The would-be viral moments of (soon-to-be-Blessed) Archbishop Fulton Sheen
If he could have gone viral, he would have
Back in the 1950s, when somebody said the word viral, they were talking about a disease.
It would be decades before short video clips or edgy tweets could go viral. Which means that media stars living in the before-times never had the chance to go “viral,” or even become a meme.
One such unfortunate soul is Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the popular host of the TV show “Life is Worth Living,” which aired between 1952 and1957.
Before his widely acclaimed TV show launched, he hosted a radio show beginning in 1930. “The Catholic Hour” drew more than 4 million listeners a week.
(Do those numbers make you nervous, Fr. Mike Schmitz?)
Yet Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s message was confined to the radio waves, TV sets, and bookshelves, with no talks, quote-tweets, or reels earning the coveted virality spotlight. But imagine what the algorithms of Musk, Zuckerberg, and Apple would have done with this guy.
Amid that news Catholics have bombarded the internet sharing Sheen’s most famous quotes, best video moments, and top pictures.
Their zeal raises a question — if the algorithms of X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube existed in Sheen’s time, would the soon-to-be-Blessed have gone viral?
If you ask The Pillar, at least, these would have been Fulton Sheen’s top 5 “viral” moments.
Sheen’s 1953 Emmy Award
Imagine the shock when a Catholic bishop won an Emmy.
A man, clad in black and purple with a Roman collar, walked out on stage and in his acceptance speech said, “I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers —Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
What a moment. What a quote.
The Emmy committee described “Life is Worth Living” as, “unequaled by any other inspirational or intellectual show.”
A bishop of the Church winning an Emmy — that’s wild.
Father Mike Schmitz and Bishop Robert Barron, Sheen’s media-savvy presbyteral successors, could only dream of winning an Emmy (or the equivalent in the podcasting world).
We can’t find any video of his Emmy speech. But if it was shared as a reel that night, you can bet it would have done numbers.
Surely all the trendy Catholic influencers on Instagram would have eaten that clip up, propelling his Emmy award to at least a day in the limelight.
‘You have to get rid of God’
In an episode of his show “Life is Worth Living”, Sheen reflects on the growing secular movement, offering a harsh critique of how philosophers have sought to replace God with thought and reduce the historical Christ to nothing, reducing Christianity and religion to a feeling.”
Sheen added, “We have had a series of thinkers in our days that believe that in order to uphold the world, one has to destroy the divine. That’s one of the reasons, incidentally, for the ‘God is dead’ movement.”
“These poor thinkers believe that to make room for the (new godless form of social justice work) you have to get rid of God. In order to make room for the Christian message you have to get rid of the historical Christ. Even in the field of religion itself, the holy are on the defensive itself. This world’s spirit has gotten hold of us to such an extent that many do not like the holy.”
Powerful quote. Now, imagine if Archbishop Sheen had an X account and posted a clip or tweeted an excerpt of it.
The trads would love it, the other side would (maybe) love it, the middle-of-the-ground Catholics would eat it up.
Some might even call it a synodal tweet.
But inevitably, there would probably be a contentious debate descending into some niche topic that is so irrelevant it’s mind boggling how one got there.
Still, all the extra views would seize Catholic X for at least a day. Probably.
Sheen’s ‘Laws of marriage’
Marriage was a frequent topic for Sheen, the archbishop delivered many sermons and broadcasts on the subject, and wrote the popular book “Three to get Married.”
Naturally, he has some phenomenal quotes reflecting on marriage and family life.
In one episode of his show, Sheen gave the “Laws of Marriage”.
He prefaces that, “no one ever achieves pleasure in a permanent form until passing through a moment of pain. No one ever rises to a higher form of love without a death to a lower form of love.”
Then he shares the three moments of marriage:
“The first moment is when you are initially married; it is ecstasy, joy, music, peace, contentment, ecstasy, what could one ask for more? But there is no change in either person, it is something fine, noble and God given. It is good to remember it is the frosting on the cake.”
“Then comes the crisis. In the moment of crisis one begins to think the other does not share the same views. One is no longer thirsty at the border of a well, all the imperfections of life begin to reveal themselves, there become increasing dissatisfactions, there may even be a protesting and a blaming of the other partner for having cheated him, for she promised to be a goddess and she was not a goddess.”
“Marriage then begins to be like luggage, they think they are getting out of it only what they packed into it.”
“How foolish they are. This is not the end of love, this is merely the depth of illusion.”
“If they begin to persevere, they will move to the third movement. If they stick it out in this moment of crisis, then they will discover themselves face to face with a personality, they will discover something else, a soul that leads the body.”
“Then they begin to see that the other partner is one whose mystery is not found by traveling in a circle. Rather love is like a spiral, it is a great ascension and they discover themselves now pulled more and more together by a great mysterious force that they may discover to be the voice of God.”
Mic drop, Archbishop.
If Tik Tok was a thing and these clips were spliced together, they would have blown up. Everybody loves a good marriage reel. Some good marriage advice, with sound theology and practical advice? That’s a winning formula.
Why? Cause the legions of armchair theologians obsessing over the theology, accompanied by wanna-be Catholic influencer moms admiring the vision, would propel this clip to virality.
A Fulton Sheen meme
Everybody loves a good meme. But a meme’s gotta be funny. The archbishop might have understood that.
Sheen, known for his powerful addresses, sprinkled humor throughout, particularly in the many stories he shared. The punchline had audiences roaring with laughter. Take the story of a guy who enjoys a cigarette, only forgoing smoking when the lighter does not work for, “The spirit is willing but the flash is weak.”
With such a robust media presence, surely some kid with nothing better to do would have captured a funny moment of the Archbishop, came up with an amusing caption, posted it online and viola, let the internet do its thing.
‘The greatest love story’
Sheen spoke at length about the Eucharist and its importance in our lives, reflecting on how his Holy Hour is the most important hour of his day — a good reminder for everybody.
He wrote a book on the Eucharist, “The Holy Hour,” filled with spiritual gems.
But perhaps the most striking quote is a simple one, “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host.”
Chills. What an epic quote.
Tweet that out – viral.
Use it for an Instagram post with a pretty background - viral.
Tik Tok or Instagram Reel - viral.
FOCUS or National Eucharistic Congress media team using it as a voice-over for one of those flashy promo videos - viral.
You get the gist, it is a good quote.
—
If Instagram, Facebook, X and all the other platforms existed back when Archbishop Sheen dominated the Catholic media circuit, he surely would have had his moments in the viral spotlight.
How would Sheen have responded? Would he have used those platforms? Who knows.
And does going viral mean anything at all? Who knows.
But you can be sure that with Sheen’s rich reflections, his dynamic personality, and his media savvy, the archbishop would have been the first blessed to do it.
"The editing needs work."
- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
It's nice to show highlights from Sheen's work, but honestly the answer is that there would be no "viral" Fulton Sheen today for the same reason there can be no Elvis today. The fractalization of media via the internet ensures audiences can get whatever infinitely niche content will maximize engagement, but limits the overall reach--unless you have exceptionally broad appeal, stellar management, and capital to burn like jet fuel (Taylor Swift is the only example that comes to mind, and she got her start in the earliest days of social media, before algorithms funneled everyone into their own little rabbit holes). And even within the Christian-friendly or even the explicitly Catholic media sphere you now have a dizzying amount of content "subgenres" (traditionalist! charismatic! leftcath! byzcath! distributist! communio! lifeteen! neocat!) and "influencers". And this is not to mention the ghettoization of all faith-related and "conservative" media from Big Tech, on top of the default cultural apathy.
I would argue Fr. Mike Schmitz, while probably not as theologically erudite as PhD-educated Sheen, is on par with him purely in terms of audience reach and edification. If Sheen were in ministry today, he would basically be what Fr. Mike is. And of course the virtues of Fr. Mike's life are unknown to us, unlike the long-deceased and vetted Sheen... which is why anyone who listens to Fr. Mike should pray for him---as the soon-to-be-Blessed Sheen surely is!