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President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen – “the first-ever American-born bishop to be beatified by the Catholic Church” – by praising Sheen’s fearless use of media to confront “the rising tide of anti-God extremism in American culture.”
In a special presidential message issued on the occasion of Sheen’s beatification in St. Louis, Missouri, Trump celebrated Sheen as “the Catholic priest who pioneered the use of media to speak the truth, preach the Gospel, and bring many souls closer to Christ.”
Trump praised Sheen’s use of the camera during the 1960s to thwart the infiltration of communist ideology in America and beyond:
Archbishop Sheen shocked the entertainment industry by besting American legends like Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra in weekly ratings, winning an Emmy award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and appearing on the cover of Time magazine. For years, his sharp wit and piercing intellect filled millions of American living rooms and converted thousands—including national politicians, Hollywood celebrities, and communist leaders—to the Catholic faith. His program attracted an estimated 30 million weekly viewers, ultimately becoming one of the most watched religious programs in the history of television. Through it all, Archbishop Sheen used his platform not for his own sake but to strengthen our Nation with the good news of the Gospel.
“[T]oday, as thousands of Americans gather in St. Louis, Missouri, for his Beatification Mass, we pray that Archbishop Sheen’s heroic commitment to nourishing the soul of our country will inspire others to follow his example and lift our Nation upward and ever higher to God,” the president said.
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota posted to social media Thursday that “it was one of the signal privileges” of his life “to preach the homily” at the vigil Mass of Sheen’s beatification.
The founder of international evangelization ministry Word on Fire – in many ways itself a continuation of Sheen’s work to use media as a force to spread the Gospel – Barron posted a video of his homily, in which he said that “[f]rom the very beginning of my own work in evangelization, Sheen has been my model and inspiration.”
“I do indeed consider him one of the pivotal players in the modern history of the Catholic Church, for he opened the door to the evangelization of the world through the electronic media,” Barron said, noting that “[b]y common consensus, Archbishop Sheen was the premier preacher in the English language in the 20th century,” and that “at the height of his influence, Sheen had a television audience of 30 million every Tuesday night, and received 25,000 letters a day from all over the country.”
In another post Thursday morning, Barron echoed some of Trump’s observations about Sheen’s influence on American culture.
“Fulton Sheen was a fierce voice against communism, recognizing its threat and its essential atheism,” the bishop wrote. “He would be deeply troubled by its comeback in our country.”
Barron said he also shared with Fox News why Sheen’s voice is needed again today, at a time when the threat of communism and socialism have cast a concerning shadow over the upcoming midterm elections.
Quoting from his interview with Fox News, Barron observed that Sheen “argued communism, rooted in Karl Marx’s teachings, also threatened the foundations of equality, freedom and individual rights.”
“Sheen knew if you take God out of the picture, you take equality, rights, freedom out of the picture,” the bishop said.
Barron has served on the Trump administration’s national Religious Liberty Commission and, last week, was named to serve on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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