Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
Born Peter John Sheen on May 8, 1895, to farmer Newt Sheen and his wife, Delia, in El Paso, Illinois, the future Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen came under the influence of one of the founders of The Catholic University of America at an early age.
While serving Mass as an 8-year-old altar boy for Bishop John L. Spalding of Peoria, Sheen dropped a wine cruet on the floor and it shattered. After the Mass, Bishop Spalding spoke to the frightened boy and made two bold predictions about him. First, the bishop said he would one day study at Louvain in Belgium; second, he told the young Sheen, “someday you will be just as I am.”
Sheen went to high school at Spalding Institute, then studied at St. Viator College in Illinois and attended Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota before his ordination to the priesthood on September 20, 1919. In 1920, he came to the Catholic University of America to continue his studies. He stayed only a year before leaving to pursue advanced study in philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Five years later, he returned to The Catholic University of America to teach.
For the next 23 years, Catholic University was where Father Sheen honed his skills as a scholar, educator, orator and evangelist. He worked, first in the School of Theology and Religious Studies, then in the School of Philosophy, teaching courses that touched on both Father Sheen’s talents as a preacher did not go unnoticed, even in his early years. In January of 1927, at age 30 and still in his first year of teaching at Catholic University, he was selected to preach at the annual University Mass on the patronal feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. A decade later, it was Monsignor Sheen, not a high-ranking administrator, who was the principal speaker at the University’s Sesquicentennial Celebration. (He had been made a monsignor by Pope Pius XI in 1934 at the age of 39.)
Steadily, the reputation of the young Catholic University professor grew, first on campus, then in wider circles as his brilliant oratory attracted more attention from the media. Father Sheen’s first experience in broadcasting was in 1926 when he was invited to record a series of Sunday evening Lenten sermons on a New York radio station. Four years later, the young priest was asked to be a summer fill-in for two weeks on The Catholic Hour radio program. The audience response was so positive that he was asked to continue as a weekly speaker on the show.
From 1930 to 1950, Father (then Monsignor) Sheen’s weekly talks on The Catholic Hour presented Catholic teaching in a way that had never been done before. Drawing from the deep well of his faith and scholarship, Professor Sheen addressed topics ranging from devotion to the Blessed Mother to the dangers of Communism. Rooted in his thorough knowledge of the philosophical thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, he preached the Gospel and showed how it applies to personal moral decisions and the great social issues of the time.
In response to his radio broadcasts, Monsignor Sheen received a steady stream of letters. In 1937, he wrote in a letter to University Rector Monsignor Joseph Corrigan, “During the past year letters demanding personal attention have run between 75 and 100 a day. … This, coupled with classes never given with less than six hours preparation for each lecture, has left me physically exhausted. However, the good to be done is such that one dare not shrink from its opportunities for apostolate.”
Many of those letters were invitations to speak. Monsignor Sheen traveled all over the country giving academic lectures, missions, retreats, guest homilies, commencement addresses, and speaking at meetings of various Catholic organizations.
The busy professor not only kept up his full teaching schedule but also wrote numerous books. He published 34 books during his 23-year teaching career at Catholic University (and another 32 after he left the University). In addition, transcripts of his weekly
radio talks were published in dozens of booklets by the show’s sponsor, the National Council of Catholic Men. Many of his other talks and sermons were published as pamphlets. He also was a syndicated columnist in the secular press.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dieterich, Henry. Compiler. Through the Year with Fulton Sheen. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Book. 1985
Kossman, Patricia J. Editor. From the Angel’s Blackboard: The Best of Fulton J. Sheen. Liguore, MS: Triumph Books. 1995
Ladd, Gregory Joseph. Archbishop Fulton Sheen: A Man for all Media. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press. 2001
Murphy, Myles P. The Life and Times of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. New York, NY: Alba House. 2000.
Sheen, Fulton J. Lift up Your Heart. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1950
Sheen, Fulton J. Life is Worth Living. Garden City, NY: Garden City Book. 1953
Sheen, Fulton J. The World’s Great Love: The Prayer of the Rosary. New York, NY: Seabury Press. 1978
Sheen, Fulton J. Way to Inner Peace. New York, NY: Alba House. 2000
Sheen, Fulton J. Your Life is Worth Living: The Christian Philosophy of Life. Schnecksville, PA: St. Andrews Press. 2001
Sheen, Fulton J. The Priest is not His Own. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press. 2004
Sheen, Fulton J. The World’s First Love, Mary, Mother of God. San Francisco, CA: St. Ignatius Press. 2010
Sherwood, Timothy. The Preaching of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. New York, NY: Lexington Books. 2011