Author: Eric Deabill

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM METZ TO ROME (CNS) – In light of growing concerns about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, Pope Leo XIV told journalists he can still “sleep at night,” even as he cautioned against dismissing warnings about the risks the developing technology could pose to humanity.

“If someone were to ask me, am I in panic mode? No, I’m not,” he said Sept. 28 following his four-day apostolic journey to France. “I sleep at night.”

“I do think that the concerns raised by many of the experts, specialists in AI, should be taken seriously,” he said. “I don’t think that that is fake news.”

Protecting human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence has been a cornerstone of Pope Leo’s teaching for months. He dedicated his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” to AI and its role in society, urging governments, technology companies and the public to ensure that technological development remains at the service of humanity.

The pope told journalists that the Vatican has formed its own commission on artificial intelligence, initially as a way to coordinate how AI is being used within Vatican City and to examine its risks and benefits.

Since the publication of his encyclical, however, the Vatican has been contacted by people working in numerous fields interested in the issue, he said.

“We are trying to continue to promote dialogue, study, investigation, to find ways to make sure that AI does not get to a point where it could destroy humanity or remove humanity from the conversation,” Pope Leo said.

“I am relatively optimistic that that can happen,” he added, saying there are enough people seriously interested in addressing the risks. But he warned against allowing questions of power, competition and the race toward artificial general intelligence to dictate its development.

“We have to keep working,” he said. “We can’t just sit back and pretend nothing is going to happen.”

“To simply say, ‘Oh, it’s not going to happen,’ and close our eyes to it, I think is probably not the most responsible way to go about that,” he said.

While in France, the pope repeatedly urged political and social leaders to place human dignity at the center of the development and use of artificial intelligence.

Speaking Sept. 25 at the Élysée Palace in Paris to French President Emmanuel Macron, government officials, civil society leaders and the diplomatic corps, Pope Leo warned against losing humanity amid what he called a “paradise of machines” and said ethical discernment is indispensable if technological progress is to promote integral human development.

Recent incidents involving unsupervised AI agents have intensified debates over safety measures for increasingly autonomous systems. During the in-flight news conference, Pope Leo noted reports that AI companies were working to introduce “guardrails” and limits into their systems.

“There is no one, however, that says there should be no limits placed and no government regulation,” he said, calling for political leaders, technology companies and civil society to work together to examine “what is happening already and what could be down the road.”

During the roughly 20-minute news conference, Pope Leo also addressed clergy sexual abuse, the rise of far-right political movements in Europe, the war in Ukraine, France’s tradition of strict secularism and the housing crisis affecting many European cities.

During his visit, Pope Leo met privately with seven people who had suffered sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Following the meeting, some of the survivors told reporters that the pope had acknowledged the systemic nature of abuse in the Church.

Asked about those accounts on the flight, Pope Leo said several of the survivors had spoken to him about systemic abuse and acknowledged that some organizations within the Church had, at times, been abusive “as a system.” But he said he preferred to distinguish between those cases and sexual abuse more broadly.

“Sexual abuse is first and foremost a human problem,” he said. “When it happens within the Church, it actually has another whole dimension added to it because people’s lives of faith are deeply wounded and sometimes even destroyed.”

“There’s a particular responsibility of the Church to walk with them and to help them seek healing,” he said.

The pope also responded to a question about the growth of far-right political movements in Germany and their relationship with Christianity.

Pope Leo said it would be worthwhile to examine whether there is a relationship between the decline in participation in Germany’s Christian churches and the growth of far-right groups, noting that some of those movements have themselves splintered as factions become more extreme.

He particularly warned about attempts to combine far-right political views with religion, saying Catholic and Protestant leaders in Germany have spoken out against such movements as “not an authentic expression of Christianity.”

The values of the Gospel, he said, “are not about hatred and division, but about understanding and compassion and accompanying.”

He expressed hope that people would participate in political life and “make clear choices for the common good and not for extremist ideas that perhaps will do much more damage than we are even aware of right now.”

“Again, on our part as a Church, social doctrine of the Church: talking about, teaching about, preaching about what we believe are these life-giving values and not destruction, division and hatred,” he said.

Asked about France’s tradition of strict secularism, known as “laïcité,” and whether his repeated defense of human life during the trip had crossed the line between religion and politics, Pope Leo said he did not believe it had.

“When the Church speaks about defending life, when it speaks about questions of social doctrine, we’re not entering into politics, we’re applying the Gospel to people’s lives,” he said.

The pope repeatedly spoke against euthanasia during the trip, including during his visit to Lourdes, as France implements recently approved legislation permitting the practice under certain circumstances.

“If that’s politics, I did that, but it was not to get involved in French politics,” Pope Leo told journalists. “It was to teach what the Church really believes.”

Pope Leo was also asked to clarify comments he made earlier in the trip that countries must have the courage to sacrifice certain positions for the greater good of peace, particularly in relation to Russia’s war against Ukraine.

He reiterated the Church’s opposition to violence, hatred and an escalating arms race, criticizing the enormous sums spent on weapons while hunger, health, education and other human needs remain unmet. The pope said the Church must continue to encourage negotiations even when diplomatic efforts appear to have little effect.

“I believe that the Church has a responsibility to promote these values, continually inviting the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, other countries, to come, to sit down, to dialogue, to look for how to solve problems without continuing these wars that no longer make sense,” he said.

“We cannot force anyone,” he added. “Sometimes it seems that it can be useless, but we are going to keep talking, we are going to keep inviting, we are going to keep announcing the Gospel.”

The pope also called for greater cooperation among governments, local communities and the Church in confronting housing crises that have made it increasingly difficult for people, particularly young people, to afford homes in major European cities.

A Spanish journalist asked Pope Leo about the case of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman with a disability who was forcibly removed Sept. 23 from the Madrid apartment where she had lived for more than seven decades.

Abascal had lived in the apartment since 1956 under Spain’s old system of rent-controlled leases, but subsequent changes to national rental law restricted the inheritance of such contracts. A court ultimately ruled that her decades-old lease had expired.

Pope Leo said he was unfamiliar with Abascal’s particular case but said situations like hers demonstrate the need to search for “more just solutions so that these cases don’t happen.”

“I think it would be a case where the neighbors, the community, the parish, the diocese or the state would have to come together and say: How is it possible for a case like this to happen?” he said. “What is the problem in the system that allows the case of an elderly woman with a disability or with some difficulty to be kicked out of her home?”

The Church speaks both about the throwaway culture and injustice, he said, but the housing crisis requires action from political leaders and public authorities as well.

“Many times we react only at the moment of emergency,” he said, “but we have to see in reality what is the systemic cause of this problem and how to help.”

Asked about his future travel plans beyond Latin America in November, and when he might visit Germany, Pope Leo said no date had been set.

“The only trip definitely planned is World Youth Day in Korea,” he said, which is scheduled for August 2027.

WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) – Two days after surviving a knife attack that killed a fellow priest, Father Adrian Mantykiewicz returned to the altar at the Benedictine sisters’ abbey in Jaroslaw with a message centered on forgiveness.

“As a disciple of Jesus Christ, in my own name, in Father Marek’s name and in Father Stanislaw’s name, I want to say very clearly that we forgive,” Father Mantykiewicz said during a Sept. 26 Mass at the Benedictine Sisters’ abbey in Jaroslaw in a homily that has since gone viral in Poland, sparking thousands of reactions from politicians, clergy and other users on social media.

It was the first Mass celebrated at the abbey after the Sept. 24 attack, in which five people were stabbed. Father Stanislaw Zbojniewicz died from his injuries. Father Mantykiewicz was treated and released from the hospital the same day. The abbey said Sept. 25 that Father Marek Pienkowski remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

“In a special way, I ask you to pray for our attacker and for the grace of conversion for him,” Father Mantykiewicz said. “I say these words from the depths of my heart. He needs this prayer most of all.”

“Whatever happened, the evil that took place here in our abbey, we must overcome with goodness, love and forgiveness,” he said.

The suspect in the attack is a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen. Father Mantykiewicz directly addressed the danger of allowing one man’s crime to become a reason for hostility toward Ukrainians living in Poland.

“I also want to ask you not to blame the nation from which the attacker came, because the evil was committed by a specific person,” he said. “A specific person, who has his own name, his own life and is responsible for his own actions. Other people did not do this. It was one person.”

He urged those listening not to “respond to evil with evil,” but with “love, support, understanding and care.” “I ask you to respect the people who live in our abbey, in our city, in our province and in our country,” he said. “I ask you to respect and support one another as two brotherly nations.”

Right after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, Poles engaged in a massive charity campaign, accepting Ukrainians in their homes, and the border city of Jaroslaw was first on this front. But today, amid colder political relations between the two nations over historical disputes, the sentiment of the society faded as well, and some Poles were quick to blame an attack of this kind on the whole Ukrainian nation.

The priest connected his appeal to the abbey’s experience after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“When the war in Ukraine broke out, you remember well what was happening in our abbey — that we were open to people who came here, people who needed help, support, care, love, sometimes simply ordinary human kindness,” he said.

“No one here was left without help,” he added, recalling that members of the community sometimes worked through the night assisting those who arrived. Father Mantykiewicz asked that the abbey’s efforts to help Ukrainians after the war began not “go to waste.”

Meanwhile, prosecutors have drawn up charges against the suspect, identified as Ihor M., including murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. Prosecutors said psychiatric experts found that he was experiencing acute psychotic symptoms that currently prevent him from participating in procedural actions.

On Sept. 26 a court ordered him held for three months, with the detention to be carried out in a hospital ward with enhanced security. The Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reported that Ihor M. has a police record in Germany regarding an incident with officers and was entered into a Czech database as an undesirable person. The newspaper said the preliminary information had been obtained by Polish police from foreign law enforcement services. Prosecutors have not publicly established a motive for the attack.

The abbey said funeral rites for Father Zbojniewicz, 67, who had been a priest for 40 years, would begin Sept. 28 in Jaroslaw with a rosary and Mass celebrated by Archbishop Adam Szal of Przemysl. His funeral Mass and burial are scheduled for Sept. 29 in his home village of Grzeska.

“Let us care for one another,” Father Mantykiewicz told the congregation. “And let us love all those whom we meet on the road of our lives.”

ST. LOUIS (OSV News) – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen – the 20th-century theologian, evangelizer, Catholic communications pioneer, teacher and preacher – is now Blessed Fulton J. Sheen.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a pro-prefect for the Holy See’s Dicastery for Evangelization and papal delegate, pronounced the Church’s declaration on Archbishop Sheen’s holiness of life and witness to Jesus Christ at a Sept. 24 Mass celebrated in The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.

To the applause of pilgrims, Cardinal Tagle described Archbishop Sheen as a “son of Illinois, son of the United States of America” and “indeed, son of the world.”

Hundreds of clergy, including dozens of bishops and cardinals, had processed into the arena for the Mass as choirs, accompanied by an orchestra, performed a succession of hymns. The priests’ vestments were embroidered with “JMJ,” Archbishop Sheen’s signature dedication to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

The location had been selected by Archbishop Sheen’s home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the number of pilgrims who arrived for the beatification and its surrounding events. Around 50,000 people were in attendance, according to organizers.

During a press conference a few hours prior to the Mass, Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria said that almost every U.S. state and several additional nations were represented by pilgrims. A number of the faithful hailed from Italy, Poland and Brazil, he said.

Close to 90 bishops, some 1,000 priests, an estimated 1,600 men and women religious, and almost 250 deacons were present, added Bishop Tylka, who wore Archbishop Sheen’s pectoral cross. Among the concelebrating prelates was Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The beatification — a papal act affirming an individual’s presence in heaven is worthy of belief — officially occurred between the liturgy’s Penitential Rite and the Gloria. Bishop Tylka made a formal request for Archbishop Sheen’s beatification to Cardinal Tagle.

A short biography of Archbishop Sheen, who was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895 and died in New York in 1979, was read by Archbishop Sheen’s great-nephew, Paul Cunningham, after which Cardinal Tagle proclaimed the apostolic letter from Pope Leo XIV declaring the beatification in Latin. Bishop Tylka then read the letter in English, as applause followed both.

With the papal decree’s public proclamation, Archbishop Sheen became formally counted among the Church’s “beati,” from the Latin word for “blessed.”

James Fulton Engstrom — whose revival from stillbirth in 2010, attributed to Archbishop Sheen’s intercession, was formally declared the miracle that moved Archbishop Sheen to beatification — processed with his parents and siblings to present a major relic of Archbishop Sheen during the liturgy.

Enclosed in a special case called a reliquary, the relic is Archbishop Sheen’s mandible, or jawbone, chosen because it represents the archbishop’s tremendous gifts as an orator, teacher and evangelist.

As part of the beatification, a portrait of a haloed Blessed Fulton Sheen was also unveiled. In the image, he is notably holding a piece of chalk, which he famously used — along with a blackboard — during his Emmy-winning television show, “Life Is Worth Living.”

The image was also simultaneously unveiled in the Diocese of Peoria at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.

The first reading from the beatification Mass, Isaiah 52:7-10, was delivered in Spanish, with the second reading, 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 5-7, proclaimed in Portuguese, while the Gospel taken from Mark 16:15-20 was proclaimed in English. The prayers of the faithful were offered in a variety of other languages, illustrating both the universal character of the Church and also the missionary mindset of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, who served as the U.S. director for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

In his homily, Cardinal Tagle praised Archbishop Sheen as a “storyteller of Jesus” and “a “missionary who digs deep into the heart of the poor to meet Jesus there.”

The cardinal noted then-Bishop Sheen’s passionate advocacy for the poor during the Second Vatican Council. During the 1964 discussions on the document “Ad Gentes,” on the missionary activity of the Church, then-Bishop Sheen asked his brother bishops to “affirm” the notion of poverty and the bishops who came from poor and suffering parts of the Church.

“As only a wounded Christ could convert a doubting Thomas, so only a Church wounded by poverty can convert a doubting world,” he said.

Cardinal Tagle commended Archbishop Sheen for making genuine connections with the people he met and to whom he preached and ministered.

“The missionary evangelizer is blessed by the communion with persons and peoples, especially the poor and vulnerable, and this is communion in the name of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Cardinal Tagle shared how Archbishop Sheen told a friend, who asked why he became a priest, that he was called to share the Gospel and tell the story of Jesus.

“I never tire of telling it; I never tire of improving my telling of it. I love my calling,” Archbishop Sheen said, as Cardinal Tagle recounted.

In remarks after Communion, Bishop Tylka urged all attendees to pray for Archbishop Sheen’s canonization, leading them together in a prayer for that intention.

“It is God who has given the Church the extraordinary witness of the man we may now call Blessed Fulton J. Sheen,” he said.

Thanking the many prelates involved in the Mass, including Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, whose archdiocese hosted the beatification, and representatives from the Archdiocese of New York, Diocese of Rochester and the Pontifical Mission Societies, Bishop Tylka noted, “Your presence today is a beautiful reminder that while Peoria is incredibly proud to call Fulton Sheen one of our own, he is a gift to the whole Church.”

Bishop Tylka also expressed his gratitude to Archbishop Sheen’s family, individuals and benefactors involved in preparations and liturgy, and the faithful who made the pilgrimage to attend the beatification.

“Fulton Sheen has left us a great legacy,” he said. “He fearlessly proclaimed the Gospel in challenging cultural times. He supported the Church’s missions throughout the world. He won tens of thousands of converts and preached to millions. His time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was the source of his insight into the Son of God. He used every gift God gave him for one purpose: to bring people to Christ. And his legacy is now ours.”

Following the Mass, attendees were invited to remain in prayer to venerate Archbishop Sheen’s relics.

ST. LOUIS (OSV News) – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen – the 20th-century theologian, evangelizer and Catholic communications pioneer – “opened the door to the evangelization of the world,” said Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.

The bishop shared his thoughts on Archbishop Sheen in a Sept. 23 homily at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, where hundreds gathered for vespers a day before the archbishop’s beatification in that city.

Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of St. Louis presided over Evening Prayer, part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church’s continuous cycle of daily prayer at set times.

Although Archbishop Sheen’s canonization cause was introduced in 2002 by his home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, organizers selected St. Louis as the beatification site in order to better accommodate the thousands in attendance.

Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful from around the country — along with Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the U.S. — were on hand for the vespers, which took place on the memorial of St. Pius (Pio) of Pietrelcina.

Addressing the congregation, Bishop Barron said, “I consider it one of the single privileges of my life to be able to preach this homily on the vigil of Fulton Sheen’s beatification.”

He described Archbishop Sheen as “my model and inspiration,” and as “one of the pivotal players in the modern history of the Catholic Church” who emerged amid a mid-20th-century Catholic “renaissance” that included “Graham Greene, Dorothy Day, Jacques Maritain, Henri de Lubac, Thomas Merton, Evelyn Waugh and many others.”

Bishop Barron said Archbishop Sheen was “by common consensus” regarded as “the premier preacher in the English language in the 20th century.”

What made Archbishop Sheen “a blessed, saintly man of God” was his friendship with Jesus Christ, said Bishop Barron.

Archbishop Sheen’s description of his vocational discernment in his autobiography, “Treasure in Clay,” offers “a template for anyone’s relationship to the Lord,” said Bishop Barron.

Citing passages from the book, Bishop Barron said three stages mark the development of that relationship: recognizing God’s transcendent holiness, reckoning with one’s need for redemption and the mandate for mission “as a bearer of grace to others.”

Archbishop Sheen embraced “unmerited divine love,” exemplified in Mary, whom he viewed in accord with Catholic theological tradition as “the prime instance of a human being receiving the unmerited love of God,” said Bishop Barron.

He noted that Mary “haunts the spiritual life of Fulton Sheen, from his baptism in the Church of St. Mary to his ordination in the cathedral dedicated to Mary, to his deep devotion to the rosary, and finally to his more than 30 journeys to Lourdes to visit, as he put it, ‘the woman I love.'”

Bishop Barron said that “nowhere was Fulton Sheen’s rootedness in the grace of Christ more apparent than in his practically lifelong dedication to the Holy Hour — the daily, uninterrupted, hour-long prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.”

The bishop stressed the importance of that practice in his own life, admitting he learned to embrace it from his students while he was rector of Mundelein Seminary from 2012-2015.

“I now savor the Holy Hour … in my private chapel every morning before commencing my work day,” he said.

As he contemplated God’s holiness, Archbishop Sheen was ready “to admit his failures, his bad judgments, his personal weaknesses,” said Bishop Barron.

Through radio and television broadcasts, extensive writings, speaking engagements and missionary travels, Archbishop Sheen devoted his life to making Christ known to the world, said Bishop Barron.

“No one in the 20th century walked the great path of mission with more flair and dedication than Fulton Sheen,” said the bishop.

And, he added, “I believe that Fulton Sheen is, par excellence, the saint of the New Evangelization,” the Church’s renewed commitment — called for in particular by St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II — to fulfill Christ’s command to bring the Gospel to all people.

“Anyone who seeks fresh language to bring the Gospel to our culture, anyone who preaches the ancient word with a heart on fire, anyone who dares to use the media of communication available to us today, is indebted to Fulton Sheen and finds in him a powerful heavenly friend and intercessor,” said Bishop Barron.

(OSV News) – The grace of the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen comes with corresponding responsibility for Catholics in his home diocese of Peoria, Illinois, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle told Catholics there during Mass Sept. 22.

“This is a grace for all of us here, but also a heavy responsibility,” he said in his homily in Peoria’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, where Archbishop Sheen’s remains are entombed. “From now on, when people learn that you are from Peoria, they will say, ‘Oh, are you as missionary-oriented as Bishop Fulton Sheen? Are you deeply entrenched in the Word of God, like the Blessed Fulton Sheen?'”

He said, with a laugh, that he hoped that they would not deny being from Peoria, but rather answer, “Yes, I am from Peoria, and this is a blessing from the Lord.”

— Beatification preparation —

Cardinal Tagle celebrated the morning Mass at Peoria’s cathedral while visiting the central Illinois city of 113,000 to venerate the relics of Archbishop Sheen, who will be beatified Sept. 24. Serving as Pope Leo XIV’s papal delegate, the cardinal will preside over the beatification Mass in St. Louis, about 170 miles southwest.

Cardinal Tagle, 69, serves as a pro-prefect for the Holy See’s Dicastery for Evangelization, leading its Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, and is the archbishop emeritus of his native Manila. He is an alumnus of The Catholic University of America in Washington and in 2024 served as the Holy See’s envoy to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

In the homily, he joked that Catholics from Peoria should not taunt the faithful from nearby Chicago, asking them, “Has Chicago produced a blessed? Oh, no? … Poor Chicago.”

Cardinal Tagle pointed to the Mass’ first reading from Proverbs 21:1-6, which reminds the faithful that “to do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”

“The heart of a wise person is in the hands of the Lord, and his heart allows the Lord to direct its destiny,” he said, “and when the heart is guided by the Word of the Lord, it will be just … The Lord is more pleased with the heart that is open to his will, that’s attentive to his promptings and is ready to act on his inspiration.”

— A ‘heart that listens’ —

Cardinal Tagle underscored the importance of listening by relating it to the need for understanding between married couples, consecrated religious men and women and their superiors, and priests to their bishops.

“All of us expect to be listened to,” he said, but listening to one another “is at the heart of being a wise person and a follower of the Lord.”

The liturgy’s Gospel reading from Luke 8:19-21 recounted Jesus saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Cardinal Tagle said the reading showed that “heart that listens” in Mary, who was both Jesus’ mother and disciple. “She must have said, ‘My son recognizes that I became the worthy dwelling place, his dwelling place, because I listened to the word of God’ and after listening, made herself available.”

— The obedient heart —

A listening heart, the cardinal continued, also reflects the humanity of the Christian. “Pope Leo has been directing all of us to our being persons,” he said, alluding to “Magifica Humanitas,” his recent encyclical on humanity and artificial intelligence. “We are not machines. We are not gadgets. We are persons with hearts.

“Where is your heart?” he continued. “Does it still beat? Does it still hear? Does it still see? Is it still obedient? If it is a truly human heart, then it is capable of relating with God and doing what God says.”

The cardinal encouraged the congregation to follow the example of Mary and Archbishop Sheen in obedience to God. Then, when they say they are from Peoria, he said, people not only associate them with the birthplace of Archbishop Sheen, but with a place where, “like Fulton Sheen, you all listen to the word of God and act on it.”

“Then Peoria becomes part of the wider family, the wider family of God, and Jesus will be pleased,” he said.

— Evening Holy Hour —

At the end of Mass, Cardinal Tagle recognized the Filipino Catholics present at the Mass and briefly addressed them in their native language. He then greeted the full congregation on behalf of Pope Leo.

“When I go back to Rome, I will surely report to him about the beatification, and will tell him about this Mass and your presence at this Mass,” he said.

He also noted the Holy Hour that he planned to attend later that evening, which is the penultimate Holy Hour in a nine-day series leading up to beatification.

Archbishop Sheen famously adopted a daily Holy Hour as part of his own spiritual practice while in formation for the priesthood at St. Paul Seminary from 1917-1919, and he maintained the practice through his life.

Archbishop Sheen was ordained in 1919 as a priest of the Diocese of Peoria. He taught philosophy at The Catholic University of America and rose to fame first through his radio show “The Catholic Hour” and then TV show “Life is Worth Living.” He meanwhile served as national director for the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, an arm of the Holy See now part of the Pontifical Mission Societies, supporting the Church’s evangelization and humanitarian relief efforts around the world. He was an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York before serving as bishop of Rochester, New York, from 1966 to 1969. Upon his retirement, Pope Paul VI gave him the title “archbishop.” He continued to preach and give retreats, and died at age 85 in 1979.

(OSV News) – It was while a professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington that Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen began to use radio as a powerful tool for evangelization. It was a medium that soon garnered him a national audience and reputation.

After completing his doctoral studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium, then-Father Sheen was awarded the highly prestigious agrégé honor after further postdoctoral work, including the publication of a book. In 1926, he returned to CUA, where he had previously begun his graduate studies in philosophy.

Now a faculty member, Archbishop Sheen took on a demanding teaching load and began writing prolifically, leading to the publication of his book “Religion without God” in 1928, a sequel of sorts to his dissertation, “God and Intelligence.” The young priest-scholar also became well-known and popular on campus for his frequent lectures to clubs and groups, as well as his involvement in the newly-founded American Catholic Philosophical Association.

His reputation soon extended beyond CUA’s campus as invitations to speak poured in from around the country. From 1926, Archbishop Sheen began delivering the Lenten sermons at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan, one of the city’s largest parishes. His first radio appearance came in 1928, after which he was quickly flooded with invitations to speak on radio programs nationwide.

Amid this busy schedule, he also became a sought-after retreat leader for religious women, forming a particular friendship with the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, thanks to his bond with a nun at their new Rosemont College near Philadelphia. His presence in New York City’s Catholic pulpits expanded further when he was invited to preach at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the four Sundays of Advent in 1929.

Despite his growing fame, Archbishop Sheen was acutely aware of the need to ground himself spiritually, especially in the virtue of humility. He faithfully dedicated himself to a daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament each morning and often retreated to monasteries for longer periods of prayer and meditation. During this period of rising prominence, he became close to a convent of Carmelite nuns in New Albany, Indiana, often writing to the superior to request the nuns’ prayers and supporting the convent financially through regular, generous contributions.

In 1934, Archbishop Sheen published his third book, “Philosophy of Science,” in which he aimed to demonstrate the harmony between recent advancements in mathematics and physics with Thomistic philosophy. He researched and wrote this book while managing a demanding teaching schedule, and spending increasing amounts of time lecturing and preaching around the country.

Recognized for his academic accomplishments, Archbishop Sheen was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor at CUA in 1935. During the mid-1930s, he typically spent two days each week teaching on campus, while traveling to New York City on weekends to preach at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and teach classes for converts — an apostolate for which he would become especially renowned.

His rigorous schedule was well-documented: a 1940 article in Time magazine noted that Archbishop Sheen maintained around 150 speaking engagements annually on top of his teaching commitments at the university. By 1947, Archbishop Sheen had been promoted to full professor, and his resume boasted 33 books, 13 pamphlets and 34 volumes of radio addresses.

It was during this time that Archbishop Sheen fully developed his distinctive public speaking style, captivating audiences in person, on the radio and eventually on television. While he devoted hours to preparation, he always spoke without notes and often opened with a self-deprecating anecdote to establish a sense of connection with his audience. This approach proved especially effective as he increasingly addressed radio audiences.

As mentioned, Archbishop Sheen’s first radio appearance was in 1926, but his radio career truly began in 1930, when he embarked on a 20-year tenure hosting “The Catholic Hour” on NBC radio, which eventually reached an audience of 4 million listeners per broadcast. In 1940, Archbishop Sheen made his first television appearance on Easter Sunday, in what is regarded as the world’s first Catholic television broadcast.

After 22 years on the radio, Archbishop Sheen — who had been consecrated a bishop in June 1951 — began hosting the television series “Life is Worth Living” in 1952. Initially aired for five seasons on two of the nation’s major networks (DuMont and ABC) and later by other distributors until 1968, “Life is Worth Living” reached an audience of 30 million at its peak, sometimes even outpacing Milton Berle’s show on NBC, which aired at the same time.

Having refined his presentation style — including his famous use of a chalkboard — Archbishop Sheen captivated audiences with his talks on faith, the meaning of life and moral living, resonating with listeners beyond just American Catholics. The Jesuit weekly America magazine eventually dubbed him: “the greatest evangelizer in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States” for his groundbreaking use of media to spread the Gospel.

(OSV News) – When Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis, attention will rightly fall on the celebrated television preacher whose broadcasts brought Catholic teaching into millions of American homes.

But for almost two decades, behind Archbishop Sheen’s extraordinary reach stood a largely unknown group of women who opened thousands of letters, recorded donations, thanked contributors, and helped transform his words into material support for missionaries and young churches around the world.

Archbishop Sheen served from 1950 to 1966 as the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies. The society coordinates World Mission Sunday, the annual worldwide day of giving that supports the Church’s work in more than 1,100 mission territories.

It was a responsibility central to Archbishop Sheen’s priesthood and public ministry. Alongside his radio and television work, he traveled, preached missionary appeals and served as editor of MISSION Magazine, which began being published by the national office of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1951.

When the prelate spoke about the missions on television, preached an appeal or published a new issue of the magazine, the response would arrive in the form of 8,000 to 10,000 letters a day, filled with thank-you notes and donations.

Envelopes poured into the society’s national office in New York. Some contained large checks. Others held a few dollars, coins saved by children or brief notes explaining the sacrifice behind the gift.

And behind the scenes, a small army of women opened those envelopes, recorded the offerings and made sure the donors received a response.

Helen Fitzpatrick was one of “the gals,” as she still affectionately calls them.

Now 89, Fitzpatrick began working part-time at the society in 1954, while a senior at St. Vincent Ferrer High School in Manhattan. After graduation, she joined the staff full-time and remained for about a decade.

Her principal responsibility was ensuring that acknowledgment notes were sent to those who supported the missions. The work was constant.

“No matter where he (Archbishop Sheen) was, the office was never without work,” Fitzpatrick recalled. “Every time he would send out an appeal or print the magazine, our office would be swamped.”

Bernadette Schumann, also in her 80s, remembers that the women worked across two rooms, surrounded by correspondence that connected ordinary American Catholics with the missionary Church.

“There were so many letters and so much work, but we knew every envelope represented someone who cared about the missions,” said Schumann, who goes by “Bernie.” “We were proud to be part of it.”

Archbishop Sheen also made sure the staff understood the spiritual purpose behind the paperwork.

“At 3 every afternoon, we stopped whatever we were doing and prayed the world mission rosary together,” Schumann said. “Bishop Sheen made sure that the work we did for the missions was always rooted in prayer. He also took the time to introduce us to visiting missionaries, to make sure we could ‘see’ who we were helping, even if we couldn’t all come to the missions with him.”

For Beatriz Mendoza Orlansky, the path to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith began with exile and an unexpected change of plans.

One of 10 children, she left Cuba with her family in 1960 and resettled in Miami after Fidel Castro came to power. Later that year, she traveled to New York with a cousin and a friend because, she said, “that was the dream we all had.”

Her family already knew Archbishop Sheen. Before the Cuban Revolution, he had traveled to the island to celebrate the marriage of one of her relatives. The prelate also arranged a scholarship for her sister Sofia to attend Rosemont College, a Catholic women’s college in Pennsylvania then operated by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus.

Young, single and hoping to become a flight attendant, Mendoza approached Archbishop Sheen with a request. TWA (Trans World Airlines) — which he had dubbed “Travel With Angels” — sponsored his television program, and she wondered whether he might put in a good word.

“He told me that I wasn’t going to be a stewardess,” she recalled.

Instead, Archbishop Sheen put her to work for the missions.

“My job was to open the letters, collect the money and send the thank-yous,” she said. “It was a gift to work there with him.”

By the time she joined the staff, the daily rosary was no longer part of the office routine. But the 3 p.m. pause remained.

“He would always come out at 3 p.m. and share with us a three-minute reflection that would remind us why what we did mattered,” she said.

During those years, the office began producing donor acknowledgments in-house, an operation substantial enough to resemble a small print shop. A sign at its entrance captured the staff’s spirit: “The impossible, we do immediately. Miracles might take a little longer.”

Mendoza and her husband, Hector Orlansky, an Argentine whom she married 52 years ago, both came to regard Archbishop Sheen with deep admiration.

“He was one of my heroes,” Hector said, “a man with a culture and wisdom I have never seen in my life.”

Dozens of women helped sustain the Society for the Propagation of the Faith during Archbishop Sheen’s 16 years as national director. Some of the women married and raised families. Others entered religious life. Most are no longer living, and their contributions were often known only to their colleagues and families.

Mary Regis McLoughlin, who died in 2022, served as the working editor of MISSION Magazine during the 1960s, managing its day-to-day production while Archbishop Sheen remained its named editor.

Sister Marlene Brownett, a member of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus who died in 2024, worked in the Propagation of the Faith office before entering religious life. She later became Archbishop Sheen’s close friend and served on the board of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation.

None of the women interviewed by OSV News expects to be in St. Louis for the beatification. But the celebration will also belong, in a small way, to them — and to the many women whose names are now lost to history.

Unknown to the millions who tuned in each week to hear the man dubbed “God’s microphone,” their work helped ensure that his missionary appeals produced more than admiration. Letters were answered, donors were thanked, missionaries received support and countless small sacrifices were joined to the Church’s global mission.

(OSV News) – With his beatification scheduled for Sept. 24, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen will be memorialized in the Church for reasons far beyond his contributions to the Church’s intellectual life or his evangelical zeal, incredible and legendary though they are. As the Church prepares to acknowledge the reasonable hope that he is in heaven, Sheen’s life of heroic virtue now belongs to the ages – and indeed, what better could be remembered about his or any life?

Sheen is a model for those striving for holiness. Through his practice of the theological and cardinal virtues, which comprise the primary characteristics of candidates for sainthood, Sheen’s life gives a glimpse of what ours could and should resemble.

Faith

Faith illuminated Sheen’s life above all else. He knew that his Redeemer lives, and it shaped and defined everything about him. “If you do not live what you believe, you will end up believing what you live,” Sheen once said.

The strength of Sheen’s faith meant he could do nothing other than dedicate himself to the mission of making Christ known and beloved. Initially immersed in academia, Sheen studied philosophy and theology. He wrestled with the enduring questions of faith and reason, and, as a professor, he clearly taught their integration.

A successor of the Twelve, Sheen possessed a faith marked by an apostolic zeal for souls. He put his many gifts to the service of transmitting God’s word in fresh, attractive and convincing ways, and the internal depth of his faith came across so magnetically that he attracted millions to the truth.

A faithful son of the Blessed Mother, Sheen devotedly adhered to her example. He abandoned himself to God’s providence, following Mary’s directive to do whatever Christ tells us.

Hope

Sheen had a great hope and longing for eternal life. He trusted that God was in control and that God’s designs all worked for the good. To multitudes, Sheen imparted that life truly is worth living.

Amid troubled times and with a joyful persuasion, Sheen proclaimed to the world that because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we know God has the final word. Sheen gave people reasons for hope amid darkness. Ultimately, he wanted others to desire eternal life as much as he did.

Sheen’s exercise of hope also meant he knew the importance and value of suffering as a share in Christ’s cross. Well-acquainted with suffering, Sheen trusted that not only did it have a purpose for the good, it was to be embraced for our salvation. He once said, “In the end, we will discover that sometimes when we are very good the suffering is to make us better, and we will have a higher place in heaven.”

Charity

Charity is intrinsic to the Christian life. St. Paul said it is the “greatest” of the virtues. As Sheen put it himself, “it does not require much time to make a saint. It requires only much love.”

Sheen once said that “the greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host.” This was the love that transformed him. His daily Eucharistic Holy Hour was legendary. From the day of his ordination to the day of his death, Sheen spent an hour a day praying in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. From his office desk, through an open door, he could gaze upon the tabernacle at all times. His union with Christ enabled him to more fully, more accurately and more convincingly lead others to Christ in all he said and did. Sheen was a man of many talents and accomplishments, but it was Christ who enabled him to use them in the best ways.

It was charity that motivated Sheen’s zeal for souls. Bringing others to Christ was the greatest good he could perform in service to them, and it often came in the form of self-sacrifice. With a pastoral heart, Sheen lived for others. He offered wise counsel with fatherly love. And he gave of himself constantly. Even his time was not his own, for he devoted himself to his studies and in preparation for his ministry of evangelization, for work on behalf of the missions or in the diocese that he governed.

Where Sheen saw a need, he responded in charity. He loved his neighbor as himself. He once preached about our judgment: “Show me your hands. Have you a scar from giving? A scar of sacrificing yourself for another? Show me your feet. Have you gone about doing good? Were you wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?”

Sheen’s love of Christ also was manifested in a love for the poor and marginalized, often in hidden ways. He also worked to raise funds for the foreign missions and donated the vast majority of the earnings from his books and television show for that purpose. “Never measure your generosity by what you give, but by what you have left,” Sheen wrote.

Prudence

Sheen exercised prudence by trusting in God’s providence. It attuned him to listen for God’s voice, even when God spoke through others. Sheen did not rush to judgments, taking time to prayerfully discern. When he listened to others, either those who were seeking advice or those who were giving it to him, Sheen exhibited a twofold attentiveness: first, to the person with him, but, moreover, to what God might be saying in the given situation. This was no easy task for a man of Sheen’s enormous responsibilities and fame.

A supernatural prudence shone through his dealings with others. Keenly aware of how greatly others admired him or wanted to be in his inner circle, Sheen navigated such relationships with grace and distinction, employing equal amounts of caution and concern.

Justice

Sheen acted with justice toward God and others. Not taking himself too seriously, Sheen recognized that any talents he had were because of God working through him. In all that he said and did, Sheen remembered that his work was the Lord’s. Known for leading many to the Faith, particularly through his media ministry, Sheen once was asked by Pope Pius XII how many converts could be attributed to his work. Sheen replied, “I am always afraid if I did count them, I might think I made them, instead of the Lord.”

Sheen’s preaching and teaching also demanded the dignity of the human person. That all are made in the image of God was no abstract theological concept for Sheen, but it was a lived reality. Sheen advocated for social justice — from racial harmony to an end to war and violence. He treated people equally and made himself available to all, no matter their status. Sheen was approachable to the greatest as much as to the least.

Fortitude

Sheen exhibited fortitude amid an abundance of difficulties in both private and public life. Committed to a life of holiness and virtue, he refused to compromise on his own convictions and beliefs. In the face of trials, Sheen remained a joyful and indefatigable herald of the Gospel, admired for maintaining peace of the soul.

Sheen’s happiness was found in the knowledge that God always brings good out of any situation. Publicly, Sheen’s fortitude was seen in his preaching of hard truths. Consider here his prophetic critiques of American society or his staunch denunciations of communism at the height of its flourishing. Amid his successes and popularity, Sheen quietly yet bravely faced envy, contempt and their resulting pain — especially from other members of the hierarchy.

“The real test of the Christian then is not how much he loves his friends,” Sheen once wrote, “but how much he loves his enemies.” By the end of his life, a purified Sheen could say, “I’ve had a great deal of suffering in the 83 years of my life — physical suffering, and other suffering, which should never [have] happened, but lasted over many years. And yet, as I look back, I know very well that I have never received the punishment that I deserved. God has been easy with me.”

Sheen exhibited heroic doses of self-control, humility and kindness, which also were antidotes to the temptations presented to him throughout life, especially those associated with his accomplishments, accolades, position and fame.

Temperance

Sheen allowed God to reign in his heart. As a man of temperance, he was not controlled and dominated by the passions of the will. He was not known for immoderate temper or humiliation of others, but instead for an attractive peacefulness that he achieved through self-control and moderation. In his interactions with others, Sheen often was meek, easy-going and gentle.

Not dependent or attached to earthly goods, Sheen’s habits of life were marked by simplicity, though he also appreciated the finer things of life. Not intent on storing up worldly treasures, Sheen cultivated a storehouse for eternity. He acknowledged his own sinfulness and sought reconciliation.

In the end, Sheen knew, like St. Augustine, that only in God could his heart find rest.

(OSV News) – Beatifications are a tremendous milestone in the process of canonization. The Latin word “beatus,” a title bestowed on the individual in question at a beatification, means “blessed” or “happy.” This word also lends its name to the Eight Beatitudes, which lay at the heart of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, described by St. Augustine as “the perfect charter for the Christian life,” or roadmap to holiness.

A beatification is a papal act that declares it is worthy of belief that those who are beatified enjoy the beatific vision; that is to say, they are in heaven because they were killed “in odium fidei” (in hatred of the faith) as a martyr, lived a life of heroic virtue, or offered their life selflessly to preserve the life of others.

— What is meant by ‘beatification’? —

Beatification is the penultimate stage in the process that seeks canonization, whereby the pope solemnly and irrevocably proclaims that the person is truly in heaven. A beatification comes not only after a long juridical process in which a person’s life, reputation and writings are meticulously investigated.

While this process ends with canonization, two major hurdles must be cleared for beatification. After all phases of the investigation are completed, the individual is declared “venerable” – whereby the pope recognizes that the virtue by which the person lived is worthy of the Church’s imitation and worthy of veneration.

Except in the case of martyrs, beatification comes only after a miracle has occurred, been reported and rigorously investigated. A miracle is required for canonization also, even for martyrs, but this necessity has occasionally been waived by the pope.

Canonization causes begin with a local emphasis. Devotion to and veneration of the individual begins first with those who knew the person individually or by reputation. The fame for holiness and intercessory powers (or martyrdom) gradually spreads first regionally, then universally. For this reason, a beatification has most commonly been celebrated locally, by a papal representative, while a canonization is typically celebrated in Rome and always by the pope himself.

— A brief history of beatification —

Before the 11th century, local churches moderated the recognition and veneration of holy men and women. Diocesan bishops, individually or collaboratively, typically investigated and approved a person’s “cultus.” As the medieval papacy expanded its authority, canonizations became reserved to the pope, something formalized in 1234 under Pope Gregory IX. Subsequently, the Holy See permitted limited local veneration of certain persons not yet canonized. When Benedict XIV refined canonization procedures in the 18th century, many already venerated locally were recognized as blesseds.

In 1971, with the rite for Maximilian Kolbe, Pope Paul VI became the first pope to preside personally at a beatification. He presided similarly on several subsequent occasions. Pope John Paul II regularly presided at beatifications, often in a local setting during a pastoral journey, and the practice continued throughout his papacy.
This post-conciliar innovation unconsciously blurred the lines of beatification and canonization. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI desired to return to the Church’s more traditional approach of delegating a representative to preside over the beatification on the pope’s behalf. A twofold consideration was at play: to more clearly delineate between beatifications and canonizations, and also more clearly involve the local churches. The pope reserved the option to preside over a beatification, as it is always an act of the pope.

— Beatification vs. canonization —

While the pope unequivocally proclaims an individual is in heaven with a canonization, a beatification is more specifically aimed at officially permitting public cultus for the individual whose virtues to a heroic degree, or martyrdom, have been formally approved.

A blessed may be venerated publicly and celebrated liturgically only if the law permits. While canonized saints may be invoked in the public and official prayers of the Church throughout the world, keeping with the theme of locality in beatification, those who are beatified enjoy this on a more restricted or local basis.

The beatified are afforded public cultus in the diocese or religious order in which their canonization cause was promoted. This would include inscription in local liturgical calendars, permitting celebration of a liturgical memorial (commonly referred to as a “feast day”) at Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours, displaying the blessed’s image in a church or naming churches in their honor.

Other congregations or dioceses can request the same for the beatified in their jurisdictions, especially appropriate for those who have some ties to the blessed (former residence, location of burial, or even the entire nation for those enjoying broad cultus, and the like). The requests for veneration and liturgical commemoration of the blessed in these additional locales must receive approval from the Holy See.

After beatification, use of a halo is also permitted in artistic depictions. If first-class relics are available of the blessed, they may be distributed for public veneration by the faithful.

Although there are currently three blesseds on the United States’ liturgical calendar, the U.S. bishops have in recent decades decided to rarely pursue inscription of beatified Americans on the calendar until they have reached canonization.

— Where is a beatification held? —

The celebration of a beatification occurs in a special rite, most typically situated in the context of a Mass, although it is permitted to occur in some circumstances in a celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours.

It is to be celebrated in the diocese where the cause has been promoted, although it is permitted to hold the beatification in a place more suitable in the same ecclesiastical province or region. This latter option is true for the Sept. 24, 2026, beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, whose cause has been promoted by the Diocese of Peoria but whose beatification is being celebrated in the more urban St. Louis, Missouri, a couple hours south by car.

In rare cases, there is also the option that the Holy See might decide to hold the beatification in Rome.

— What happens at a beatification? —

When celebrated within Mass, the beatification rite takes place between the Penitential Rite and the Gloria.

First, a formal request for beatification is made to the papal representative by the local bishop of the diocese where the cause was promoted. This is followed by a public reading of a short biography of the person to be beatified, with special emphasis on his or her virtues.

A formal decree of beatification is read, in the form of an apostolic letter from the pope. Typically this is read in its official Latin and followed by another reading in the vernacular. By this public proclamation of the decree, the person is officially counted among the blessed.

Following this, an image of the newly beatified is revealed, usually with a halo for the first time. A first-class relic, if available, or another relic is then presented to the papal delegate, usually venerated with incense and adorned with candles and flowers.

After the Gloria, the collect prayer proper to the newly beatified’s liturgical cultus is prayed for the first time. The Mass then proceeds as usual.