WATCH legendary Catholic TV bishop beatified

Emmy winning Fulton Sheen brought the apostolic faith to 30 million weekly viewers Tens of thousands of Roman Catholics are gathering in Missouri for the beatification of Fulton John Sheen, the Bishop of Rochester, whose weekly TV show once rivaled Frank Sinatra’s in popularity.Sheen, who died in 1979, will be beatified on Thursday afternoon in a ceremony at the Dome at America’s Center stadium in St. Louis. The beatification had been placed on hold for several years as the Catholic Church searched for a venue large enough to accommodate the 50,000 or so attendees expected.Sheen’s beatification mass will be live streamed, starting at 2 PM St. Louis time (9 PM Central European Time)Pope Leo XIV, who grew up just over 100 miles from Sheen’s first Diocese of Peoria, hailed the archbishop in an address at the Vatican on Wednesday. “May the example and intercession of this holy bishop, known for his evangelizing work through the media, inspire many others likewise to find new ways of spreading the gospel message with joyful enthusiasm,” the pontiff said. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois in 1919, Sheen became known as a keen theologian and philosopher. He was appoin...