No Catholic writer or speaker has had more influence on me than Fulty. 13 or so years ago, and with no real knowledge of Fulton Sheen, I purchased a cassette with two sermons from one of his 'open retreats' - 'Continuing Calvary' and 'Zealous Fools for Christ's Sake'. I must have listened to them at least 30 times. Fulton's words still haunt my thoughts.
Fulton Sheen had many, many themes, one of which was the way in which religious people should present themselves to the world. This had two aspects, the external and the internal, and both were important.
Externally, Fulton compared religious to ambassadors - they should have a certain pride in whom they speak for and represent, and this should be outwardly reflected. They should not (as he put it) 'denude' the collar or habit. They should be easily identifiable as standing for Christ and his Church. But this was not all - there was a danger in the love of the 'garb' alone, a false air about it (probably akin to the disgraced founder of the Legionaries of Christ - always looking so proper but being so hollow). This was where the internal came in.
Fulton always pushed the internal: his daily holy hour; his insistence on having the tabernacle present so that you genuflect before Christ - "you're going to meet him as judge some day" he'd quip. There could not be one without the other.
It is this combination of an external Catholic presence tempered by an internal Catholic presence that I hope will now be revealed in spiritual biographies of Fulton. He has not become Venerable by being famous, but by living a life of heroic virtue, and it is discovering this that we can now look forward to. In particular, given his fame, we can hopefully come to see how the 'clay' that was Fulton kept it all in perspective. How, as he put it, he “kept his eyes on Christ”.
Now to finish - two final matters. The photo below is dear. It represents two great Catholic moments of the 20th Century touching - one era ending and a new one beginning. Blessed Pope John Paul II, fit and energetic, embracing a weakened and aged Venerable Fulton Sheen in St Patrick's Cathedral in New York. This was taken only months into JPII's papacy and months before Fulton's death. It is a baton change in the Catholic relay race.
Finally, the video below is the touching story of one of the miracles attributed to Fulton's intercession. It is pleasing to see a miracle openly discussed, and the way the evets are told gives an insight into the normality (albeit within a medical emergency) within which the miracle occurred - the request for intercession as a normal part of life.
Good on you Venerable Fulton and pray for us.
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