7 Memorable Moments From Fulton Sheen’s Beatification

National Catholic Register, 1 October 2026

Seven days since the beatification, these seven vignettes honor the author of the Seven Last Words.

Seven days out from the beatification of Blessed Fulton Sheen, the afterglow of the marvelous occasion remains. Reporting on the man and the ceremony was comprehensive, yet particular aspects of the events in St. Louis and Peoria seem to me to be worth highlighting. 

I propose seven vignettes, organized in honor of Blessed Fulton’s preaching of the Seven Last Words from the Cross, which he did for 58 years on Good Friday.

Father, Forgive Them, For They Know Not What They Do

The first word is the word of Providence — God’s salvific plan working through even the wickedness of men. God, of course, works through good men too, and there were many holy “coincidences” around the beatification. One was that the current bishop chairman of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA — of which Bishop Sheen was the head from 1950 to 1966 — was himself baptized by Blessed Fulton on Oct. 2, 1960. Bishop John Barres of Rockville Centre was baptized by the new blessed because his father — a Catholic convert — worked for Bishop Sheen. 

On the Saturday after the beatification, Bishop Barres offered a Mass of thanksgiving at St. Mary’s in El Paso, Illinois, near Peoria, where Sheen himself was baptized on May 12, 1895. At the conclusion of that Mass, Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria announced that St. Mary’s would now be part of Blessed Fulton Sheen parish, the first parish established in honor of the new beatus.

Bishop Sheen’s baptismal church is now a parish named after him, announced after a Mass offered by a bishop that he baptized, now a bishop with the Pontifical Mission Societies. God’s purposes are more than we can know.

Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise

Good Friday is the feast day of the first canonized saint — the Good Thief, canonized by Christ Crucified on the cross.

Part of the beatification formula is the designation of the feast day for the newly blessed. For Fulton Sheen, it was designated as Dec. 9, the date of his death, as is customary, but not obligatory. Blessed Fulton had long said that he wished to die on a Marian feast day or on a First Saturday, in honor of the Blessed Mother. Dec. 9 was neither in 1979, but later was designated as the feast day of St. Juan Diego, for it was on Dec. 9, 1531, that Our Lady of Guadalupe first appeared to him. 

So while Dec. 9 had no special significance when Sheen died, he now shares a feast day with a saint intimately linked to the Blessed Mother, famous for literally carrying her image on his heart.

The bishops of the United States will have to decide how to accommodate both feasts on the same day on the liturgical calendar for the United States. 

Fulton Sheen’s feast falls within a trio of Marian feasts — Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8), Our Lady of Loreto (Dec. 10) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12), so while he did not die on a specific Marian feast day, he died amid the most Marian period on the calendar.

A final Marian nod: Pope Leo XIV signed the decree for beatification on July 16, 2026, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, honoring both Sheen’s Marian devotion and his being a Third Order Carmelite.

Woman, Behold Your Son

The Marian word from the cross was especially dear to Blessed Fulton, who dedicated all of his dozens of books to the Blessed Mother. His posthumously published autobiography was simply dedicated, “Salve Regina.”

At the beatification Mass, it was thus fitting that an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was behind the altar. Once the beatification formula had been pronounced in St. Louis, Sheen’s tomb in Peoria was shown on the broadcast and in the stadium. He lies in Our Lady of Perpetual Help chapel in Peoria’s Marian cathedral, St. Mary’s of the Immaculate Conception.

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Jesus prays Psalm 22 on the cross, which begins with a cry of dereliction, abandonment, but concludes with a firm profession of faith in the midst of the assembly, of the Church. Blessed Fulton grew up and was ordained a priest in Peoria but then his ministry caused him to “abandon” Peoria for Washington, New York and the whole world. Now he lies again in Peoria, in the midst of that assembly, that local Church.

Likewise, Sheen’s difficult tenure as bishop of Rochester led to him “abandoning” that diocese in favor of a retirement in which he moved away and never returned. Pope St. Paul VI even gave Sheen the title of archbishop in retirement and a titular see; he was not known as the emeritus bishop of Rochester. The ties were severed.

Upon his death, Cardinal Terrence Cooke of New York gave Archbishop Sheen the high honor of being buried in the crypt of the New York archbishops in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. During the beatification process, Peoria demanded to have the body, which they obtained after a legal battle in the civil courts. Blessed Fulton thus “abandoned” his place of honor on Fifth Avenue in the capital of the world. 

Peoria, Rochester and New York were all abandoned in one way or another. The Communion of the Saints, though, unites. At the beatification, the bishops of Peoria, Rochester and New York were together at the altar, all celebrating their connection to the beatus who proclaimed his faith in the midst of their own Churches.

 I Thirst

The fifth word is the only time Jesus speaks of his physical suffering. It is the bodily word, the word of pain and suffering, the word of man struggling to speak.

Soon after the beatification formula is declared, the relics of the newly-blessed are carried into the sanctuary. In living memory, no one has had a relic quite like that of Blessed Fulton. It is his entire lower jaw, retrieved from his coffin when it was opened and examined as part of the requirements for beatification. The mandible was chosen to represent Sheen the preacher — much as a relic of St. Anthony’s tongue is venerated in Padua.

The relic is much larger than most, and complete with teeth, it is very striking, more obviously part of a human skeleton than is the case with smaller bones or fragments. There is something suitably dramatic about such a vivid relic for a beatus as theatrical as Sheen.

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