NEW SAINT FOR THE USA

Yousuf Karsh

Great news for those of us who grew up in the early days of TV. ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN  will be beatified Dec. 21 at 10 a.m. local time at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria. This is the same cathedral where Archbishop Sheen was ordained a priest 100 years ago on Sept. 20, 1919.

The cathedral also is the current resting place for the archbishop, who is entombed in a marble vault next to the altar where he was ordained.

In July, Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to the intercession of the new blessed, leading the way to his beatification.

The miracle concerns the healing of James Fulton Engstrom of Washington, Illinois, who was considered stillborn when he was delivered during a planned home birth Sept. 16, 2010. His parents immediately invoked the prayers of  Bishop Sheen and encouraged others to seek his intercession after the baby was taken to the ER.

Just as doctors were preparing to declare that he was dead, James Fulton’s tiny heart started to beat at a normal rate for a healthy newborn. He had been without a pulse for 61 minutes.

Despite dire prognoses for his future, including that he would probably be blind and never walk, talk or be able to feed himself, the child has thrived. Now a healthy 8-year-old, he likes chicken nuggets, “Star Wars” and riding his bicycle.

The decree of the miracle came about a week after Archbishop Sheen’s remains were transferred from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to Peoria’s cathedral.

In 2002, Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky launched a campaign for Archbishop Sheen’s sainthood. However, the effort languished for years over legal objections by the New York Archdiocese. The Peoria Diocese said the progression to beatification and sainthood would get the Vatican’s blessing only after his remains were authenticated in the diocese of the origin of the process. Though New York repeatedly tried to block the moving of the remains to Peoria, the Diocese finally got court approval in June.

In 1952, he premiered “Life Is Worth Living,” a weekly half-hour series on the DuMont Television Network. At one point, it was rated the most popular TV program in America. He will be the first American bishop to be beatified.