The Holy See will announce in the coming weeks the date of the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the well-known American prelate and pioneer of evangelization through the media, whose cause was stalled in 2019 just days before its celebration.
According to The Pillar, Sheen’s beatification is scheduled for September 2026, once the last obstacles that had stalled the process have been overcome, including the complex bankruptcy of the Diocese of Rochester and the civil investigations related to sexual abuse in the state of New York.
A process marked by the 2019 suspension
Fulton Sheen’s beatification was initially scheduled for December 21, 2019, after Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to his intercession in July of that same year. However, the then-Bishop of Rochester, Monsignor Salvatore Matano, requested a postponement of the ceremony from the Vatican due to fears that accusations related to the handling of abuse cases might arise during Sheen’s brief episcopate in that diocese between 1966 and 1969.
The case that generated the most controversy was that of Father Gerard Guli, accused of abusing adults in the 1960s. However, as Monsignor James Kruse, then in charge of canonical affairs in the Diocese of Peoria, explained in 2019, Sheen never assigned Guli to any ministry, and it was his successor who later assigned him to parishes where he offended again.
In addition, The Pillar has confirmed that no complaints were filed against Fulton Sheen during the period of the Child Victims Act in New York, nor are there any pending accusations as part of the state attorney general’s investigation, which began in 2018 and is currently inactive.
The Rochester bankruptcy, the last obstacle
Sources close to the process indicate that the resolution of the Diocese of Rochester’s bankruptcy proceedings, which lasted six years, was the last determining factor in reactivating the cause. In September 2025, a compensation agreement for victims worth approximately $250 million was approved, thereby clearing the way for Rome to resume the beatification process.
The Bishop of Peoria, Monsignor Louis Tylka—the diocese where Sheen was ordained a priest in 1919 and which opened his canonization cause in 2002—expressed last year his hope that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV would “move forward and leave behind the pause” in the process.
The legacy of Fulton Sheen
Fulton J. Sheen was one of the great Catholic communicators of the 20th century. Ordained a priest in 1919, he was a professor at The Catholic University of America and gained great notoriety as a radio broadcaster with The Catholic Hour and, later, as a television presenter with programs such as Life is Worth Living and The Fulton Sheen Program, with which he won two Emmy Awards.
Appointed auxiliary bishop of New York in 1951 and bishop of Rochester in 1966, he was later elevated to titular archbishop by Pope Paul VI. He died in 1979 and, after a prolonged legal dispute, his remains were transferred from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to Peoria.
The miracle approved for his beatification was the inexplicable recovery of a child born without signs of life in 2010, after his parents invoked Sheen’s intercession.
According to The Pillar, the official announcement of the beatification date could take place before the retirement of the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, scheduled for the end of January upon turning 80.