The year the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen died, 1979, I was in the throes of a religious lapse. It had been ongoing for some nine years; I was still a few years from a reversion. Besides that, I was finishing up law school so that I easily missed or was otherwise oblivious to the demise of this significant Christian figure while I pursued a career milestone. All these years later, having re-discovered, or, having first truly discovered him, his intellect and his homiletic brilliance, I heartily regret my cursory cultural awareness of him.
I knew he had been a progenitor of television evangelists. He began on radio, but an opportunity came for him to dive into the new medium of television, and so he did. He was on a major network, first Dupont, then ABC and even once hit higher ratings than the comedy star of the day in the 1950's, Milton Berle. Back then, religion wasn't forbidden to the public square, was even invited to trod upon it. His show had several incarnations, half-hour, black and white (well, there wasn't color until the early 1960s anyway), an hour, color. But I don't recall watching them growing up, and during my lapsi period, I wasn't much inclined.
Don't get me wrong. I never was angry at the Church, the way some of my friends were, many for whom that anger never faded. I had some personal issues which I felt, probably not unlike poor Judas (but fortunately, not as so directly grievous) did not lend themselves to forgiveness, at least by going through the mediation of a human being in Confession, however much the instrument of God Himself. Alas, what probably kept and still keeps many from the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) is embarrassment that there's a man through whom one expresses sin and contrition to God. I suspect embarrassment is the genesis of the comment oft heard expressed by Catholics, and in part the reason for the short line at Confessionals, "I talk directly to God; I don't need to go through a priest." And then, it was also the time in history at large and Church history. The translation to the people of the changes wrought by Vatican II, which it turns out weren't really dogmatic changes, was woeful and mostly incorrect. Effectively, the rug had been pulled out from under me when I was about age 11, and I gave up trying to sort it all out, by age 16. That was 1970. Bishop Sheen's show had left mainstream in about 1968, and I certainly didn't catch it in syndication.
Once I was back in practice as a Catholic (the slow return began in 1983, which was after the Bishop had died in New York and I had been two years in Los Angeles), still years went by until I discovered EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) begun in 1986 by Mother Angelica. That discovery wasn't until the mid to late 1990s, for me. And there was Bishop Sheen, with flourish and fanfare, mesmerizing me about my rediscovered faith as well as about history itself. He was talking about a dangerous road for humanity and Catholicism way back in the 1950s.
Of late, though, perhaps because the world around me/us is, to my mind, so apocalyptic--I realize that there are many who believe the world, and parts of mankind, are much more progressive and wise than in times past so I am not trying to convince the reader of my sensibility on that subject, though it strikes me as confounding in the extreme not to see it--I have been spending more time with the Bishop's 50, 60, 70 year past shows and lectures. I once wrote here that I consider Dennis Prager a bit of a prophet--but he came onto the scene in the early 1980s, and our society was already pretty well on the rocky road to self-destruction. Sheen was seeing things at a time in society, post-war America, had settled into a kind of dream of prosperity and confidence that began to be pride in man as the measure of all things. It had happened before; it was happening again. Sheen was a true prophet. Things were not so rosy in the soul of the society, be it the slow recognition of full civil rights for Black Americans, or the manipulation by those who would like to see the end of the American Experiment. I hesitate to say "Communism" because the only thing people remember is the foolish Joe McCarthy's misguided methods to address it, and in demonizing him (which he perhaps deserves, that is a subject for others), there was an odd embracing of a system that killed nearly 100 million people in its various incarnations.
With his deep set eyes that could sear a soul, Sheen looked into the decaying one of America and the world at large. As the 60's world-view dominated men, the words of a Sheen faded into obscurity, or were dismissed as the ramblings of a Church intoxicated fool. Except as history will show-I cannot prove it, no one can, but I am as certain as I am of my own existence--that man is again seeking to usurp what was ordained by God. He uses the gift of free will that was intended to adore, not to contradict God. I haven't yet seen all episodes of Sheen's show, or homilies, or retreat lectures, to be certain that he said that all that is left to us is prayer. But I am sure I will run across one.
Bishop Sheen is slowly wending his way to official sainthood. Well, slowly is a relative term because he has only been gone from the earth under 40 years and in Saint proclamation terms, it is very soon even to be denominated "Venerable" (first was "Servant of God", next is "Venerable", then "Blessed", then the gold ring of "Sainthood") given that some individuals were not declared saints for decades, or centuries after their deaths. It was Saint John-Paul II, himself a beneficiary of the change, who allowed for an "easier" process. Of course, whether someone is or is not a Saint is not determined by the official naming. Many have been saints unknown to the world at large. Those named stand as models for the rest of us--proof that it isn't impossible for the ordinary person.
As to Bishop Sheen, though, the process got interrupted by not very religious Diocesan infighting that is wending its way through the very secular legal system. As to me, I really would like to see him be named officially because there is, and was, something in him that seemed both part of this world and the one in which he now dwells. A prophet is someone given a special gift, or obligation, perhaps more it is an obligation, by God. He is not a soothsayer. He simply sees what is happening around him and speaks truth to secular power. And to religious power that might be too secularly minded.
When I watch him speak in the videos, he is as alive as if he were here with us. I really admire him. I want him to be declared a saint.
I have my reservations. I would have reservations with any human being, for all human beings are frail. As wonderful as he was, Bishop Sheen did something that has, small as it might seem, troubled and troubles me greatly. It fuels my reservations.
Here was this well known, well educated, well decorated man of letters, and a priest, and he did this really odd thing, at least to me it seems odd, given his prestige. He lied on his resume by adding study and a degree from a University he never attended. In my old job, as a prosecutor of lawyers, this was considered "moral turpitude" because it was intended that the reader rely upon it. Why does such a minor aspect of a whole life bother me so much? I am expecting perfection of what can only be an imperfect being. All saints were imperfect, as contaminated by the effects of original sin, and personal temptation, as all of us are. I suppose, in a way, that he did this increases the fascination I feel for the man who might one day be declared Saint. I will never know why unless and until we both meet in heaven. But everything else in his life, of which I know at least, indicated the holiness of sainthood.
As to that resume thing, when I see him (I hope) I will ask.
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