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October 25, 2006
The Sheen Cause
Officials at the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation hope to finish preparing their case within a year. The whole process, which began in 2003, could cost up to $1-million, and it could be five years before there's a St. Fulton. But Father Apostoli is hopeful. Sheen was named a "servant of God" on the day his application arrived. And Pope John Paul II twice urged the Sheen Foundation to hurry up with the sainthood bid.
Strategywise, Father Apostoli notes that it is crucial to gather both positive and negative testimony, to prevent any surprises at the sainthood oral exams. In Sheen's case, the negative will include references to his posh lifestyle — he did not exactly dress like St. Francis, having worked in a haberdashery as a seminary student — and the jealousy he aroused in other men of God.
More troubling is an allegedly fake doctorate. Reportedly tired of lecturing to freshmen at Catholic University, Sheen applied at one point to teach older students. In the process, a hitherto unmentioned — and so-far undocumented — Ph.D. from the Pontifical College Angelicum, in Rome, materialized, miraculously or not, on Sheen's CV. He got the job.
Eighty-some years later, accounts of the incident differ. Backers claim that Sheen's not mentioning the degree earlier was proof of his humility. Others say the alleged forgery was common academic ambition. In the end it probably won't make a difference. Saints are human and have flaws, says Father Apostoli. He cites the postulator working on Mother Teresa's canonization, who advised the Sheen supporters: "Don't try to prove he was a saint all his life. Just prove he was a saint the last 15 years."
h/t RP
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Re: the academic saints sidebar,
Is Blessed Nicolaus Steno considered a patron for geologists? A brief skim of the internet suggests that he gradually traded in his scientific interests for pastoral duties.
Posted by: Kevin Jones at Oct 25, 2006 11:28:42 AM
I still have my little note from Biship Sheen thanking me for sending him my allowance in 1964 for the Pagan Babies.
Does anyone remember the little boxes that could hold quarters in slots (up to 5 dollars) and they said 'Pagan Babies' on the front? There were moments in the early 60's when being a kid and Catholic was just plain WONDERFUL.
Posted by: trisha at Oct 25, 2006 12:11:21 PM
Fulton Sheen famously ran the U.S. branch of Society for the Propagation of the Faith for a dozen or so years before heading to Rochester as its bishop. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith is now part of the combined Pontifical Mission Societies, based in New York.
Nothing wrong with converting non-Christian babies and their families to the one, true and holy Catholic Faith.
See http://www.worldmissions-catholicchurch.org/
Posted by: George C. at Oct 25, 2006 12:51:00 PM
Pop Quiz:
Does anyone remember the title of Bishop Sheen's TV program?
Posted by: John G. at Oct 25, 2006 1:20:48 PM
Wasn't it LIFE IS WORTH LIVING?
Yes, I remember the collections. The money for Pagan Babies was to rescue and support abandoned ones, who would of course be baptized. To know that expression is a "marker" for pre-VII Catholics.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at Oct 25, 2006 1:29:10 PM
Life Is Worth Living.
Posted by: Dale Price at Oct 25, 2006 1:29:30 PM
Gah!
Well, silver medal where Sandra takes the gold isn't too shabby, I guess...
Posted by: Dale Price at Oct 25, 2006 1:30:36 PM
Without straying too far OT, since it was mentioned, I was surprised to see "Life is Worth Living" last night, broadcast on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting) which I thought was an Evangelical Christian network. I wonder if they show all of the episodes.
Posted by: Kate P at Oct 25, 2006 1:34:07 PM
Kate, I saw Sheen's program on TBN last night as well. There has to be an ulterior motive for showing a program with a guy in the "dog collar of Rome" on an evangelical network.
Still, they did a great job with it. Hearing Joseph Campanella's voice again wasn't bad, either!!
Posted by: marco frisbee at Oct 25, 2006 2:06:55 PM
Life Is Worth Living is also on EWTN Friday nights following The World Over at 9pm Eastern.
I'm not surprised that a non-Catholic network would show Bishop Sheen - of all the Catholic apologists of the time, I think he was the most ecumenical. My aunt remembered watching him back in the 50s, and that was long before she converted. Bishop Sheen was a Catholic with whom many non-Catholics could identify.
Posted by: Mitchell Hadley at Oct 25, 2006 2:42:34 PM
I don't know whether Bishop Sheen had a doctorate or not. (Alasdair McIntyre doesn't have one, by the way.) I do know that his Life of Christ is the most insightful I have read. He should have been awarded a doctorate just for that work alone. I would love to have taken some theology courses from him.
Posted by: Alfredo at Oct 25, 2006 3:54:07 PM
Only the last 15 years count? I'd given up on trying to be saint, but if only the last 15 years count, why, I might try starting over!
Posted by: Ted at Oct 25, 2006 4:18:32 PM
A few years ago my parish was visited by a priest from Africa, who was touring asking for money for his area.
He was a wonderful guy, very big, very black, and with a huge, warm voice. He got up in the pulpit and said, "Does anyone here remember all those pennies for Pagan Babies?" and all the older people laughed. He grinned, and said, "Well, don't laugh! Here I am!! I was a Pagan Baby! And I want to thank everyone who put pennies in those boxes!" Turns out he had been orphaned as a child, and raised and educated partly with those funds.
Posted by: Adam at Oct 25, 2006 4:25:47 PM
Lot of people seem to have this problem, or one like it. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously plagiarised large chunks of his doctoral dissertation on Paul Tillich at Boston U.; many of his published writings contain unauthorised and unattributed borrowings from other authors. Moving from the semi-sublime to the semi-ridiculous, George O'Leary became Notre Dame's shortest-lived football coach when he resigned in 2001 five days after his initial appointment. An astute journalist checked with NYU and found that O'Leary's claim to have earned a master's there to be entirely fictional.
Posted by: Blind Squirrel at Oct 25, 2006 4:26:06 PM
Is it then so difficult merely to tell the truth? Not to fabricate lies?
After all, this isn't exactly the kind of thing one does in the passion of the moment, like punching some fellow-motorist in the nose after he sideswipes you. Lying on your resume is cold, cold as ice. Talk about premeditation!
Posted by: Adam at Oct 25, 2006 5:00:12 PM
"In Sheen's case, the negative will include references to his posh lifestyle."
I would say that this aspect of Sheen's life would need some thorough, careful, and critical analysis by any panel considering his sainthood.
Since we're on the topic of canonization, I would like to say in a very general way that I find the absence of a "devil's advocate" in today's procedure extremely troubling. Without someone in the canonization procedure charged with raising doubts about a person's sanctity to an excruciating degree, how can the whole thing possibly avoid the taint of bias? (Specific recent canonizations where one might be inclined to suspect that bias skewed the results come to mind pretty readily....)
Posted by: Michael at Oct 25, 2006 5:06:31 PM
If you have to be a saint at every moment of your entire life, there would be very few - we wouldn't have St. Paul or St. Augustine or St. Peter or "the Good Thief", etc., etc.
Whatever human failings Bishop Sheen might have had, he never led the persecution of Christians - as did Saul of Tarsas. It's missing the point of examination of conscience to presume constant sinless super-human perfection is required to be a holy human person.
Posted by: marianne at Oct 25, 2006 5:40:06 PM
I believe it was Thomas C. Reeves, an Episcopal convert, who discovered the possible fraudulent degree in his book America's Bishop. I highly recommend the book! I was never a Sheen fan, from what I saw of his show on EWTN I couldn't stand the delivery and demeanor. But when I read the book I was highly impressed by him. He did have to work to be humble, which is difficult for most highly intellectual people. I can totally sympathize with his love of the good life, and he saw that as his greatest fault. He was a fascinating individual and the book is excellent.
Posted by: Gen X Revert at Oct 25, 2006 8:17:54 PM
I must say, reading the cost of the canonization process made my stomch sink. Why on earth does it cost so much? Is this really money well spent?
Posted by: JH at Oct 26, 2006 9:54:17 AM
Thank you, JH, I was going to bring this up.
If anyone wonders why, even now, the huge majority of our canonized saints are religious, it's because the Orders have the resources to push these causes. For my personal edification I'd like to see many more canonized saints who were men and women who worked in the world at ordinary occupations, who were married with children (gasp! actually had sex lives! that practically disqualifies you right there!), who didn't sort of see the light in later life and become monks or nuns after all, and who weren't martyred by some dictator.
But don't hold your breath, because there isn't a moneyed organization behind the canonization of such people, and canonization costs money. Quite a lot of money.
I actually have someone in mind, a great lady, now deceased, who loved her husband, who converted to the Faith as an adult, and who cared magnificently for her five children and Very Numerous grandchildren. And whose faith sort of soaked through her life, if you know what I mean. I felt that just having lunch with her made me a better person. She was really an inspiration to everyone who knew her. She was quite a bit older than me, and I met her when she was already rather elderly. I loved her dearly, as you can tell.
The kicker is, she and her husband were quite wealthy, more than wealthy enough to fund a Cause. I sort of pushed this idea at one of her kids, a priest, while she was still living, and he laughed a little, but man, I was serious. I don't think it's going to happen, though.
Posted by: Adam at Oct 26, 2006 11:52:07 AM
Consider this a sidebar... Steno is certainly a saint for geologists but he didn't "gradually trade." He was a Danish lutheran professor and when he converted he was tossed out of his position. He became a priest and eventually bishop and felt that was a better use of his time anyway.
Posted by: jane M at Oct 26, 2006 12:39:47 PM
