Venerable Fulton Sheen. The beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen is a reminder that the Church must embrace modern media without allowing personality or popularity to eclipse the Gospel, Bishop Paul Dempsey has said.
The celebrated Irish-American preacher and broadcaster was beatified today at a Mass in St Louis, Missouri, presided over by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle on behalf of Pope Leo XIV. Blessed Fulton Sheen became one of the best-known Catholic voices in American broadcasting through his radio work and television programme Life Is Worth Living.
Bishop Dempsey, who presented a weekly religious and social affairs programme on Kildare FM before becoming a bishop, told The Irish Catholic that Sheen’s approach remains “remarkably contemporary”.
“For him, the medium mattered, but the mission mattered more,” he said, adding that Sheen’s gift was his ability to break down complex theological ideas and show people how they applied to their lives.
The bishop said today’s proliferation of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and podcasts offers the Church opportunities “that were unimaginable just a couple of decades ago”. However, he warned that “the boundary between personality and evangelisation can become blurred” when communicators become preoccupied with popularity and views.
Radio Maria Ireland broadcaster Fr Eamonn McCarthy, who first encountered Sheen through recordings and writings in the 1970s, said priests today “would do well to emulate his use of technology with the same courage and zeal”.
He said Sheen combined a mastery of presentation with “sound philosophical, doctrinal and theological acumen”, pastoral concern and a deep life of prayer.
Fr Brendan Kilcoyne, speaking on his YouTube channel, The Brendan Option, said there has “never been a greater need” for “passionate and skilled preachers of the words of the Lord Jesus”, predicting Sheen would become “a very significant saint in the 21st-century Church”.
Prof. Martin Shaw, who promoted Sheen’s cause across Ireland from 2002 to 2009, recalled older Catholics who remembered Sheen visiting Ireland, while some priests told him they had attended retreats preached by the American archbishop. Prof. Shaw said Sheen also preached at Dublin’s Whitefriar Street Church during his visits to Ireland.
Reflecting on the long-awaited beatification, he said Blessed Sheen’s enduring lesson was simple: “It’s less important to be successful and more important to be faithful.”