“On
Saturday, September 20, 1919, I was ordained a priest, by the grace of God, in
the cathedral at Peoria. The stirrings which the Holy Spirit put in my
soul in the early days were now fulfilled-or were they? I was now a
priest. Yes. But is not that just half the story? I never asked
myself that question the day I was ordained. In due time, and not in an
easy way, I was to learn that a priest is also a victim.” Venerable Servant
of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (Treasure in Clay)
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| Fr. Fulton Sheen newly ordained |
Today Masses were celebrated in Peoria, New York and Rome for all of the Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Seminarians enrolled in the Masses of the Sheen Foundation. This is the homily September 20, 2013 delivered at the Cathedral Convent of
the Missionaries of Charity in Peoria, IL by Msgr. Stanley Deptula, Executive
Director of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation:
On this day in 1919 -- here in our beautiful Cathedral -- the
young Fulton Sheen was ordained a priest. I am very grateful that Julie
brought from the museum Fulton Sheen’s Chalice. It is a very great honor
to use his chalice at Mass today. It’s also I think, a very nice
connection as the universal Church today celebrates the martyrdom of Fr. Andrew
Kim and the seminarian Paul along with over 100 other Korean’s who gave their
life in witness to Jesus Christ. For, although Fulton Sheen was not a martyr
in blood, he certainly was a man who gave his life through his priesthood as a
witness to Jesus Christ, and it was a witness and ministry he exercised
throughout the world.
Fulton Sheen loved being a priest. He often reflected there
was never a time in his life he did not want to be a priest. He loved
priests. Especially in those last few years of his life when he was so
physically ill he really gave himself to the ministry of preaching to priests,
preaching to seminarians. He believed that one of the keys for the
renewal of the modern church was first the spiritual renewal of the Church's
priests.
I think here at the Cathedral parish, maybe especially with the
work you sisters do with our Cathedral families, the focus upon meditation
today could be really that first seedbed -- that first seminary -- for Fulton
Sheen which was his family. His family moved here when he was a very
young boy, it was here in our Cathedral parish that as a young man this
community, his family, fostered his vocation, taught him how to
pray, and helped him to fall in love with our Lord in the Eucharist and with
our Lord’s Blessed Mother. Here at the Cathedral parish on this special
anniversary let us pray for our families. Let us pray for our young men, that
God may raise up in our own generation another faithful, holy, heroic priest
that will give his life as a witness to the Gospel.
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| Msgr. Deptula holds up Archbishop Fulton Sheen's Chalice at Mass |
Archbishop Fulton Sheen's holy card in remembrance of his first Solemn High Mass offered on September 21, 1919 at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois.
