He showed the Christian life.
He showed the Christian life.
X i Jinping at the White House — goofing off with our president about a predecessor’s autopen. Preps for a Nor’easter — which means cleaning out the Costcos of the Acela Corridor. Plenty of things occupied the news headlines two days into fall 2026, y’all. But the one that was the keeper was Blessed Sheen Day in America. One of our first television trailblazers, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, was raised to the status of “blessed” in the Catholic Church — advancing him toward the possibility of eventually becoming a canonized saint. Catholics can do both fabulously and terrifyingly weird things, like venerate a relic of his jawbone and name a parish after him; the last, of course, being way less unusual — similar to naming the Nashville airport after Dolly Parton. And like Dolly, there are life-size cardboard cutouts, hoodies, and water bottles of the Illinois native (yes, like Pope Leo). Which raises a fairly significant and fundamental question about saints: Are they just famous people who pray? Is it just even better if he happens to be a bishop with a cape and other episcopal regalia to add dramatic flair?
I think the first thing to know — which I say with transparent bias — is that the man was a philosophy teacher at my alma mater, the Catholic University of America, for 23 years. He published 34 books before he ever entered American homes on the TV screen. He was a newspaper columnist — bringing a religious worldview to the op-ed pages, an unapologetically Catholic one, from 1949 to 1977.
I was reminded of the necessity of his expertise. While he wasn’t giving heavy lectures on TV, he was conveying something of the faith. Surely, if Sheen is a saint, it can’t simply be because he proved to have a commanding enough presence to provide Milton Berle some competition. Or can it be?
It was, of course, something much more. He had humor. A great voice. Wasn’t bad on the eyes. But it was the something more that made the difference, that makes him more than a celebrity or influencer (and I’d like to think that word would be like nails on a chalkboard for Sheen): It was the Holy Spirit within that sanctified him. Sheen was a teacher. He intellectually knew his material and could talk about it. But it’s the embodiment of the material that made the difference.
Your Life Is Worth Living is a collection of transcripts of audio recordings from Sheen, finally published in 2001, not far from the theme, obviously, of his Life Is Worth Living TV show. “Pray to the Holy Spirit that you may know Christ in the fullness of His Gospel and the love of the Father, that you may understand He is the source of power, the Holy Spirit,” Sheen says. “Our Lord said, I will send you power from on high (Luke 24:49). Every day of my priestly life I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. The power that is not human, not physical, not intellectual; rather, a power coming solely from living the Christ life, the power to influence people, the power to impress you with the divinity of the Holy Spirit.” There he was giving you a little window into his show prep. There was no teleprompter. He did not write a script. He prayed. He knew his stuff, but he asked the Holy Spirit for the words.
In his Blessed Sheen Day homily, Vatican Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, from the Philippines, talked about how Sheen didn’t have an answer when asked how many people he had brought into the church. Now, truth is, that’s part of the power of media: There really is no way of knowing everyone you are reaching. But for Sheen, it was for a more important reason, one of humility. Another convert made was God using Sheen as an instrument, not Sheen being a holy mastermind.
“If I have given you any deeper comprehension and closer understanding of the beautiful love of the Trinity,” Sheen wrote, “I trust you will, in gratitude, sometime say a little prayer to the Holy Spirit for me that I may more in mind, heart, and body show forth the Spirit of Christ.” We would all be blessed if we prayed for one another in similar ways. That we may show gratitude to our common Creator for having given us our lives, and to each other. We might not all be Catholics. We won’t all be named saints. But blessings will abound. Sheen shows us that. His legacy can be perpetual Blessed Sheen Days — ones on which we wake up, knowing our unworthiness, and yet live in joy, knowing it’s worth it because it does not rely on us alone. It’s quite divine — with actual practical help from God Himself.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.