Sheen Cause Suspended, Call for Prayer

Irish American Hall of Fame

Archbishop Fulton Sheen was inducted into the Irish American Hall of Fame for the year 2014.  The award can now be seen at the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Museum in Peoria, IL.  Accepting the award for Archbishop Sheen was his cousin, Anne Cleary Lyons and his niece Nancy Mitros.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen Youth Group

The Archbishop Fulton Sheen youth group in Peoria, Illinois celebrates the Sacred Heart of Jesus with Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and a talk on the life of Archbishop Fulton Sheen by Msgr. Stanley Deptula, Executive Director of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation.

Brother Priests ordained by Sheen

On June 1, 1968 two brothers were ordained to the Holy Priesthood at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, NY by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.  Fr. Robert L. Beligotti and his twin brother Fr. Richard J. Beligotti will celebrate 46 years as priests this June 1st.  Fr. Richard Beligotti sent these wonderful pictures to the Archbishop Sheen Foundation and wrote a description to go with each picture.

Happy Birthday Archbishop Fulton Sheen 5/8/1895

Peter John Sheen born May 8, 1895.  His parents were Morris Newton Sheen and Delia Fulton.  The Sheen's lived in an apartment above the hardware store that Newt ran at 25 Front St. in El Paso, IL.

The store burnt to the ground and the Sheen family moved to a farm Newt inherited from his father.

Fulton Sheen as a child

In 1900 the family moved to Peoria, IL so Peter (Fulton) could attend St. Mary's Cathedral school.  His grandfather John Fulton enrolled him in school as Fulton Sheen.

St. Mary's Cathedral School, Peoria, IL

Newsletter JPII & John XXIII

If you would like this newsletter mailed to you please send your address to: info@sheencause.org

Extra Extra Read All About It!

On March 6, while we were “going to print” to get our latest newsletter out to you, our Friends of Sheen, the Vatican sent us a wonderful surprise announcement.  Even though this announcement came on the day after Ash Wednesday, one of our Sheen leaders spontaneously let out: “Alleluia!”  I can think of no more appropriate response to this great news about the progress of the Cause.  Although you have probably already heard this good news, I am happy to share with you again the below news release. 

It is a wonderful affirmation of the years of prayers and sacrifice you have offered up for Fulton Sheen — and it is also a great reminder of how we need your prayers and generosity to see this Cause to a successful completion.  Fulton Sheen is truly the saint-hero our Church and our world needs today!

—Msgr. Deptula

EXTRA!   EXTRA!   EXTRA!   EXTRA!

Vatican Medical Experts Approve Miracle Attributed to Sheen

Peoria, IL -- The Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria and President of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation, received word early Thursday morning that the 7-member board of medical experts who advise the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints at the Vatican unanimously approved a reported miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

The case involved a still born baby born in September 2010.  For over an hour the child demonstrated no signs of life as medical professionals attempted every possible life saving procedure, while the child's parents and loved ones began immediately to seek the intercession of Fulton Sheen.  After 61 minutes the baby was restored to full life and three years later demonstrates a full recovery. 

Today's decision affirms that the team of Vatican medical experts can find no natural explanation for the child's healing.  The case will next be reviewed by a board of theologians.  With their approval the case could move on to the cardinals and bishops who advise the Pope on these matters.  Finally, the miracle would be presented to Pope Francis who would then officially affirm that God performed a miracle through the intercession of Fulton Sheen.  There is no timeline as to when these next steps might  move forward.

"Today is a significant step in the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of our beloved Fulton Sheen, a priest of Peoria and a Son of the Heartland who went on to change the world.  There are many more steps ahead and more prayers are needed.  But today is a good reason to rejoice," commented Bishop Jenky.

Fulton Sheen was born May 8, 1895 in El Paso, IL outside of Peoria.  His family moved to Peoria so that Fulton and his brothers could attend Catholic school.  He grew up in the parish of the Cathedral of St. Mary where he was an altar server and later ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria.  After advanced studies and service as a parish priest in the city of Peoria, Fulton Sheen was a professor of philosophy and religion at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  In the 1930s he became a popular radio personality and later a TV pioneer.  His weekly TV program, "Life is Worth Living" eventually reached 30 million viewers and won an Emmy award for outstanding TV program.

From 1950-1966, Bishop Sheen was the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States, the Church's primary missionary apostolate.  In 1966, he was named Bishop of Rochester of New York where he served until his retirement in 1969, when he was named honorary Archbishop by Pope Paul VI.  Fulton Sheen died at the entrance to his private chapel in his New York City apartment on December 9, 1979.

In September 2002, Bishop Jenky officially opened the cause for the beatification and canonization of Fulton Sheen.  For six years, the Sheen Foundation, the official promoter of the Cause, gathered testimony from around the world and reviewed all of Sheen's writings, before sending their conclusions to the Vatican.  In June 2012, Pope Benedict affirmed the investigation that Sheen had lived a life of heroic virtue and holiness.  Sheen was then titled "Venerable."

Pending further review by the theologians and the cardinals who advise the Pope through the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, should Pope Francis validate this proposed miracle, Sheen could then be declared "Blessed" in a ceremony that could be celebrated in Peoria, Sheen's hometown.  Upon the Holy Father signing the decree for the beatification, an additional miracle would lead to the Canonization of Archbishop Sheen, in which he would be declared a “Saint.”

For more information about Fulton Sheen and the Cause for his canonization, visit: ArchbishopSheenCause.org.

For OFFICIAL Press Release click here: PRESS RELEASE

For More on the Reported Miracle click here: MIRACLE

PRESS RELEASE - ARCHBISHOP SHEEN CAUSE

Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation
Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, president
Monsignor Stanley Deptula, executive director
419 NE Madison Avenue
Peoria, Illinois 61603 USA
309-671-1550
877-71-SHEEN
ArchbishopSheenCause.org

Media Contact:     Msgr. Stanley Deptula
                            Msgr_Deptula@cdop.org
                            Office:309-677-7085
                          
March 6, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Peoria, IL -- The Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria and President of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation, received word early Thursday morning that the 7-member board of medical experts who advise the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints at the Vatican unanimously approved a reported miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

The case involved a still born baby born in September 2010.  For over an hour the child demonstrated no signs of life as medical professionals attempted every possible life saving procedure, while the child's parents and loved ones began immediately to seek the intercession of Fulton Sheen.    After 61 minutes the baby was restored to full life and made a full recovery.  The child, now three years old, continues in good health.

Today's decision affirms that the team of Vatican medical experts can find no natural explanation for the child's healing.  The case will next be reviewed by a board of theologians.  With their approval the case could move on to the cardinals and bishops who advise the Pope on these matters.  Finally, the miracle would be presented to Pope Francis who would then officially affirm that God performed a miracle through the intercession of Fulton Sheen.  There is no timeline as to when these next steps might  move forward.

"Today is a significant step in the Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of our beloved Fulton Sheen, a priest of Peoria and a Son of the Heartland who went on to change the world.  There are many more steps ahead and more prayers are needed.  But today is a good reason to rejoice," commented Bishop Jenky.

Fulton Sheen was born May 8, 1895 in El Paso, IL outside of Peoria.  His family moved to Peoria so that Fulton and his brothers could attend Catholic school.  He grew up in the parish of the Cathedral of St. Mary where he was an altar server and later ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria.  After advanced studies and service as a parish priest in the city of Peoria, Fulton Sheen was a professor of philosophy and religion at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.  In the 1930s he became a popular radio personality and later a TV pioneer.  His weekly TV program, "Life is Worth Living" eventually reached 30 million viewers and won an Emmy award for outstanding TV program.

From 1950-1966, Bishop Sheen was the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States, the Church's primary missionary apostolate.  In 1966, he was named Bishop of Rochester of New York where he served until his retirement in 1969, when he was named honorary Archbishop by Pope Paul VI.  Fulton Sheen died at the entrance to his private chapel in his New York City apartment on December 9, 1979.

In September 2002, Bishop Jenky officially opened the cause for the beatification and canonization of Fulton Sheen.  For six years, the Sheen Foundation, the official promoter of the Cause, gathered testimony from around the world and reviewed all of Sheen's writings, before sending their conclusions to the Vatican.  In June 2012, Pope Benedict affirmed the investigation that Sheen had lived a life of heroic virtue and holiness.  Sheen was then titled "Venerable."

Pending further review by the theologians and the cardinals who advise the Pope through the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, should Pope Francis validate this proposed miracle, Sheen could then be declared "Blessed" in a ceremony that could be celebrated in Peoria, Sheen's hometown.  Upon the Holy Father signing the decree for the beatification, an additional miracle would lead to the Canonization of Archbishop Sheen, in which he would be declared a “Saint.”

For more information about Fulton Sheen and the Cause for his canonization, visit:
ArchbishopSheenCause.org.

###

For more information about the reported miracle click here: REPORTED MIRACLE

Praying at Cemetery by Sheen & Fulton Graves

Msgr. Stanley Deptula, Executive Director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation stopped to pray his Novena for the cause for Sheen’s Canonization while visiting the graves of Venerable Sheen's parents, grandparents and Bishop Dunne, who ordained Sheen a priest.  All are buried near his rectory at St. Mary's Cemetery 421 N. Sterling, Peoria, Illinois.   

Archbishop Fulton Sheen's mother Delia

Archbishop Fulton Sheen's father Newton

Archbishop Sheen's grandparents John and Mary Fulton

Special Novena for the Sheen Cause

“JMJ”

Dear Friends of Sheen,

Yesterday, as is my custom, I offered Mass in the Convent of the Peoria Cathedral. You and your intentions were remembered by the sisters and me. 

In today’s Gospel, our Saviour reminds us that there are some things that can only be accomplished with greater prayer.  I am regularly reminded that the Cause for the Canonization of our beloved Archbishop Sheen is essentially a SPIRITUALLY work. I am asking today for your special prayers for the Cause.

I invite you to join with me and the Friends of Venerable Sheen around the world in a novena for a special intention starting Wednesday February 26 and culminating on March 6.  There are no special Novena prayers other than the Prayer for Canonization.  Also can you please remember the special intention for the Cause in your Rosaries, Holy Hours and Masses.

Besides our unity in prayer for the Cause, this can also be a great personal novena to begin Lent.  May our spiritual efforts for the Cause of a Saint help to make each of us saints too!

United in prayer and commending each of you to the Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue, I am,

Msgr. Stanley Deptula

Executive Director

Link to our prayer for Canonization in various languages: Prayer for Canonization

Presidents Day

“In all the heartbreaking dramas of the world, a woman is summoned to have her heart pierced mystically, as a man’s heart is riven with steel.  A Jacqueline leaning over a John is a compassionate beating of a heart in rhythm with a Mary leaning over a crucified Jesus.  Grant the infinite distance between a God-man dying for the sins of the world and a man dying because of a man’s inhumanity to man; grant that unbridgeable span between voluntarily laying down one’s life and having it violently taken away – the latter still derives its value from the former, as the coin from the die.

I was in Rome in the first shattering shock of the death of President Kennedy.  The suddenness of his death came like and earthquake;  it affected so many and in such magnitude that one could not find a heart to console – others, too, were inconsolable.  In lesser bereavements, there are those who are not involved, but then there were no others to wipe away tears, for they too were mourners. 

Nothing is as democratic as death, for all of a sudden, there is no distinction between Jew or Greek, male or female, socialist or totalitarian, Republican or Democrat.  All suddenly realize the wickedness of the world in which we live.  Not until we see what is done to the humanity-loving do we grasp the frenzied hate which will not be stilled by the tears of a little John or the whimpering sadness of a Caroline.    

It takes a sacrificial death to break down the walls of division.  When some men refuse to acknowledge others as their equals under God, words will not unite them.  It takes blood.  It took a Lincoln’s blood to unite a nation; it has taken a Kennedy’s blood to prepare for the equality of men in the same nation.  This is the mystery of his death – the price men destined for greatness have to pay to prove that love is stronger than hate.

Above all our national figures, these two Presidents of Sorrow stand forever near the Man of Sorrows saying: ‘I will stand here at Thy side; despise my nation not.’ 

Perhaps we never thought of it before, but underneath our grief was the surprising truth that we measure the enormity of a crime by the nobility of the victim.  The same act committed against a fellow citizen would have been murder too, but it would have convulsed us more if the mayor of a city were killed in identical circumstances; and still more if it had been the governor of a state.  The top of the tottering pyramid of grief is reached when the president of a nation is assassinated.   

The impact, the scandal, and the paralysis mount with the eminence of the one slain.  Thus, suddenly, without our ever having suspected that we knew any theology, we affirmed in grief that principle that ‘Sin is always measured by the one sinned against.’  I will not carry it any further than to say: Suppose that Perfect Innocence and Truth and Love become a victim to evil and mediocrity, and was put to death by us?  Would not our grief be almost too deep for tears?

We have walked with pleasure for many a mile and we have smiled and smiled, and learned nothing.  But what a vista of the mystery which lies in the heart of the world’s redemption was unveiled when we, as a people, walked with sorrow!  People become more united in sorrow than in pleasure.  Across the nation, citizens were enjoying theaters, sports, parties, cocktails, and a thousand and one pursuits of eros in which the ego satisfies itself under the guise of a love of another.  Then all these disparate and separate enjoyments, like scattered drops of mercury, suddenly came together in one center – the broken heart of America.  There were no longer political parties, business competitors, grasping fingers – there was beating only one heart.

It is well to be proud of our country, but if the memory of a death means anything, we will no longer boast as if the peacock were our national symbol, saying: ‘I am an American,’ but, in the full consciousness that our symbol is an eagle mounting ever upwards, we will say: ‘May I be worthy to be an American.’” 

-          Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Power of Love)

The Presentation

“Every child is an arrow shot out of the bow of its mother, but its target is God.  Children have come through mothers, but they do not belong to them.  Mary acknowledges this claim of divinity on her Child by presenting Him back again to God, as she offers the temple of His Body in the temple made by hands. 

                Mary here anticipated the joy of every mother who brings her child to the baptismal font, where God may claim His own.  But in the case of Mary the Child was claimed for sacrifice, as the aged Simeon said that He was a sign to be contradicted, and the cross is the contradiction.

                Mary was even told that a sword her own soul would pierce.  That would happen when her Son on the cross would have His heart pierced with a lance.  Through His Body and her soul would go that one stroke of the sword.  She was the only mother who ever brought a life into the world to die. 

                It is not so much our presents that God wants from us, as it is our presence, as we offer our life to Him.”  Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary)  

Fulton Sheen in High School play

Cast of Spalding Institute High School play "The Missing Bonds" with Fulton Sheen 

Prayer to Spiritually Adopt an Unborn Child

Here we are and already it is 2014, Happy New Year!  Archbishop Sheen said, “Each new year is actually a testing and proving ground for eternity, a kind of novitiate in which we say "aye" or "nay" to our eternal destiny, a season of plenty from which we shall later on reap either wheat or weeds.”  What wonderful words to reflect upon as we enter into the New Year.  I write you today however because January is “Pro-Life month”. 

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, encouraged people to spiritually adopt an unborn child, and thereby combat the abortion mentality and general anti-life sentiment in our world today.  It is said that although the identity of the child you pray for will be unknown to you during your earthly life, there is every hope that you will be untied with that child forever in Heaven.  Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote the following daily prayer to spiritually adopt an unborn child and we ask that you join us in prayer throughout January. 

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love you very much.  I beg you to spare the life of the unborn child that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion. Amen.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Msgr. Stanley Deptula

Executive Director

Habsburg Wedding

Archduke Rudolf Habsburg of Austria was married by Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church in Tuxedo Park New York on June 22, 1953.  She was killed in a car wreck 15 years later.  Over 100 guests at the wedding including Dowager Empress Zita.  This was the 2^nd imperial marriage ever in the U.S.  (1^st was Napoleon Bonaparte brother Jerome and American heiress Elizabeth Patterson)

Empress Zita and the Habsburg family both met then Msgr. Fulton Sheen on November 5, 1946 at the ordination of the first-ever Coadjutor Bishop of the Greek Catholic Exarchate of Pittsburgh (Bishop Daniel Ivancho) and Sheen gave the homily at the ordination.