(OSV News) — With the Feb. 9 announcement of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification, experts told OSV News the renowned 20th-century theologian and evangelizer spoke not only to his time, but to the present — with a clear, hopeful and accessible message firmly centered on Christ’s saving love for humanity.

“I think he has a lot to say to us in this moment,” Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois — where Archbishop Sheen is entombed, and home to his cause for canonization — told OSV News. “I’m always amazed as I encounter clips of things he said or things that he wrote, how pertinent it is to the world today.”

A ‘voice of reason’

Archbishop Sheen — a prolific author, ardent evangelizer and pioneering religious broadcaster — “was a voice of reason,” said Bishop Tylka. “He was a voice of truth.”

“He was very direct,” said Richard Howick, director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Excellence in Preaching Initiative at The Catholic University of America, which provides homiletics training and resources for priests, deacons, and lay leaders. “He had no problem talking point blank about some of the most important issues of our day.”

Those topics included scathing critiques of communism and Marxism, the dangers of secularism, the disintegration of the family, and the modern pivot from a Judeo-Christian understanding of human nature.

Yet, said Howick, the late archbishop “was always positive.

“Almost every single time he opened his mouth to begin a subject, he would start with a story or a joke or something light, in order to remind everyone that the conversation is about the positive.”

And that positive focus, in turn, pointed to the Gospel message, said Bishop Tylka.

“He (Archbishop Sheen) was a voice that promoted human dignity and respect for others,” said the bishop. “He called us to be a people who show compassion and care for those who are most vulnerable in our world.”

Being present to people

Archbishop Sheen was known for his ability to rally support for those in need, raising millions during his 1950-1966 tenure as national director of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies– and for his tremendous personal generosity, said Cheryl C.D. Hughes, author of the 2024 book “Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Convert Maker.”

“He gave away his coat twice,” Hughes told OSV News. “On a cold New York day, he saw somebody shivering and said, ‘Here, take my coat.’”

Hughes added that while Archbishop Sheen, who was “being paid several thousands of dollars a night” in speaker fees, “could have luxuriated in all of his earnings,” he instead “gave it away” — including to the now-closed St. Martin de Porres Hospital in Mobile, Alabama, which served Black women amid segregation.

“He was a ‘person-to-person’ person,” said Hughes. “He was very intuitive when it came to individuals, about what they needed, what would be the best thing for them, the best tactic for opening the door to them. He had empathy for the human condition. Everyone to him was a child of God, and they were his brothers and his sisters.”

Whether writing one of his 66 books, evangelizing to millions, caring for individuals or rallying support for the missions, Archbishop Sheen drew on a profound and personal relationship with Christ, said Msgr. Jason Gray, a priest and official of the Diocese of Peoria, and executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, located in that city.

“I think that people would fail to really understand Sheen unless they knew that this was coming out of a deep, personal spiritual life,” which made the archbishop’s work “effective,” Msgr. Gray told OSV News.

“Lots of people are on the internet. They’re on podcasts. They’re on media. There’s a lot of people preaching about Jesus Christ,” Msgr. Gray noted.

But, he said, Archbishop Sheen “didn’t just talk about Jesus. This is someone who knew Jesus.”

Msgr. Gray pointed to Archbishop Sheen’s “time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, his daily holy hour,” and “his intimate devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

That time translated into a compelling witness for the faith, one that transcended the media platforms he used to disseminate the Gospel, said Msgr. Gray.

“You sense his personal conviction when you hear him speak,” he said. “Sheen had a genuineness that came through the camera, right through into the homes of people, and it spoke right into their hearts.”

Broad appeal

For that reason, Archbishop Sheen’s work appeals to younger generations today, said Msgr. Gray.

“Oftentimes integrity is in such short supply,” he said. “Because people are searching for meaning, there’s something really powerful about someone who is so confident in what he’s saying. When he speaks about the gift of eternal life, he is doing so with such conviction. And I think young people respond to that.”

“Youth have already discovered him,” said Bishop Tylka, citing the contrast between Archbishop Sheen’s faith, charity and humor and “so many inauthentic messengers.”

“The number of young people I talk to, especially young men in seminaries, they very much know about Fulton Sheen,” the bishop said. “Young people are saying, ‘I want to hear somebody who’s going to challenge me to be better. I want to hear somebody who’s speaking truth.’”

Bishop Tylka said that given challenges both in the U.S. and globally — especially regarding peace, justice and human dignity — “Sheen is a voice from the past who really has given us a lot of wisdom, and a reason to stop and consider how we are living our lives today, particularly from the perspective of living out our faith.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina

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