Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

Fulton John Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895. In high school, he won a three-year university scholarship, but he turned it down to pursue a vocation to the priesthood. He attended St. Viator College Seminary in Illinois and St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota. In 1919, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois. He earned a licentiate in sacred theology and a bachelor of canon law at the Catholic University of America and a doctorate at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Sheen received numerous teaching offers but declined them in obedience to his bishop and became an assistant pastor in a rural parish.
Having thus tested his obedience, the bishop later permitted him to teach at the Catholic University of America and at St. Edmund's College in Ware, England, where he met G. K. Chesterton, whose weekly BBC radio broadcast inspired Sheen's later NBC broadcast, The Catholic Hour (1930-1952). In 1952, Sheen began appearing on ABC in his own series, Life Is Worth Living. Despite being given a time slot that forced him to compete with Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, the dynamic Sheen enjoyed enormous success and in 1954 reach tens of millions of viewers, non-Catholics as well as Catholics. When asked by Pope Pius XII how many converts he had made, Sheen responded, "Your Holiness, I have never counted them.
I am always afraid if I did count them, I might think I made them, instead of the Lord." Sheen gave annual Good Friday homilies at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, led numerous retreats for priests and religious, and preached at summer conferences in England. "If you want people to stay as they are, " he said, "tell them what they want to hear. If you want to improve them, tell them what they should know." This he did, not only in his preaching but also in the more than ninety books he wrote.
His book, Peace of Soul was sixth on the New York Times best-seller list. Sheen served as auxiliary bishop of New York (1951-1966) and as bishop of Rochester (1966-1969). The good Lord called Fulton Sheen home in 1979. His television broadcasts, now on tape, and his books continue his earthly work of winning souls for Christ. Sheen's cause for canonization was opened in 2002, and in 2012 Pope Benedict XVI declared him "Venerable." Al Smith has served the Church for fifteen years as a Catholic evangelist, radio host, writer, Internet broadcaster, and retreat director. He is a gifted speaker giving presentations at seminaries, schools, parishes, and Catholic conferences.  He is often featured on Catholic media such as EWTN Radio and Television, Radio Maria, The Catholic Channel, Relevant Radio, and Shalom TV. He is the founder and director of the Archbishop Fulton J.
Sheen Mission Society of Canada and has served on the Board of Directors of the Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation in Peoria, Illinois, which promotes the cause of Fulton J. Sheen's canonization process.  Al is the creator of the website Bishop Sheen Today, which features the life and works of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. (www.bishopsheentoday.com) He is the editor of three best-selling books: The Cries of the Jesus from the Cross - A Fulton Sheen Anthology (2018) Lord Teach us to Pray - A Fulton Sheen Anthology (2019).    Archbishop Sheen's Book of Sacraments - A Fulton Sheen Anthology (2021). He has also self-published over a dozen titles from the late Archbishop Fulton J.
Sheen (1895 - 1979) which are being enjoyed today.