Sheen beatified today; Ignatius Press explains why

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 24, 2026 | In Reviews

As I post this commentary, the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen is being beatified at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri (3 p.m. central time, 9/24/2026). While Sheen is buried in a side chapel of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in his home diocese of Peoria, Illinois, the immense number of people who wished to attend the beatification ceremony required the use of a larger venue.

Sheen is known to many elderly American Catholics through his beloved television program in the 1950s, Life is Worth Living, which ran on the DuMont Television Network (1952-1955) and on ABC (1955-1957), and through other similar programs between 1958 and 1968. Before moving to television, Sheen had appeared on the radio program “The Catholic Hour” from 1928 to 1952.

On television, Sheen went head-to-head against NBC’s Milton Berle show, drawing as many as 10 million viewers each week—the only program to hold its own against Berle’s popularity. Berle once joked that “he’s got better writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John!” And since Berle used the nickname “Uncle Miltie”, Sheen once begin his own show by referring to himself as Uncle Fultie. In 1953, Sheen even won an Emmy Award for “Most Outstanding Television Personality”. Age disclosure: I can remember watching Life is Worth Living occasionally as a kid in the 1950s. Sheen, then a bishop, always appeared in his full episcopal regalia.

Of course, my memory of television in the 1950s is not all that good apart from a few Western heroes (notably Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, and Maverick). A great many shows were wedded to the American frontier in those days. But Bishop Sheen was his own kind of TV star, and more information about his television programming can be found on Wikipedia.

The point is that, as a Catholic bishop, television host, and author, Fulton Sheen guided and inspired countless American Catholics (and many non-Catholics) in the period just before the dramatic public implosion of American values in the 1960s. Many of us remember the great bishop and archbishop even more fondly in light of the cultural and spiritual mayhem we have experienced since that time.

New books from Ignatius Press

Happily, Ignatius Press is honoring the Sheen beatification by releasing three new books on or by this remarkable American Catholic:

• The Power of Love: “Bishop Sheen discusses the radical transformation of love from the Catholic perspective, which has helped change the world as we know it. He embarks on a series of exquisite mediations on love—its nature, power, and relevance for modern man.”
• Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: A Man for All Media: This volume is “a wonderful coffee-table book filled with over 125 original photos of the great archbishop from the Fulton Sheen archives. It is combined with inspiring quotes from the many popular books Sheen wrote on every kind of spiritual topic. These photos and quotes capture the joy, zeal for the faith and dramatic flair that helped him be such an effective communicator and missionary to all souls.”
• Fulton J. Sheen: God’s Great Communicator, by Cheryl C. D. Hughes. This new Vision Book (designed for ages 9 to 15) follows “Fulton Sheen’s journey from an Illinois farm boy to a world-famous archbishop, known to politicians, popes, and Hollywood elites, as well as millions of ordinary people. The secret to his success was his love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom he had consecrated himself, and his intimate relationship with Jesus, especially through his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.”

Whether or not you ever experienced Archbishop Sheen in person, on radio, or on television, you can benefit from one or more of these new books by or about this unparalleled twentieth-century champion of both the Catholic faith and the moral virtues—the faith and virtues which really do make life worth living.