Why does ‘Blessed Fulton’ matter?

“Fulton Sheen...reached so many people who weren’t necessarily looking to be reached.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen was beatified last Thursday at a celebratory Mass involving some 50,000 Catholics, who traveled from across the United States because of their devotion to the famous evangelist and catechist.

So why does Fulton Sheen matter? Why are Catholics interested in what he had to say, decades ago?

At his beatification, The Pillar asked them.

Here’s what we learned.

My name is Jo-Ellyn Ryall.

Right now, I’m from St. Louis, but I was originally from Irvington, New Jersey, when I used to watch Archbishop Sheen on the television.

I think it’s just an amazing event to be able to participate in a Mass that’s going to make him a blessed.

Well, I was very young at the time that I watched him. But I remember he always had fine things to say, and he always had an angel erase his blackboard. That’s the part I remember, but of course I was very young at the time.

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My name is Randy Butcher, and I am from Memphis.

I actually think Fulton Sheen’s most important thing that he did, alongside being a witness to millions of Americans, is repopularizing the idea of holy hours, especially amongst seminarians and men in formation.

I’ve heard Bishop Barron talk about the fact that that wasn’t a thing in his generation, but by the time he became a formator, it had become incredibly popular amongst the men he was forming.

I think Eucharistic Adoration —the Eucharistic mystery — is incredibly important for our priests. And that idea of the holy hour seems to be more prevalent, and seems to have driven really a Eucharistic identity in our priests.

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My name is James Jenkins. I come from Cincinnati, Ohio, and the reason for me coming to this beautiful beatification of Fulton Sheen is that it is a true grace to actually be able to experience something so beautiful, so close to home — and you know — he spoke to people’s hearts back in the 1950s and how that can reflect with people in the 2020s is truly a miracle in itself.

For him to know 70 years ago of things that are potentially going to come to fruition in our times that we’re living in now — That’s very powerful.

He speaks a lot to this specific generation of today, along with Carlo Acutis — he is talking to people in very different circumstances today, but a lot of people are coming back to Church because of these witnesses. And especially with what he went through, in almost 19 years of craziness before he was actually beatified, with delays and everything.

So you know, the devil is hard at work. But you know what? It’s people like him who are keeping the faith alive.

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I’m Mercy Lane, and we’re from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

We have 8 kids, and we figured it’s not very often that there’s a beatification in the States. It was a 12-hour drive; it was worth the drive and is the experience of a lifetime.

I think a lot of the things that he said in his show were prophetic of the world we live in today.

And so I feel like for my children — who are going to live in a very different world than the world I grew up in — a lot of the things he says are truth, and things that they can use in their own evangelization.

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My name is Sister Kenchukwu Ozioko. My religious order is the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ. I am originally from Nigeria, but we are here in Rockford, Illinois.

Fulton Sheen’s life is so inspiring. Working around seminarians, I hear a lot of them talking about Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen. He has been a powerful soul in the Catholic Church, especially in the formation of the clergy.

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My name is Dale Ahlquist:

Fulton Sheen in his time was a hugely popular Catholic figure in America, and that is the thing that’s gonna return — He’ll be popular again.

He’s a maker of converts; that’s gonna happen again. He can speak directly to our non-Catholic friends and brothers. That’s that was his strength then, and that’s that’s the strength that’s going to come back again.

When you hear him speak now, it’s timeless; he really doesn’t seem to have aged at all. Just like a Chesterton figure is a timeless figure — Fulton Sheen would be able to speak right now the same things he said in the 1950s, and I think they’d have an even greater impact, because it’s so fresh and new to hear orthodox Catholicism spoken.

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My name is Jack Rosenwinkel, I am a Jesuit in formation. Anyone who is holy matters, insofar as they become a living witness to what can happen if you abandon yourself completely to Jesus. But I think Fulton Sheen is this American guy who reached so many people who weren’t necessarily looking to be reached. And I think that matters as well.

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My name is Fulton Daoust and I come from the Twin Cities. I’m 11. Why does Fulton Sheen matter to me? Because I was named after him, and he grew up around where my mom grew up. I’m looking forward to seeing him beatified.

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I’m Bishop John Doerfler from the Diocese of Marquette. I really encountered Fulton Sheen as a young priest, when one of my friends loaned me some cassette tapes of several of his talks.

I was just very deeply moved by the content, and that’s how I was introduced to Fulton Sheen. He shows us a model of how we can use whatever means are available for us in our own time to articulate and proclaim the Gospel.