Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois reflected on Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s scheduled September beatification and what it means for the Catholic Church in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Vatican approved Sheen’s beatification — the step that immediately precedes sainthood — in February, and the ceremony is set to take place on Sept. 24 in St. Louis, Missouri. Tylka, who presides over the diocese in which Sheen was born, raised and ordained to the priesthood, shared how the pioneering the Emmy-winning televangelist and his “timeless” ability to share the Gospel is still resonating with people more than 46 years after his death in 1969.
“Sheen’s ability to communicate is timeless, just like the Gospel is timeless, because what he was teaching and what he was saying is all rooted in the relationship he had with the Lord and in the Gospel that he committed himself to preach and to live out each and every day as a Catholic,” Tylka told the DCNF.
The Archbishop’s successful TV show “Life Is Worth Living” ran from 1952 to 1957 and garnered an estimated 30 million weekly viewers at its height, according to the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation. Sheen’s positio — a comprehensive document arguing his case for sainthood to the Vatican — credits him with the conversion of more than 42,000 people to the Catholic faith, Our Sunday Visitor News reported.
“And so I think, as we introduce new generations of people into what his life and legacy was all about, what people are discovering is that he was simply effective,” Tylka continued. “Because you knew when you saw him, when you heard him speak, when you saw him on TV, or especially if you encountered him in person, you knew this was a man who was living off his faith, witness his faith, because it was the core of who he was: starting his day with prayer, committing himself to be close to the Lord in the Eucharist, his devotion to the Blessed Mother and his desire to bring all people to an encounter with Christ.”
‘Authentic Christian Witness’
Given the recent uptick in conversions to Catholicism among Generation Z Americans — particularly young men — Tylka said he thinks Sheen’s life especially attractive to young people in 2026 as it “was so authentic and genuine.”
“I think younger generations, we look at the world, and we see people in all different parts of society that are inauthentic and calling us to values that are not, you know, that are worldly values versus the timeless values and the eternal values of the Gospel,” the Peoria bishop told the DCNF. “And Sheen is a great example of somebody who says, ‘No, I’m going to live an authentic Christian witness life rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I’m going to do that with clarity and conviction and with compassion and with love.’ And that witness is attractive to anybody.”
Sheen’s show aired amid a changing American political and cultural landscape, coinciding with rapid post-World War II growth and the Cold War’s onset. The archbishop was a vehement opponent of communism, denouncing the destructive ideology as “the final logic of the dehumanization of man,” adding that it “deny[s] God” and “reduces man to a robot,” in his 1948 book “Communism and the Conscience of the West.”
The DCNF asked Tylka what Sheen’s impending beatification means as socialism and communism ascend in popularity among American youth and when the current mayor of New York City — where the archbishop had lived for 25 years — openly identifies as a socialist.
“He [Sheen] saw that not all political ideologies are in concert with the Gospel. And what he did was he preached the gospel … whether it was against communism or even against capitalism,” Tylka said. “When capitalism loses sight of profit over people, we’ve lost our way there.”
“So, I just think that we are in a time when there are many different political viewpoints and there’s polarization, both in society and in the Church, I think Sheen’s voice in that department can call us to reason, call us to communion, call us to reflect the Gospel values that uphold the dignity of humanity and to find ways to work together so that we can build the kingdom of heaven here on earth,” he continued. “I think Sheen’s voice is one that is desperately needed for all of us to reflect about how we interact with one another as brothers and sisters in the human family.”
‘For The World’
Tylka touched on the now-concluded intense legal battle between his Diocese of Peoria and the Archdiocese of New York — where Sheen served as auxiliary bishop for 15 years — over the late archbishop’s final resting place. Sheen’s birth diocese eventually prevailed in the dispute in 2019 when the New York archdiocese agreed to transfer his remains to Peoria.
“The reality is that Fulton Sheen is for the world,” Tylka told the DCNF. “He’s not for the Diocese of Peoria. He’s not for the Archdiocese of New York. He’s not for the Diocese of Rochester. He’s for the world.”
Sheen served as the Catholic bishop of Rochester, New York for three years from 1966 to 1969 immediately following his lengthy tenure in New York City. The Diocese of Rochester successfully petitioned the Vatican in 2019 to postpone Sheen’s beatification pending a review of “his role in priests’ assignments” during his tenure there. The ensuing investigation found no wrongdoing on Sheen’s part.
“[Sheen] said that the world was his parish,” Tylka noted. “In my six years as serving as bishop, I’ve been blessed to travel to different parts of the world. And I’m amazed that no matter where I go, whether it be in Tanzania or in Italy or in France or all across this wonderful country, when I say that I am the Bishop of Peoria, Fulton Sheen’s name comes into the conversation.
Tylka recounted a pilgrimage he led to France with his diocese’s vocations office “a few years back.”
“We were in the town where St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had the apparitions of the Sacred Heart. I was in the back of the room. It was January. It was cold, so I had my coat on. There was an 83-year-old priest who had come to give a talk to our pilgrims,” he said. “They showed us a little movie on St. Mary Margaret Alacoque’s life and the meaning of the Sacred Heart.”
When the film ended, the priest asked his group where they were from. After someone said Peoria, the elderly priest immediately said “Fulton Sheen,” Tylka told the DCNF. He added that one of the pilgrims from his diocese told the priest “Well, our bishop is here” prompting the octogenarian to come “running up” to him.
‘Fulton Sheen’s Bishop’
“This 83-year-old priest came running up to me at the back of the room, finding me to tell me, since I am ‘Fulton Sheen’s bishop,’” the current Peoria bishop said. “And I thought, I’m not Fulton Sheen’s bishop, but I am the Bishop of the diocese that he was from.”
The priest went on to tell Tylka that listening to Sheen as a young boy “opened his heart to explore vocation.”
“And now, 83 years old, was still active in his priesthood,” Tylka added. “I’m so blessed to be able to hear those stories time and time again. People want to share how Sheen impacted their life.”
He told the DCNF that Sheen’s road to beatification and potential canonization makes him and his diocese “immensely proud, in a good way.”
“Not proud as a sin, but proud as a native son” the bishop clarified. “And I speak in my confirmation homily to the young people today that lest you think only somebody far away or a long time ago can become a saint, we need only look at our brother who was born and raised and ordained a priest here in our diocese.”
“When we made the decision to move the beatification from the diocese — because we don’t have a venue that could host 70,000 people in our diocese — to St Louis, there were some who were really kind of upset, because they think that he [Sheen] belongs to us, and as I said earlier, he belongs to the world because he was a bishop of the Church, a priest of the Church,” Tylka continued.
“And so, we have a responsibility to share him with the world. And that’s why, not only do we want the beatification to be a grand celebration of his own witness, is why we are working on developing our Sheen Experience, transforming the high school he went to into a new museum and immersive experience, so that people from around the world who will come and visit can have an encounter through him with the Lord,” he added.
The Sheen Experience is planned massive, interactive museum in Peoria dedicated to exploring and honoring the late archbishop and media pioneer’s life. It is scheduled to be completed in 2027.
‘Richest Soil’
Tylka said that as much as his largely rural Downstate Illinois diocese is proud for its native son, “we also know that we have had to share him with the world, and that’s a great blessing to us.”
“I think Sheen would also point back to some of the lessons he learned as he grew up in this area: Lessons of hospitality, responsibility, service,” he said. “These are the values that we uphold, even to this day. And so people, they can learn more about this wonderful part of the country through him and all of that will experience the life of the Church and the life of the Gospel.”
“I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. I was a priest of Chicago before coming downstate,” Tylka pointed out. “[Peoria is] the heart of America. We have some of the richest soil in the world for growing, and I joke, there’s more corn and soybeans in my diocese than there are actual people there.”
“But there’s also rich soil here of faith, and I believe, as I have come to love and know the diocese over the last six years serving as bishop here, he added. “There’s so much good going on here, and there’s a clear feeling that the spirit is alive and well in the church, and there’s better days for the Church. So, it’s a great part of the country. And when you come across the country and come through Illinois, you know the heart of Illinois is also in the Diocese of Peoria.”
61 Minutes
The Catholic Church requires as a prerequisite for beatification that one confirmed miracle devoid of scientific or natural explanation be attributed to a candidate’s intercession. For canonization, this threshold is two confirmed miracles.
Tyłka shared with the DCNF the story of the one confirmed miracle brought about by a mother’s prayer to Sheen in his diocese back in 2010.
“Young boy was born. The birth was planned to be taking place at home, and the young boy was born without a heartbeat, with no pulse. And the family — very devout and had a devotion to Fulton Sheen — as the birth was happening and the complications were becoming evident, began praying for the intercession of Fulton Sheen,” the bishop said.
“And of course, the baby was transferred from the home to the hospital, and doctors were, of course, trying to revive the child. After 61 minutes, when the doctors were ready to basically call everything off and say that the child was not going to survive is when the heart started beating and the pulse became stronger,” he added.
Tylka noted that the boy, fittingly named James Fulton Engstrom, is now a healthy teenager.
“Like any other normal 15-year-old kid [he is] in high school and plays sports, and part of a loving family. So, it’s truly remarkable to know this young man’s life literally came about with the intercession of Fulton Sheen helping his heart to start,” he told the DCNF.
When asked by the National Catholic Register how he felt about Sheen’s announced beatification in February, Engstrom said “I feel pretty darn good about it.”
“We’re grateful we already have potential miracles that we’ll begin to investigate once the beatification is done. So, maybe that second miracle won’t be too far off,” Tylka added.
‘Only Scratched The Surface’
Tylka told the DCNF that he is “amazed” that while “Fulton Sheen wrote over 66 books” gave “countless talks and homilies, and you have all the video from the show,” he has “only scratched the surface in my own personal reading and understanding of him. ”
“What I find most remarkable, personally, is the fact that he [Sheen] touched so many lives. And when I say again, anywhere in the world, when I say that I am from Peoria, somebody starts talking about Fulton Sheen,” he went on. “He’s got so many quotes. I read a little Sheen every morning at My Holy Hour, and I come away almost every day with something that I find powerful and reflective on. But I’m just amazed at the breadth of the impact he’s had on people around the world.”
“If you don’t know Sheen, get to know him. Read a book, watch a video, learn more about this remarkable American bishop who is now going to be Blessed,” Tylka concluded.
Readers can visit celebratesheen.com to stay up to date on news regarding Archbishop Sheen’s beatification as well as for information about the Diocese of Peoria’s forthcoming Sheen Experience.
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