Venerable Fulton Sheen to be beatified in St. Louis on 24 September
In the 20th century, VENERABLE ARCHBISHOP FULTON SHEEN BECAME A PROPHETIC VOICE FOR OUR TIMES. He spoke often about persecution, the trials the Church would face, and the coming of an antichrist spirit. But among his most striking warnings was this, that persecution alone is not the greatest threat to the Church. The far greater danger is lukewarmness and compromise.
Fulton Sheen declared, “THOSE WHO WILL NOT STAND FOR ANYTHING WILL FALL FOR EVERYTHING. The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. Persecution tests the faithful. It strengthens those who cling to Christ. But lukewarmness, the slow, the quiet erosion of zeal deadens the soul from within.” Fulton Sheen warned, “The danger today is not persecution from without, but corruption from within. When the faith no longer inspires sacrifice, it dies.”
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The Archbishop foresaw a time when Christians would face a FALSE SENSE OF PEACE, when compromise would masquerade as tolerance, and when many would choose comfort over the cross. Fulton Sheen said, “The Antichrist will promise a Christianity without the cross, but it will be an empty shell, a counterfeit of the true faith.”
Yet he never left us in fear. HE CALLED US TO COURAGE, TO CLARITY, TO LOVE WITHOUT COMPROMISE. He proclaimed, “The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. May we have the courage to stand with Christ even if the world stands against us. Persecution may wound the body, but lukewarmness kills the soul.
Blessed ignorance does not lead us to the God who is the Truth (Jn 14:6). Blessed ignorance does not lead to eternal life!
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:32-33). Since God is the Truth, we could rewrite this verse in this way: “So everyone who acknowledges the Truth before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies the Truth before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven”.
POPE JOHN PAUL II, WHEN ASKED, ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE HIS DEATH, FOR ONE VERSE IN THE BIBLE TO LEAVE THE PEOPLE OF GOD, HE RESPONDED WITHOUT HESITATION: “THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE” (JN 8:32). The Pope knew well that most people today, who are totally immersed in the atmosphere of relativism, do not want to take the risk of having to change their lives and suffer. “I decide”, the truth, good and evil, as our first parents of humanity decided (Gen 3,4-5). The modern philosophers, such as Decart and Kant, helped us to no longer seek the truth outside of our heads in creation and in divine revelation. “I think, therefore I am” (Decart)! “I am” is the name of God that God said to Moses (Ex 3:6)! As Pope Benedict tells us, a great number of people have willingly embraced relativism; each person becomes a god. The problem is that in the heaven that was created by the Creator of the entire universe, there is room for only one God, not two! The One true God is the Truth (Jn 14:6)! The Truth of God will set us free, whereas the truth of us creatures will make us slaves!
Fulton Sheen reminds us the greater danger is not suffering for Christ, but forgetting him. Today, the choice is set before us to live boldly in the Truth or to fade silently into compromise. MAY WE RISE WITH HEARTS ON FIRE, REFUSING TO BE LUKEWARM, so that when the world looks for light in the darkness, it finds Christ alive in us.
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Blessed Cardinal Newman said he felt fortunate to be living in the time when the enemies of the Church were on the outside looking in. The day would come when there would be enemies of the Church on the inside looking out. Today we talk about theological descent in the Church. Descent is a nice word for heresy, lies, all sorts of lies!
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The Church has always survived emperors, revolutions, and wars. WHAT WOUNDS MOST DEEPLY IS SUFFERING FROM WITHIN. Confusion, compromise, silence, betrayal. Decades ago, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen warned in 1947 that this would happen. In his book “Communism and the Conscience of the West”, Sheen wrote, “The mystical body on earth today will have its Judas Iscariot.” He was not speaking dramatically. He was speaking biblically. Just as Christ was betrayed by one of his own, so too would his Church experience betrayal from within her visible ranks. Not every crisis would come from enemies outside. Some would come from those who were supposed to guard the Truth.
A year later in 1948, during a radio address later published in the same work, Sheen gave a warning that now sounds almost prophetic. He said, “THERE WILL BE A COUNTERFEIT CHURCH, a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ.” He described a religion without a cross, a Christianity emptied of sacrifice, a faith that keeps its language but loses its substance. It would look compassionate but avoid repentance. It would speak of peace but remain silent about sin. It would promise unity while quietly eroding truth.
SHEEN UNDERSTOOD THAT THE GREATEST DECEPTION WOULD NOT LOOK EVIL. In that same 1947 work, he wrote that the antichrist will not be so called, otherwise he would have no followers. He will come disguised as a great humanitarian. He will talk peace, prosperity, and plenty. He will tempt Christians with the same three temptations with which he tempted Christ. The danger would not be obvious rebellion. It would be subtle compromise, a softening of doctrine, a reshaping of morality, a church tempted to be accepted by the world instead of faithful to Christ. And yet, he never spoke with despair.
In 1974, during an appearance on the Mike Douglas show, Sheen said something that would shake every Catholic awake. “WHO IS GOING TO SAVE OUR CHURCH? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and your religious act like religious”. He was not attacking the hierarchy. He was reminding the faithful that in times of crisis, God raises up saints among the laity, with true virtue and humility. The renewal of the Church has always begun with ordinary believers who refuse to grow cold.
Sheen also said in 1972 that we are living in the “DAYS OF THE APOCALYPSE”, not meaning the end of the world, but a time of unveiling, a time when what is hidden in hearts is being revealed. The Church, he explained in retreat talks near the end of his life, is going through her passion. She will follow her head just as Christ was mocked, betrayed, and crucified before the resurrection. So too, the Church must pass through suffering before renewal (CCC 675-677; Catechism of Catholic Church for adults (CCC; ed. 1992, promulgated by Pope John Paul II; http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1V.HTM)
THIS IS WHERE LUKEWARM CATHOLICS MUST WAKE UP. The crisis inside the Church is not proof that Christ has abandoned her. It is proof that she is being purified. And purification is painful. It exposes weakness. It reveals corruption. It forces a choice. Will we conform to the spirit of the age or will we cling to the cross? Sheen’s message was never to panic. It was never to leave the Church. It was never to rebel. It was to become holy. Because the Church does not ultimately belong to the bishops or theologians or movements. She belongs to Christ and Christ has already conquered death.
SHEEN BELIEVED DEEPLY THAT AFTER THE PASSION COMES THE RESURRECTION. The Church may endure a good Friday but Easter is not cancelled. Christ remains in the Eucharist. The sacraments still give grace. Truth does not expire because culture shifts. The real question is not whether the Church will survive. She will. Christ promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against her. The real question is whether we will be faithful during suffering? When Sheen said, “It’s up to you the people,” he was handing the responsibility to us to pray, to fast, to defend the faith, to demand holiness first from ourselves. Renewal does not begin in Rome. It begins in hearts.
Venerable Fulton J. Sheen is seen by many Catholics as someone who SHOULD BE RAISED TO THE ALTARS because of three main things. His heroic virtue, his extraordinary evangelization, and the lasting spiritual fruit of his life. Because he didn’t just speak about Christ, he led millions to Him. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared him Venerable, officially recognizing that he lived a life of heroic virtue. For over 60 years, he made a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament. Drawing the strength for his preaching from prayer, NOT FROM POPULARITY. Through his television program, “Life is Worth Living”, he brought the Catholic faith into millions of homes. Boldly preaching truth, repentance, and the reality of Christ in a world growing secular and confused. He warned of crisis within the Church, but he never preached despair, only purification and hope. For many Catholics, Fulton Sheen represents clarity without compromise, courage without bitterness, and holiness in the modern world. And that is why his voice still matters today.
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, pray for us.
Rev. Joseph Dwight
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 