The Diocese of Peoria, in the United States, will have the world’s first parish dedicated to Blessed Fulton Sheen. The new community will be officially erected on December 9 and will include among its two churches the Church of St. Mary in El Paso, Illinois, where the celebrated preacher received Baptism.
The announcement was made this Monday, September 28, by the Bishop of Peoria, Bishop Louis Tylka, during a Mass celebrated precisely at St. Mary’s. “I have the great joy of announcing another first: the creation of the world’s first parish called Blessed Fulton Sheen Parish,” the prelate stated.
Two communities under the patronage of Fulton Sheen
The new parish will arise from the union of St. Mary’s in El Paso and St. John’s in Benson. Both churches will retain their names, as well as their history and traditions, but will form a single parish community under the patronage of the new blessed.
The date chosen for its establishment, December 9, coincides with the liturgical memorial of Fulton Sheen and the anniversary of his death in 1979.
The announcement comes just days after Fulton Sheen was declared blessed before tens of thousands of the faithful gathered in St. Louis. The apostolic letter of Leo XIV established precisely December 9 as the memorial of the new blessed.
“This has been an extraordinary week of firsts for the Diocese of Peoria and for the universal Catholic Church,” Tylka noted.
The parish is born where Sheen received Baptism
The choice of St. Mary’s carries particular significance. Fulton John Sheen was born in El Paso in 1895 and received Baptism in that same church.
“It was in the Church of St. Mary in El Paso that Fulton John Sheen was baptized. There his life in Christ began,” the bishop recalled.
Tylka directly linked the birth of the new parish to the sacrament Sheen received there: “From those waters of Baptism sprang an extraordinary life of faith, priesthood, preaching, teaching, missionary discipleship, and evangelization that ultimately reached millions of people around the world.”
The Diocese of Peoria has maintained an especially close connection with the cause of the new blessed. Sheen grew up in the diocese and was ordained a priest there in 1919. His remains currently rest in the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
From one baptized by Sheen to the parish that will bear his name
Bishop John Barres of Rockville Centre accompanied Tylka during the Mass of the announcement. His presence added another sacramental bond to the day: Barres was personally baptized by Fulton Sheen in 1960.
“Having him with us as we celebrate this moment constitutes a beautiful reminder that the sacramental life of the Church connects generations of disciples in ways we cannot always foresee,” Tylka affirmed.
The Bishop of Peoria finally expressed his desire that the name of the new blessed not be limited to a historical memory, but that it define the evangelizing vocation of the community.
“My prayer is that, several generations from now, when people hear the name and visit Blessed Fulton Sheen Parish, they will find a vibrant community of disciples who live as he lived, convinced that Jesus Christ deserves to be known, deserves to be loved, and deserves to be shared with the world.”
Thus, Blessed Fulton Sheen Parish will begin its existence on December 9 in the very place where, more than 130 years earlier, the Christian life of the man whose name it will bear began through Baptism.