Fulton Sheen is now “Venerable”

Today the Holy Father authorized the promugation of the decree concerning the “heroic virtues” of now Venerable Fulton J. Sheen.

Also, note the same for the former Prelate of Opus Dei.

From VIS:

Vatican City, (VIS) – Today, during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:
MIRACLES
– Servant of God Luca Passi, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Teaching Sisters of St. Dorothy (1789-1866).
– Servant of God Francesca de Paula de Jesus, known as Nha Chica, Brazilian laywoman (1808-1895).
MARTYRDOM
– Servants of God Manuel Borras Ferre, auxiliary bishop of Tarragona, Spain, Agapito Modesto (ne Modesto Pamplona Falguera) of the Institute of Brothers of Christian Schools, and 145 companions, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1939.
– Servant of God Giuseppe Puglisi, Italian diocesan priest (1937-1993), killed in hatred of the faith in Palermo, Italy in 1993.
– Servants of God Ermenegildo of the Assumption (ne Ermenegildo Iza y Aregita) and five companions of the Order of the Blessed Trinity, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.
– Servant of God Victoria de Jesus (nee Francesca Valverde Gonzalez), Spanish religious of the “Instituto Calasancio de Hijas de la Divina Pastora” (1888-1937), killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1937.
– Servant of God Devasahayam (Lazarus) Pillai, Indian layman (1712-1752), killed in hatred of the faith in India in 1752.
HEROIC VIRTUES
– Servant of God Sisto Riario Sforza, Italian archbishop of Naples and cardinal of Holy Roman Church (1810-1877).
– Servant of God Fulton n, American archbishop, and former bishop of Rochester (1895-1979).
– Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, Spanish prelate of the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei (1914-1994).
– Servant of God Ludwig Tijssen, Dutch diocesan priest (1865-1929).
– Servant of God Cristobal of St. Catherine (ne: Cristobal Fernando Valladolid), Spanish priest and founder of the Congregation and the Hospital of Jesus of Nazareth in Cordoba (1638-1690).
– Servant of God Marie of the Sacred Heart (nee Marie Josephte Fitzbach), Canadian widow and founder of the Handmaidens of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as the Good Shepherd Sisters of Quebec (1806-1885).
– Servant of God Mary Angeline Teresa (nee Bridget Teresa McCrory), founder of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm (1893-1984).
– Servant of God Maria Margit (nee Adelaide Bogner), Hungarian professed nun of the Order of the Visitation (1905-1933).
– Servant of God Ferdinanda Riva, Italian professed sister of the Institute of Daughters of Charity (1920-1956).
On 10 May the Holy Father authorised the Congregation to promulgate the decree concerning the martyrdom of Servant of God Juan Huguet y Cardona, Spanish diocesan priest (1913-1936), killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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22 Comments

  1. irishgirl says:

    I see also that Mother Angeline Teresa McCrory, the foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm, is on the list, too!
    One of her Sisters’ nursing homes is here in my Upstate NY hometown.
    Great news again for American sanctity!
    Venerable Fulton Sheen and Venerable Angeline Teresa McCrory, please pray for America!

  2. AmandaL says:

    awesome! I needed some good news today :)

  3. acardnal says:

    Venerable Bishop Sheen, pray for us.

  4. dep says:

    How singularly ironic that this should happen, that one of the world’s greatest anticommunist voices should be so honored, on a day that the highest court in the land he loved should embrace something he would surely have hated: the abandonment of the U.S. Constitution.

  5. Jenny says:

    So do you need a miracle for Venerable? I don’t know how it works.

  6. Supertradmum says:

    We need Ven. Fulton J. Sheen for a miracle for our country.

  7. irishgirl says:

    @ Supertradmum: Amen to that!

  8. Banjo pickin girl says:

    jenny, a “venerable” needs to have exhibited the theological and cardinal virtues to a heroic degree.

  9. irishgirl says:

    @ Jenny: I’ll try to explain. When a candidate for sainthood is given the title ‘Venerable’, it’s after an examination of his or her life and writings (if they left any). It’s a decree of ‘heroic virtue’.
    Miracles are needed for the candidate to be beatified (Blessed) and canonized (Saint).
    Does that help?

  10. Dr. K says:

    Fr. Joseph Hart, Vicar General of the Diocese of Rochester, on Abp. Fulton Sheen (6/23/03):

    “While he was a good man, he will not stand the Vatican’s stringent test of sainthood. True, his birthplace-the diocese of Peoria Illinois, has petitioned the Vatican to begin the process of canonizing the late Archbishop.

    While even this step is a great honor; in my opinion – it, like most such processes, will come to nothing. His case was not helped by the recent and well respected biographer Thomas Reeves, who noted in this biography that Archbishop Sheen invented one of his graduate degrees, spent lavish amounts of money on homes and clothes, struggled with vanity all his life and could be pesky and petulant in his dealings with others. Thus, he will not measure up to the standard of heroic virtue, which is required by the Vatican.”

    Unlike our leaders, we the lay faithful of Rochester are proud of our former bishop, who was a good and holy man, and we pray that he will one day be canonized!

  11. acardnal says:

    In response to Fr. Joseph Hart, even canonized saints were not without sin.

  12. Leonard1 says:

    Interesting news about Fulton Sheen. Anyone have any news about the cause of Servant of God Dom Prosper Gueranger?

  13. Pingback: Good News on a Bad News Day « Over the Rhine and Into the Tiber

  14. ray from mn says:

    In the 7 years that we have had Pope Benedict, he has canonized 42 men and women, individually by name, as saints.

    Blessed John Paul has been criticized vehemently for operating a “saint making machine.” Roughly, 385 of the 399 saints that I find on his list were canonized in groups as martyrs [103 Korean martyrs, 105 Vietnamese companions, 119 Chinese companions, 24 companeros, Mexico in the Cristero War, etc.]. That means that only 21 martyred saints were canonized as individuals in the 27 years he was Pope.

    Frankly considering the number of Catholics being killed annually in our violent world, Pope Benedict should be canonizing thousands, if only we could learn their names. And may be we can cease criticizing John Paul II for making too many saints, wishing that he had made more. In a Church of one billion Catholics, we need more saints that we can learn from and emulate.

  15. Jack Orlando says:

    That no one (so far) on this Traditionalist blog is bashing this good and holy man, The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, is a credit to Fr. Z and to the people who comment here. Some comments I’ve read on another Traditionalist blog are shameful and bring discredit to the Traditionalist movement in the eyes of other Catholics. Those who read wdtprs.com know that Traditionalists (by and large) are NOT obsessed, dyspeptic, and constipated cranks, but rather people who love the Church and love Pope Benedict.

  16. The Cobbler says:

    See, this is going to be far more interesting in the long run than what the Supreme Court said on the same day.

    Also, more directly on topic, as regards sanctity and the tendency to be, well, human… y’all hear about Ss. Ambrose and Jerome? (I think it was Ambrose and Jerome, anyway. You know what I’m talking about?)

  17. jm says:

    I love Sheen’s writings, but if making up a degree while a priest does not bar one from sainthood, really, good grief, what on earth does? Not everyone who is good gets to be a saint, which is what makes it a big deal. The dumbing down go canonization continues apace. I simply do not get how anyone can think it a good thing.

  18. jm says:

    As for Jerome, a flaming temper and vitriol somehow seem far more defensible than fibbing to pad the resume.

  19. Supertradmum says:

    I read the Thomas Reeves biography and it is slanted, not objective. I think another bio is necessary soon. The trouble is that people do not understand that we convert daily in our lives. Now, some saints are born, and some are made slowly. Some are martyred. Some die very young and some die very old. We are not the same and saints are not the same.

    I would guess that if the glaring light of media would have been in the life of St. Paul, we would be shocked. St. Jerome himself said that if he did not sleep with a rock as a pillow every night, he would go to hell. St. Thomas More admitted that his lifestyle did not prepare him for the rigors of facing martyrdom and he wore a hair-shirt.

    I am not sure how the Church decides on whether a person is a saint or not. I do not have the expertise in looking at heroic virtues or the consistency of virtue in a person’s life.

    I think that most of us judge either too harshly or too easily, nor really seeing a person’s life from God’s point of view. That is why I rely on the Church’s decision on such things as canonizations. I believe that the Holy Spirit works in and through the Church.

    There are only two absolutely perfect people–Jesus Christ, His Mother Mary; and John the Baptist has a unique position, made so pure by grace in the womb, as being born without Original Sin. Everyone else’s souls can only be judged by God and His Church.

  20. LisaP. says:

    Oh, no, jm, I don’t think that would do it, would it? I mean, assuming he was sorry and confessed? After all, well, I mean, Augustine and all that?

  21. Capt. Morgan says:

    May his cause be quickened.
    For anyone here who was too young to have had the privalage of listening to Venerable +Bishop Sheen, here are two links that are free, in mp3 format.
    http://www.americancatholictruthsociety.com/articles/sheen.htm
    http://www.fultonsheen.com/Fulton-Sheen-MP3.cfm

    And here is one everyone must listen to. The ArchBishop on the Demonic in the world today:
    http://www.fultonsheen.com/Fulton-Sheen-MP3s/The-Demonic-Today.cfm?PID=137

    Venerable Bishop Sheen, Pray for us.

  22. JuliB says:

    The Venerable Bishop Sheen (or do we say Archbishop Sheen?!?) helped convert me to God and Church. After my intellectual arguments against the existence of God were gone, I still stood alone, being unable to believe. Thanks to EWTN and his re-runs, I was able to make the jump into faith about 6 years ago.

    Every Mass and every rosary has his canonization as my intention. If he could pray me into faith and Church, I can help pray him along the path to recognition of sainthood.

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