Sainthood for Archbishop Sheen Hinges on Miracle

Karen Fulte sat amid photos, books and other items related to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a pioneer of television who made the nation his pulpit.

But collecting memorabilia was not her goal.

She was looking for stories about people whose lives had been deeply influenced by the late Roman Catholic teacher -- provable testimonials tinged with enough divine influence to persuade the church to name Sheen a saint. What she needs is a miracle.

Fulte and others around the country persuaded the Catholic Diocese of Peoria last year to petition for Sheen’s sainthood. Under Vatican rules, one miracle must be proved for beatification and a second for sainthood.

It’s a mission that supporters believe is divinely inspired.

“You use saints as examples of how you can live a life of Christ,” Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky said. “What a gift it would be for our diocese.”

From humble beginnings in El Paso, a highway stop 100 miles southwest of Chicago, Sheen was ordained in Peoria and rose to prominence as an early master of broadcasting.

After a stint on national radio, he began hosting a weekly Christian television program called “Life is Worth Living” in 1952. Sheen appeared in full clerical regalia on a low-budget set with little more than a blackboard, delivering religious talks that drew surprisingly large and loyal audiences during the show’s five-year run.

Gregory Ladd of Highland, Ind., remembers gathering around the family television for Sheen’s show, which would be discussed at his Catholic grade school the next day.

“I think that was pretty standard in so many homes,” he said. “There was so much he had to offer, and it was timeless.”

Ladd co-founded the Archbishop Sheen Foundation in 1996 to push for canonization. He said the group has about 500 members nationwide and abroad.

Ladd said that among the hundreds of testimonials his foundation has received, he believes about a dozen may qualify as miracles.

Most are health-related, he said, cases in which a terminal illness or incurable condition healed with no help from medical science after the patient prayed in Sheen’s name for divine intervention.

Ladd said each case is documented with medical records and statements from the patient and doctors.

Jenky said Vatican investigators are meticulous in documenting alleged miracles, often the toughest hurdle in a campaign for sainthood.

His desk contains a file on several events reported as possible miracles attributed to Sheen, who died in 1979, but he would not discuss them because they have not been investigated.

Cardinal John O’Connor of New York City gave approval in 1999 for Sheen’s supporters to start collecting information that could be used as evidence for sainthood, but the process stalled when O’Connor died the next year.