Archbishop Fulton Sheen Warned About a Culture in Crisis

You wouldn’t expect evangelical Christians to have carefully followed the life of Fulton Sheen, the beloved Catholic clergyman who once hosted one of the most popular television shows in America.

For context, Sheen’s 28-minute program, which debuted in the 1950s, drew upwards of 30 million viewers each week. The set was stunningly simple: it consisted of Sheen standing before books and a blackboard, chalk in hand, and a Bible nearby. His compelling teaching, laced with his exceptional wit and humor, carried the show to high ratings and industry acclaim.

When “Life is Worth Living” won an Emmy, the archbishop accepted the award and delivered the shortest acceptance speech of all time. Grasping the trophy, he cracked:

“I would like to thank my writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

He wasn’t really joking. 

Sheen’s show was an extended sermon, amplified by personal anecdotes and practical application. Distinctly Catholic in his theology, of course, he was an unapologetic defender of Jesus Christ. He was also one of the first to leverage television and turn it into an evangelistic tool, much like many famed Protestant preachers had done decades earlier with the fledgling medium of radio.

The late Dr. Billy Graham once met the archbishop on a train between New York and Washington, D.C. They sat, chatted, and prayed together for nearly three hours. When they parted ways, Dr. Graham said, “I felt as if I had known him all my life.”

Fulton Sheen passed away in December of 1979, but has been in the headlines this week because the Catholic Church “beatified” the late clergyman on Thursday in St. Louis. The designation made him the first American priest to hold that distinction and moved him one step closer to being listed as a Catholic saint.

Over 50,000 people attended the solemn yet celebratory Mass and ceremony at The Dome at America’s Center.

Beyond the uniqueness of such an event, what would draw so many people so many years after a man’s death?

In the months and weeks leading up to the event, clips of Archbishop Sheen began making their way around social media. Some in color and others in black-and-white, they’re a snapshot of another era. Many of his remarks are also refreshingly blunt, timeless and true.

In 1948, Fulton Sheen warned that dangerous political ideologies could and would fill the spiritual vacuum he saw developing in a post-World War II world. He wrote, “Communism is coming back upon the Western world because something died in the Western world, namely the strong faith of men in the God that made them.”

He also predicted:

“[Satan] will set up a counter church which will be the ape [or imitator] of the [true] Church, because he, the devil, is the ape [or mimicker] of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ.”

He concluded, “The false prophet will have a religion without a cross.”

As Christians chronicle and warn about the collapsing birthrate and rising moral crisis, even as many cultural elites mock and dismiss our concerns, Sheen’s prescient summation of the catastrophe should get our attention:

“It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy.”

In 1965, the archbishop declared that “False compassion is a pity shown not to the mugged, but to the mugger; not to the family of the murdered, but to the murderer.”

Speaking to a Catholic high school in the mid-1970s, Sheen warned, “Just think, my dear ladies, of how many mentally disturbed women we are going to have in the United States in the next 10 or 15 years when the guilt of abortion begins to attack the mind and soul.”

He continued:

“For the present, they justify it on the ground that everyone is doing it and it’s only scar tissue … Years from now, the guilt will come out in a peculiar way, though at present, there may not be any. The guilt may not manifest itself at once.” 

Of course, the crimes surrounding the Lindsay Clancy trial come most recently to mind.

Naturally, Archbishop Sheen was also a big proponent of marriage. A letter of marriage advice he wrote to Helen Mosier, a TWA flight attendant he had met on his way to San Francisco, was recently released. In it, Sheen states:

Happiness in married life is conditioned upon common denominations, and none is more basic than the faith. It really takes three to make love: Two human hearts and the Sacred Heart who draws them together. 

In other words, a man and a woman may love one another deeply, but the deepest expression of Christian marriage will only be realized when both husband and wife are first and foremost united in Christ.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminded the world that God’s truth was timeless and reliable. He also proved that truth doesn’t need flashy production, celebrity endorsements or clever marketing. Sometimes all it needs is a person willing to stand before the world and tell it like it really is. 

What an extraordinary reminder that one faithful voice, armed with nothing more than truth, conviction and a willingness to speak, can change the world.