‘Back on the air’ - Fulton Sheen beatification to be announced

The Holy See is expected to announce in coming weeks a date for the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the Emmy-winning American prelate known for catechetical television programs in the 1950s and 1960s.

Sheen, who came within three weeks of a scheduled beatification in 2019, is expected to be formally beatified in September, according to sources close to the process.

Announcement of the beatification will come after the Diocese of Rochester saw resolved its six-year bankruptcy process, and established a settlement fund for abuse survivors of more than $250 million.

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Sheen’s scheduled December 2019 beatification was delayed after Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano asked the Vatican to postpone the process, over concerns that Sheen — who served as Rochester’s diocesan bishop from 1966 to 1969 — might be accused of mishandling cases of sexual abuse or misconduct.

At specific issue was Gerard Guli, a former Rochester priest, who was accused of abusing adults in the early 1960s — before Sheen arrived in the diocese — and who reportedly asked Sheen for an assignment in 1967.

Msgr. James Kruse, then-director of canonical affairs in the Diocese of Peoria, told Catholic News Agency in 2019 that Sheen never assigned Guli to ministry, even while his successor, Bishop Joseph Hogan, did.

“The documents clearly show that Sheen’s successor, Bishop Hogan, appointed Guli, and it’s at that assignment that Guli offended again,” Kruse said in 2019.

Kruse added that he had spoken with Guli — still living in 2019 — and that the man had confirmed Sheen had not given him an assignment.

“It’s [Bishop] Hogan who appointed Guli to the parishes in the towns of Campbell and Bradford where Guli offended, and it’s part of the reason that led to his ultimate removal and laicization, as well as other issues,” Kruse said.

In 1989 — a decade after Sheen died — Guli was arrested for an incident of abuse involving an elderly woman, and eventually laicized.

In addition to the Guli case, there was also concern among some officials that there might be raised in New York new allegations against Sheen during the Child Victims Act litigation window, which is now closed. The Pillar has confirmed that no allegations were filed against Sheen during the litigation window.

There was also the possibility that Sheen might face allegations in the context of an attorney general’s probe into the handling of sexual abuse by New York’s dioceses. The probe was launched in 2018, but has since gone dormant, and sources close to that probe have told The Pillar that there are no new or unresolved allegations against Sheen in the attorney general’s files.

Sources say the resolution of Rochester’s own bankruptcy proceedings, and the September 2025 approval of a settlement worth roughly $250 million, was the final straw remaining before the Apostolic See would again move forward with the Sheen beatification.

Last May, the Bishop of Peoria, Illinois, where Sheen was ordained a priest in 1919, told local reporters that he hoped the newly elected Pope Leo XIV would “move forward and move beyond the pause … to the beatification of Fulton Sheen.”

“We believe that some day the church will indeed catch up with Fulton Sheen, meaning that the church will canonize him,” Bishop Louis Tylka added, in an interview with Peoria’s WMBD-TV.

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Pope Francis approved in July 2019 a miracle attributed to Sheen, and set December 21, 2019, as the date for the bishop’s prospective canonization.

The miracle was the unexpected recovery of a baby born stillborn in 2010, who was miraculously revived, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints concluded, after his parents prayed that Sheen would intercede for their son.

Sheen was ordained a priest in 1919, became a professor at The Catholic University of America, and then a radio host, hosting “The Catholic Hour” on NBC Radio from 1930 until 1950. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of New York in 1951 and soon after moved into television, hosting “Life is Worth Living” from 1952 until 1957 and “The Fulton Sheen Program” from 1961 until 1968.

Sheen twice won Emmy awards for his television work.

He became Bishop of Rochester in 1966 and remained in that office until 1969. After his retirement, Pope Paul VI named him a titular archbishop.

Sheen died in 1979, and was initially buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. After a protracted legal battle, Sheen’s remains were moved to Peoria.

The Diocese of Peoria opened the cause for Sheen’s canonization in 2002. Peoria’s Bishop Tylka is widely expected to play a key role in the liturgy at which Sheen is officially declared beatified.

Sources close to the Sheen case told The Pillar that the announcement of a date for Sheen’s beatification is expected to come before the retirement of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., who will reach 80 years old — and the expected conclusion of his term — in late January.

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