Vatican Approves Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Beatification for September 2026 in St. Louis

The Vatican approved Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification in February 2026. The ceremony is scheduled for September 24, 2026, in St. Louis, Missouri, Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation on May 8, 2026.

The Diocese of Peoria does not have a venue that could host 70,000 people, prompting the move from Peoria to St. Louis. ” Sheen died in 1969. His television show “Life Is Worth Living” ran from 1952 to 1957 and garnered an estimated 30 million weekly viewers at its height, according to the Archbishop Fulton J.

Sheen Foundation. The same program aired from 1951 to 1957. Sheen’s positio credits him with the conversion of more than 42,000 people to the Catholic faith, Our Sunday Visitor News reported. He wrote over 66 books.

The Catholic Church requires one confirmed miracle for beatification and two for canonization. In 2010, a mother in the Diocese of Peoria prayed to Fulton Sheen during a home birth when her son was born without a heartbeat. The baby, named James Fulton Engstrom, had no pulse for 61 minutes before his heart started beating.

James Engstrom had a true knot in his umbilical cord that cut off his oxygen supply. He was born in 2010 and is now a healthy 15-year-old who attends high school and plays sports. “Like any other normal 15-year-old kid [he is] in high school and plays sports, and part of a loving family.

So, it’s truly remarkable to know this young man’s life literally came about with the intercession of Fulton Sheen helping his heart to start,” Bishop Louis Tylka said. James Fulton Engstrom told the National Catholic Register that he felt “pretty darn good” about Sheen’s announced beatification. Bishop Louis Tylka has served as bishop of the Diocese of Peoria for six years as of May 2026.