Fulton J. Sheen

"The Catholic Hour" redirects here. For the TV series, see The Catholic Hour (TV series).

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen TOCarm
Titular Archbishop of Newport Bishop Emeritus of Rochester
Sheen on the set of his show Life Is Worth Living
Church	Catholic Church
See	Rochester
Appointed	October 21, 1966
Term ended	October 6, 1969
Predecessor	James Edward Kearney
Successor	Joseph Lloyd Hogan
Other post(s)	Titular Archbishop of Neoportus (Latin: Newport, Wales; 1969–1979)
Previous post(s)	Auxiliary Bishop of New York (1951–1966) Titular Bishop of Caesariana (1951–1966)
Orders
Ordination	September 20, 1919 by Edmund M. Dunne
Consecration	June 11, 1951 by Adeodato Giovanni Piazza
Personal details
Born	Peter John Sheen (1895-05-08)May 8, 1895 El Paso, Illinois, U.S.
Died	December 9, 1979(1979-12-09) (aged 84) New York City, U.S.
Buried	St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City (1979–2019) St. Mary's Cathedral, Peoria, Illinois (since 2019)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Catholic bishop evangelist professor
Education	St. Viator College (BA, MA) St. Paul Seminary Catholic University of America (JCB) Catholic University of Leuven (PhD) Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (STD)
Motto	Da per matrem me venire (English: "Grant that I may come [to You] through the mother [Mary]")
Signature
Coat of arms
Sainthood
Shrines	Tomb (St. Mary's Cathedral, Peoria, Illinois) Birthplace museum in El Paso, Illinois Fulton Sheen Museum, Peoria
Ordination history
History Priestly ordination Ordained by Edmund M. Dunne Date September 20, 1919 Episcopal consecration Principal consecrator Adeodato Giovanni Piazza Co-consecrators Martin John O'Connor Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris Date June 11, 1951
Episcopal succession Bishops consecrated by Fulton J. Sheen as principal consecrator Joseph Brendan Houlihan November 20, 1960

Styles of Fulton J. Sheen
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Your Excellency
Posthumous style	Venerable

Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen; May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Rochester from 1956 to 1969. He was known for his preaching, especially on television and radio.

Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois, in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and served as a parish priest before he was appointed an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969 as his 75th birthday approached and was made archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.

For 20 years as "Father Sheen", later monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before he moved to television and presented Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format that was very similar to that of the earlier Life Is Worth Living show. For that work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. His contribution to televised preaching resulted in Sheen often being called one of the first televangelists.

The cause for his canonization was officially opened in 2002. In June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI officially recognized a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints stating that he lived a life of "heroic virtues," a major step towards beatification, and he is now referred to as venerable. On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis approved a reputed miracle that occurred through the intercession of Sheen, clearing the way for his beatification. Sheen was scheduled to be beatified in Peoria on December 21, 2019, but this was postponed after Bishop Salvatore Matano of Rochester expressed concern that Sheen's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a forthcoming report from the New York Attorney General. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way".

Early life

Fulton Sheen was born on May 8, 1895, in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton and Delia Sheen. His parents were of Irish descent, and their own parents were from Croghan, County Roscommon, Connacht. He was known as "Fulton", his mother's maiden name, but he was baptized as "Peter John Sheen". As an infant, Sheen contracted tuberculosis.

After the family had moved to nearby Peoria, Illinois, Sheen's first role in the Catholic Church was as an altar boy at Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria.

Sheen graduated in 1913 from high school at Spalding Institute in Peoria with valedictorian honors. He then entered St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Deciding to become a priest, he started his studies at Saint Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ordination and further education

Sheen was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria at the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Peoria on September 20, 1919 by Bishop Edmund Dunne. After his 1919 ordination, Sheen continued his studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.. He celebrated his first Christmas mass at St. Mark Parish in Peoria. His youthful appearance was still evident on one occasion when a local priest, unaware of his identify, asked Sheen to assist as altar boy during the celebration of the mass.

After finishing his studies at Catholic University of America, he entered the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, earning a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1923. His doctoral thesis was titled "The Spirit of Contemporary Philosophy and the Finite God". At Leuven, he became the first American to win the Cardinal Mercier Prize for the best philosophical treatise. In 1924, Sheen went to Rome to attend the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, where he was awarded a Doctor of Sacred Theology degree.

Priestly life

After Sheen returned to Peoria in 1926, Bishop Dunn assigned him as curate at St. Patrick's, a poor parish in Peoria. At that time, both Columbia University in New York and Oxford University in England wanted Sheen to teach philosophy. However, Sheen took the assignment at St. Patrick's without any complaints and later said that he enjoyed his time there. Nine months later, Dunne summoned Sheen to his office. Dunne told him:

I promised you to Catholic University over a year ago. They told me that with all your traipsing around Europe, you'd be so high hat you couldn't take orders. But Father Cullen says you've been a good boy at St. Patrick's. So run along to Washington.

However, instead of Catholic University of America, Sheen chose to teach theology at St. Edmund's College in Ware, England, where he met Reverend Ronald Knox. He also assisted the pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in the Soho section of London. In 1928, Sheen finally returned to Catholic University of America, where he would teach philosophy until 1950.

In 1929, Sheen delivered a speech at a meeting of the National Catholic Educational Association in which he encouraged teachers to "educate for a Catholic Renaissance" in the United States. Sheen was hoping that American Catholics would become more influential through education, which would help attract others to Catholicism. He believed that Catholics should "integrate" their faith into the rest of their daily life.

In 1950, Sheen became the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. During his 16 years as director, Sheen raised millions of dollars for missionary efforts worldwide. He also donated $10 million that he earned from his later television programs.

Auxiliary Bishop of New York

Reverend Sheen

On May 28, 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Sheen as an auxiliary bishop for New York. He was consecrated in Rome at the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paulo on June 11, 1951 The principal consecrator was Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza. The co-consecrators were Archbishop Leone Giovanni Battista Nigris and Archbishop Martin John O'Connor.

Bishop of Rochester

On October 21, 1966, Pope Paul VI named Sheen as bishop of Rochester. While serving in Rochester, Sheen created the Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation. He also spent some of his energy on political activities such as his denunciation of American involvement in the Vietnam War in late July 1967. On Ash Wednesday in 1967, Sheen decided to give St. Bridget's Parish building to the federal Housing and Urban Development program. Sheen wanted to let the government use it for black Americans. There was a protest since Sheen acted on his own accord. The pastor disagreed by saying, "There is enough empty property around without taking down the church and the school." The deal fell through.

On October 6, 1969, Sheen resigned as bishop of Rochester. Paul VI then named him as archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.

Ecumenical efforts

In the 1950s and 1960s, Sheen made notable efforts to seek common ground with Christians from non-Catholic churches, both Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. He occasionally celebrated the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, with papal permission awarding him certain bi-ritual faculties. He often commended the Protestant devotion to Bible study:

"The first subject of all to be studied is Scripture, and this demands not only the reading of it but the study of commentaries. ... Protestant commentaries, I discovered, were also particularly interesting because Protestants have spent more time on Scripture than most of us."

Sheen's autobiography summarized his ecumenical outlook:

"The combination of travel, the study of world religions and personal encounter with different nationalities and peoples made me see that the fullness of truth is like a complete circle of 360 degrees. Every religion in the world has a segment of that truth."

Media career

Radio

In 1930, Sheen began a weekly NBC Sunday-night radio broadcast, The Catholic Hour. During one broadcast, Sheen termed World War II as not just a political struggle but also a "theological one". He referred to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler as an example of the "Anti-Christ".Time Magazine referred to Sheen in 1946 as "the golden-voiced Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen, U.S. Catholicism's famed proselytizer", and reported that his radio broadcast received 3,000 to 6,000 letters weekly from listeners. By 1950, The Catholic Hour had a weekly audience of four million listeners.

Television

Monsignor Sheen on Life Is Worth Living (1958)

At the Catholic University of America, Sheen in 1940 provided voice-over commentary for an Easter Sunday mass. Broadcasted on the experimental station W2XBS, it was one of the first televised religious services in the United States. During the sermon, Sheen remarked,

"This is the first religious television in the history of the world. Let therefore its first message be a tribute of thanks to God for giving the minds of our day the inspiration to unravel the secrets of the universe."

On February 12, 1952, Sheen began a weekly television program on the DuMont Television Network called Life Is Worth Living. Filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City, the program consisted of Sheen speaking extemporaneously before a live audience. The show did not have a script or cue cards, although Sheen occasionally used a chalkboard. He was not paid for the program. Life is Worth Living was scheduled in a prime time slot on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. Its competition was the Texaco Star Theater on NBC, a variety show starring comedian Milton Berle and the Frank Sinatra Show, another variety program on CBS.

Defying all expectations, Life is Worth Living became very popular. The Frank Sinatra Show was canceled in April 1952, leading to speculation that it was due to the success of Sheen's show.Berle, known as "Uncle Miltie", frequently used old vaudeville material on his show. Joking about Sheen, he said. "He uses old material, too." Berle also observed, "If I'm going to be eased off the top by anyone, it's better that I lose to the One for whom Bishop Sheen is speaking." Sheen responded to Berle, saying that perhaps people should start calling him "Uncle Fultie".

Life and Time magazines ran feature stories on Sheen. The number of stations carrying Life Is Worth Living jumped from three to fifteen in less than two months. The show started receiving 8,500 letters per week. The show received four times as many requests for studio tickets as could be fulfilled. The sponsor Admiral, a manufacturer of TVs and appliances, paid the production costs in return for a one-minute commercial at the show's opening and another minute at its close.

In 1952, Sheen won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding personality. In accepting his Emmy, Sheen, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." At that time, Berle quipped, "We both work for 'Sky Chief'", a reference to God and Berle's sponsor, Texaco. Time called Sheen "the first 'televangelist'" and the Archdiocese of New York could not meet the demand for tickets. Sheen received a second Emmy nomination in 1953.

One of Sheen's best-remembered presentations came in February 1953, when he forcefully denounced the Soviet Union. Sheen gave a dramatic reading of the burial scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. He substituted the names of Soviet leaders (Stalin, Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov, and Andrey Vyshinsky) for those of characters in the play (Julius Caesar, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marc Antony and Marcus Junius Brutus). Sheen concluded the presentation by saying, "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." Days later, Stalin suffered a stroke and died within the week.

Sheen was often quick to rebuke what he considered wrongful conduct. For example, in his televised sermon "False Compassion", he shouted:

"There are sob sisters; there are the social slobberers who insist on compassion being shown to the muggers, to the dope fiends, to the throat slashers, to the beatniks, to the prostitutes, to the homosexuals, to the punks, so that today the decent man is practically off the reservation."

Sheen then told his viewers to "hate the sin ... and love the sinner."

Life Is Worth Living ran until 1957, drawing as many as 30 million people weekly, mostly non-Catholics. He received his third Emmy nomination in 1957.

Sheen returned to television in 1961 with a nationally-syndicated series, The Fulton Sheen Program. Running until to 1968, it was broadcast first in black-and-white and later in color. The format of the series was essentially the same as Life Is Worth Living.

International cassette tape ministry

In September 1974, Archbishop Thomas William Lyons of Washington asked Sheen to speak at a retreat for diocesan priests at the Loyola Retreat House in Faulkner, Maryland. Sheen's talks were recorded on reel-to-reel tape.

Sheen requested for the recorded talks to be produced for distribution. This was the first production of a worldwide cassette tape ministry called Ministr-O-Media, a nonprofit company that operated on the grounds of St. Joseph's Parish in Pomfret, Maryland. The retreat album was Renewal and Reconciliation and included nine 60-minute audiotapes.

Evangelization

According to a 1952 article in Time Magazine, Sheen was responsible for converting to Catholicism the writer Heywood Broun, the politician Clare Boothe Luce, the automaker Henry Ford II, the writer Louis F. Budenz, the union organizer Bella Dodd, the theatrical designer Jo Mielziner and the violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler. Each conversion process took an average of 25 hours of lessons, and reportedly more than 95% of his students in private instruction were baptized.

Falling-out with Cardinal Spellman

Cardinal Spellman (1946)

In the foreword of the 2008 edition of Sheen's autobiography, Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, the journalist Raymond Arroyo explains why Sheen ended Life Is Worth Living. Arroyo wrote that "It is widely believed that Cardinal Francis Spellman drove Sheen off the air."

"In the late 1950s, the government donated millions of dollars' worth of powdered milk to the New York Archdiocese. In turn, Cardinal Spellman handed that milk over to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute to the poor of the world. On at least one occasion, he demanded that the director of the Society, Bishop Sheen, pay the Archdiocese for the donated milk. He wanted millions of dollars. Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion and influence in Rome, Sheen refused. These were funds donated by the public to the missions, funds Sheen himself had personally contributed to and raised over the airwaves. He felt an obligation to protect them, even from the itchy fingers of his own Cardinal."

Spellman pleaded his case about the funds directly to Pope Pius XII, who sided with him. Spellman later confronted Sheen and stated, "I will get even with you. It may take six months or ten years, but everyone will know what you are like." Besides being pressured to leave television, Sheen also "found himself unwelcome in the churches of New York City. Spellman canceled Sheen's annual Good Friday sermons at St. Patrick's Cathedral and discouraged clergy from socializing with him." In 1966, Spellman allegedly persuaded Pope Paul VI to appoint Sheen as bishop of Rochester and terminate his leadership at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. On December 2, 1967, Spellman died in New York City.

Sheen never talked about the quarrel with Spellman, making only vague references to his "trials both inside and outside the Church". In his autobiography, Sheen even went so far as to praise Spellman.

Later years

On October 15, 1969, one month after celebrating his 50th anniversary as a priest, Sheen resigned as bishop of Rochester. Pope Paul VI then appointed him as archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales The ceremonial position allowed Sheen to devote more time to his extensive writing. During his lifetime, Sheen wrote 73 books and numerous articles and columns.

On October 2, 1979, two months before Sheen's death, Pope John Paul II visited St. Patrick's Cathedral during his papal visit to the United States. During the ceremony, the pope embraced Sheen and said, "You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a loyal son of the Church."

Death and legacy

Beginning in 1977, Sheen "underwent a series of surgeries that sapped his strength and even made preaching difficult". Throughout that time, he continued to work on his autobiography, parts of which "were recited from his sickbed as he clutched a crucifix." Soon after that, Sheen underwent open-heart surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

Sheen died on December 9, 1979, in his private chapel while praying before the Blessed Sacrament. He was interred in the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral near the deceased archbishops of New York. In 2019, after a long legal battle, the archdiocese transferred Sheen's remains to the Diocese of Peoria, which re-interred them in the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.

• The official repository of Sheen's papers, television programs, and other materials is at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester.
• Joseph Campanella introduced the reruns of Sheen's various programs that are aired on EWTN. Reruns are also aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
• The Fulton J. Sheen Museum in Peoria houses the largest set of Sheen's personal items in five collections. It is operated by the Diocese of Peoria.
• The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Spiritual Center is located in El Paso, Illinois. The museum contains more Sheen artifacts.
• The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in Lower Manhattan is named after him.
• The actor Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez adopted the stage name of Martin Sheen partly in admiration of the bishop.
• Sheen frequently celebrated mass at Saint Agnes Church, in Midtown Manhattan. On October 7, 1980, New York Mayor Ed Koch renamed East 43rd Street in front of Saint Agnes as "Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Place".

Cause for canonization

The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation was formed in 1998 by Gregory J. Ladd and Lawrence F. Hickey to spread information about Sheen's life. The foundation approached Cardinal John O'Connor of the Archdiocese of New York for permission to commence the process of his cause, which was under the authority of the Diocese of Peoria. In 2002, Sheen's cause for canonization was officially opened by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria. From then on, Sheen was referred to as a "Servant of God". On February 2, 2008, Sheen's archives were sealed at a ceremony during a special mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria. In 2009, the diocesan phase of the investigation ended and the records were sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican.

On June 28, 2012, the Vatican announced that it had recognized Sheen's life as one of "heroic virtue", a major step towards eventual beatification. From then on, Sheen has been styled "Venerable Servant of God". According to the Catholic News Service and The Catholic Post (the official newspaper of the Peoria Diocese), the case of a newborn boy who had no discernible pulse for 61 minutes, who was about to be declared dead at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, as a stillborn infant, and yet lived to be healthy without physical or mental impairment was in the preliminary stages of being investigated as the possible miracle needed for Sheen's potential beatification. If the miracle is approved at the diocesan level and then by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican by being both medically unexplainable and directly attributable theologically to Sheen's intercession according to expert panels in both subject areas, beatification may proceed. Another such miracle would be required for him to be considered for canonization.

On September 7, 2011, a tribunal of inquiry was sworn in to investigate the alleged healing. During a special mass on December 11, 2011, at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, the documentation gathered by the tribunal over nearly three months was boxed and sealed. It was then shipped to the Vatican for consideration by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, concluding the diocesan tribunal's work.

On Sunday, September 9, 2012, a mass of Thanksgiving and banquet was held at St. Mary's Cathedral and the Spalding Pastoral Center in celebration of the advancement of Sheen's cause. Attendees included Bishop Jenky, and his predecessor as Bishop of Peoria, Archbishop John J. Myers along with many clergy and religious from around the country. Copies of the positio, the book detailing the documentation behind his cause, were presented to Myers and other attendees. According to statements made at the service, the medical and theological study of the possible miracles needed for his beatification and canonization was well underway. At least miracle was being seriously considered. New procedures under Pope Benedict XVI stated that beatification should ideally occur in the candidate's home diocese. Therefore, Sheen's beatification would likely take place in Peoria, where it would be the first.

Transfer of remains

Archbishop Sheen's tomb, St. Mary's Cathedral, Peoria, Illinois (2023)

In September 2014, it was announced that the canonization cause would be suspended because of a disagreement with the Archdiocese of New York concerning the return of Sheen's remains to the Diocese of Peoria. In a press release on June 14, 2016, it was announced that Sheen's surviving family petitioned the New York Supreme Court to allow the transfer of Sheen's remains to Peoria. The press release stated that "on several occasions, the Archdiocese [of New York] has declared its desire to cooperate with the wishes of the family."

In an action brought in New York Supreme Court on November 16, 2016, Justice Arlene P. Bluth ordered the Archdiocese of New York to grant permission to disinter Sheen's body. The court ruled that the archdiocese's objection that Sheen would not want the disinterment was without factual basis. Given that his elevation to sainthood was being blocked, the court found the family had sufficient justification for moving his body.

However, on February 6, 2018, the New York State Appellate Division overturned Bluth's decision and ordered an evidentiary hearing be held as to whether moving Sheen's body would be consistent with his wishes. The court noted that,

"it is unclear if Archbishop Sheen's direction in his will to be buried in 'Calvary Cemetery, the official cemetery of the Archdiocese of New York' evinces an express intention to remain buried in the Archdiocese of New York, or was merely a descriptive term for Calvary Cemetery."

However, after re-examining the case and holding the evidentiary hearing on June 9, 2018, Bluth affirmed her earlier ruling. The archdiocese allowed Peoria to begin the work on his cause for canonization, which eventually would have required at the least a collection of his relics.

The archdiocese announced on June 9, 2019 that it was officially giving up the fight to keep Sheen's remains at St. Patrick's Cathedral. On June 27, 2019, the remains were transferred to St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria.

Miracle recognized for beatification

On July 6, 2019, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints promulgated the decree approving Sheen's miracle needed for beatification. The miracle involved the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a boy stillborn in September 2010 to Bonnie and Travis Engstrom of the town of Goodfield, near Peoria. Engstrom's parents prayed for the intercession of Sheen for their son's recovery. Pope Francis approved the miracle, and Sheen was scheduled for beatification on December 21, 2019, at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.

Postponement of beatification

On December 3, 2019, the Diocese of Peoria announced that the Vatican had posponed Sheen's beatification. Salvatore Matano, the bishop of Rochester, had expressed concern that his predecessor's handling of a 1963 sexual misconduct case against a priest might be cited unfavorably in a report from New York State Attorney General Letitia James. The Diocese of Peoria countered that Sheen's handling of the case had already been "thoroughly examined" and "exonerated" and that Sheen had "never put children in harm's way." The Diocese of Peoria continues to promote the beatification of Sheen.

As of August 2023, the Vatican had not announced whether or when the beatification would move ahead. As of April 2024, New York State's Rochester investigation was still ongoing.

Selected bibliography

• God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy (1925, Longmans, Green, and Co.)
• The Seven Last Words (1933, The Century Co.)
• Philosophy of Science (1934, Bruce Publishing Co.)
• The Eternal Galilean (1934, Appleton-Century-Crofts)
• The Mystical Body of Christ (1935, Sheed and Ward)
• Calvary and the Mass (1936, P. J. Kenedy & Sons)
• The Cross and the Beatitudes (1937, P. J. Kenedy & Sons)
• Seven Words of Jesus and Mary (1945, P. J. Kenedy & Sons)
• Communism and the Conscience of the West (1948, Bobbs-Merrill)
• Peace of Soul (1949, McGraw–Hill)
• Three to Get Married (1951, Appleton-Century-Crofts)
• The World's First Love (1952, McGraw-Hill)
• Life Is Worth Living Series 1–5 (1953–1957, McGraw–Hill)
• Way to Happiness (1953, Maco Magazine)
• Way to Inner Peace (1955, Garden City Books)
• Life of Christ (1958, McGraw–Hill)
• Missions and the World Crisis (1963, Bruce Publishing Co.)
• The Power of Love (1965, Simon & Schuster)
• Footprints in a Darkened Forest (1967, Meredith Press)
• Lenten and Easter Inspirations (1967, Maco Ecumenical Books)
• Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen (1980, Doubleday & Co.)
• Finding True Happiness (2014, Dynamic Catholic)
• Your Life Is Worth Living: 50 Lessons to Deepen Your Faith, Foreword by Bishop Robert Barron (2019, Image Catholic Books)

Further reading

• Farney, Kirk D. (2022). Ministers of a New Medium: Broadcasting Theology in the Radio Ministries of Fulton J. Sheen and Walter A. Maier. IVP Academic
• Hughes, Cheryl (2024). Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Convert Maker. Ignatius Press, San Francisco
• Reeves, Thomas C. (2001). America's Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen. Encounter Books, San Francisco.
• Riley, Kathleen L. (2004). Fulton J. Sheen: An American Catholic Response to the Twentieth Century. St. Paul's/Alba House, Staten Island.
• Sherwood, Timothy H. (2010). The Preaching of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: The Gospel Meets the Cold War. Lexington Books.
• Sherwood, Timothy H. (2013). The Rhetorical Leadership of Fulton J. Sheen, Norman Vincent Peale, and Billy Graham in the Age of Extremes. Lexington Books.
• Winsboro, Irvin D. S. & Epple, Michael (Summer 2009). "Religion, Culture, and the Cold War: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and America's Anti-Communist Crusade of the 1950s", Historian, 71 (2): 209–233.

External links

• Official website
• Fulton J. Sheen at IMDb
• The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation
• Library Catalog Record for Sheen's Ph.D. thesis
• FBI file on Bishop Sheen
• Venerable Fulton J. Sheen: 200 talks by Sheen available in MP3 format, along with streaming video of his Family Retreat
• Time cover, Fulton J. Sheen, April 14, 1952
• Fulton J. Sheen Spiritual Centre – El Paso, IL Archived April 1, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
• Sheen Mass – Cause for Canonization on YouTube