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| 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
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
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 New York repeatedly tried to block the moving of the remains to Peoria
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