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.

A few years before May 2026, he led a pilgrimage to the town in France where St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had apparitions of the Sacred Heart. An 83-year-old priest told Bishop Tylka that listening to Fulton Sheen as a young boy opened his heart to explore his vocation and that he remained an active priest at age 83.

“I’m so blessed to be able to hear those stories time and time again. People want to share how Sheen impacted their life,” Bishop Louis Tylka said. Sheen served as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York for 15 years.

He served as the Catholic bishop of Rochester, New York, from 1966 to 1969. The Diocese of Peoria and the Archdiocese of New York engaged in a legal battle over Sheen’s remains that concluded in 2019 when New York agreed to transfer the remains to Peoria. The Diocese of Rochester petitioned the Vatican in 2019 to postpone Sheen’s beatification pending a review of his role in priests’ assignments.

The investigation by the Diocese of Rochester found no wrongdoing on Sheen’s part. “The reality is that Fulton Sheen is for the world. He’s not for the Diocese of Peoria. He’s not for the Archdiocese of New York.

He’s not for the Diocese of Rochester. ” Bishop Louis Tylka said Sheen “saw that not all political ideologies are in concert with the Gospel. And what he did was he preached the gospel … whether it was against communism or even against capitalism.

“We’re grateful we already have potential miracles that we’ll begin to investigate once the beatification is done. So, maybe that second miracle won’t be too far off,” Bishop Louis Tylka said.

The Sheen Experience museum in Peoria is scheduled to be completed in 2027. com to stay up to date on news regarding Archbishop Sheen’s beatification and the Sheen Experience.