Recalling Venerable Fulton Sheen’s Passing 40 Years Ago

National Catholic Register, 09 December 2019

Fond memories of the holy archbishop, who loved Mary, the Eucharist and the priesthood.

For a deceased man, Fulton J. Sheen has had a very active 10 years. Actually, a very active last month, to be precise. But on this death anniversary, it is better to begin with fond memories.

Archbishop Sheen died 40 years ago today, Dec. 9, 1979. His beatification was announced three weeks ago, scheduled to take place 12 days from now. Now he is — temporarily, one fervently hopes — the former future-Blessed Fulton Sheen.

Ten years ago I was in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York where then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan celebrated a Mass — in the sanctuary above where Archbishop Sheen was then buried — for the 30th anniversary of the Venerable’s death. There were plenty of priests and Sheen admirers and stories aplenty about Archbishop Sheen, including the obvious ones about St. Patrick’s.

There were tales of how, from the pulpit, Archbishop Sheen would dramatically instruct the ushers to throw open the massive doors to Fifth Avenue. “Behold,” the archbishop would thunder about the great statue across the street at Rockefeller Center, “even Atlas bends the knee to Jesus Christ!”

There were stories about how the late Cardinal Terence Cooke, deciding to bury Archbishop Sheen below the high altar of St. Patrick’s, told Archbishop Sheen’s family: “The archbishops who built this cathedral are buried there. Now the one who filled it will join them.”

Most of all, there were stories from those who were present in St. Patrick’s on Oct. 2, 1979, at the crowning public moment of Venerable Sheen’s long life. St. John Paul II came to St. Patrick’s on his first visit to the United States, and, upon arriving in the sanctuary, he turned to Cardinal Cooke and asked, “Where is Archbishop Sheen?”

Cardinal Cooke dispatched an aide to summon the elderly archbishop, then just two months short of his death. The frail man, moved by the honor but also sensing the moment, made his way deliberately to the Holy Father, allowing the emotion of the moment to deepen. John Paul gave him a warm embrace and, paraphrasing the vision of St. Thomas Aquinas, told Archbishop Sheen: “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church.” I have the image of that historic embrace — two great bishop evangelizers — hanging in the chapel of our chaplaincy so I see it every time I offer Mass.

“I am honored to be the principal celebrant and homilist at the Mass to commemorate his life,” said Cardinal Dolan 10 years ago. “What a marvelous tribute to this devoted, tireless, holy son of the Church, whom Pope John Paul II called ‘Preacher to the World’ in the sanctuary of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the very place I will be preaching tonight.”

Cardinal Dolan, a devotee who uses Archbishop Sheen’s rosary, expressed the hope of all assembled that the cause for Archbishop Sheen’s beatification would proceed apace.

None of us present then could have imagined what the next decade would bring.

The succeeding decade has been unexpectedly full of heated controversy, first over the location of where Archbishop Sheen should be buried and now over the Vatican’s intervention to delay Peoria’s plan for an accelerated beatification ceremony on Dec. 21.

But, for today, three considerations for the anniversary of Archbishop Sheen’s death — his dies natalis, or birthday in heaven.

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