The first great Televangelist, Archbishop Fulton J Sheen, will be beatified this coming September.
The ceremony will take place in Saint Louis, Missouri at The Dome at America’s Centre.
The huge indoor arena can accommodate tens of thousands and it is expected that such huge crowds will attend the event.
This is the first time that an American born bishop has been beatified in the Catholic Church.
Sheen has deep Irish roots and regularly visited his homeland, opening a church in his native Roscommon in the 1950s he referred to the Irish as ‘we’ and reflected on the deep bonds between the two countries. He also insisted that Irish people remain in their country and work towards renewing it as best as they could.
Fulton Sheen would regularly reflect on important Irish Catholic figures of the Twentieth Century such as Matt Talbot and Joseph Plunkett.
He also attended a Legion of Mary meeting in Dublin alongside Frank Duff in the 1960s.
He famously pointed to Duff and the Legion as the best example of the spirit of renewal that the Second Vatican Council sought to implement.
