Vatican clears path for beatification of Fulton Sheen in Peoria

The Vatican has again given approval for the beatification cause of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the popular U.S. radio and television preacher whose effort to be recognized as a saint ran into major delays, the Associated Press reported Feb. 9. The Peoria Diocese said the Vatican told Bishop Louis Tylka that the cause can proceed to beatification, bringing the process back on track in Peoria.

In a written and video statement shared on the websites of the diocese and the Sheen foundation, Tylka said: “The Holy See has informed me that the cause for the Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen can proceed to beatification.” He added that Peoria is working with the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Causes of Saints “to determine the details for the upcoming beatification,” while the diocese did not immediately announce a new ceremony date.

The Vatican’s approval sets the stage for Sheen, who was born in Illinois, to be beatified during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. The AP report said the decision follows a rare six-year delay to investigate concerns that had derailed the scheduled beatification plans after a 2019 postponement.

Sheen’s path toward sainthood had received momentum after Pope Francis confirmed a miracle attributed to Sheen’s intercession on July 6, 2019. Francis had then set Sheen’s beatification for Dec. 21, 2019, in Peoria, before the Vatican postponed the ceremony indefinitely with less than three weeks’ notice.

The postponement came after the diocese of Rochester, New York, where Sheen served as bishop from 1966 to 1969, asked for further investigation into Sheen’s tenure and “his role in priests’ assignments,” according to the AP report. The concerns, the report said, focused on Sheen’s handling of two cases of priests accused of sexual misconduct, and said Sheen was never accused of abuse himself.

A top canonical affairs official in Peoria, Monsignor James Kruse, said in 2019 that an investigation had cleared Sheen of any wrongdoing, the report continued. Kruse later complained about the Rochester diocese’s role, writing a lengthy essay posted on the official Sheen beatification site that was later taken down, and he characterized it as “sabotaging” the cause.

The AP said the statement from Tylka did not reference the specific concerns that prompted the 2019 delay. The broader report described the postponement as another obstacle after years of litigation over Sheen’s remains, involving his relatives in Peoria and the New York City archdiocese. Sheen, who died in 1979, had been interred under the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, and the report said his remains were returned to Peoria in 2019 after a court ruled that his niece could bury him there.

Beyond the beatification inquiry, the AP report highlighted Sheen’s reach as an evangelizer in the 20th century, noting that he pioneered television-era ministry with his 1950s series “Life is Worth Living.” It also said he was later recognized with an Emmy Award and featured on the cover of Time Magazine.

Among those celebrating the Vatican’s new approval, the report said was The Pontifical Missions Societies in the U.S., the Vatican’s missionary fundraising office in the country. The AP report said Sheen headed that organization from 1950 to 1966 and that he left most of his patrimony, including writings and audio recordings, to the group. Monsignor Roger Landry, national director of the office, said in a statement that “It is profoundly moving that, in God’s providence, the first U.S.–born pope is able to advance the cause of his fellow Illinois native, the most iconic evangelizer ever produced by the American Church.”