be a passive spectator for this moment.

I’d attend the beatification, without question. Wouldn’t miss it. And, I’d even try to convince SiriusXM to broadcast the day (which we are doing, so do not fear, if you’re a listener of The Catholic Channel, you’ll hear the whole thing!) But a small part of me just felt, deep down, that maybe I could help in some way.

7 years ago, I had started a small podcast interviewing amazing Catholics. +Sheen was a hero of mine, and plenty of others. Today, I’ve got a bit of a deeper rolodex of contacts and a longer CV, along with some media experience. And, in the spirit of +Sheen who did his level best to show up and do whatever he could to advance the Gospel, I chipped in as best I could.

Within the week, I found myself on the phone with people from the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, sitting on a planning committee to help dream about the day, was invited to help host the morning to guide people as we ready for the Mass, and a month out I can tell you that the work that has gone into preparing for the Beatification of Fulton J. Sheen will result in unforgettable days to Celebrate Sheen.

I say this in no uncertain terms: if you can be there on September 24, be there.

We will not get to do this on American soil again.

A canonization, God willing soon, will happen in Rome someday. But this, a Beatification — this is a day that we get to tell Fulton Sheen’s story ourselves, remembering him, learning from him, and proclaiming his life as one worthy of emulation and celebration. Beatifications often happen “at home,” because the local cultus, the people who are most deeply devoted to a holy hero, get to celebrate them where they lived and worked and served the Lord.

I mean it: don’t miss it. Join us in St. Louis, and make the trip to Peoria to pray at +Sheen’s tomb either before or after.

We literally decided last week that Tommy and the girls are going to come, because again, when else will we get to do this? Bring the family. Consider it the ultimate Catholic family pilgrimage and field trip. Help us celebrate +Sheen in heaven.

A few weeks before his death, Fulton Sheen traded letters with Pope John Paul II, who’d recently visited New York, embracing +Sheen in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

St. John Paul II said this to the soon to be Blessed Fulton J. Sheen:

“…God called you to proclaim in an extraordinary way his dyamnic word. With great zeal you accepted this call, and directed your many talents to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ…God has touched th elives of millions of the men and women of our time. They have listened to you on radio, watched you on television, profited from your many literary achievements and participated in spiritual conferences conducted by you. And so with St. Paul, ‘I thank my God whenever I think of you…’”

There’s a party in heaven come September 24th, when +Sheen will be called Blessed. I have no doubt these two saintly men will be smiling down upon those singing praises to Heaven for the life and mission and ministry of an Illinois farmboy who was touched by God to be a voice to the ages.

So come celebrate with us in St. Louis, and soon to be Bl. Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us.

Kickoff Celebration Registration