Incredible little-known details of the Sheen beatification

The beatification was filled with lots of clever, thoughtful little details arranged by the organizers, who worked hard for months to put together the glorious event.

Here are just a few of the remarkable details and numbers behind the massive gathering.

Blessed Fulton Sheen’s signature “JMJ” for “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph” — which he always wrote at the top of his blackboard during his TV episodes — appeared on the backs of the priestly vestments at the Mass. All 1,000 priests in attendance received the custom vestments as a gift. Priests from Blessed Sheen's home diocese of Peoria had a gold detail on their vestment collars.

Monsignor Jason Gray, a canon lawyer and priest who serves as the executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation and led the formal investigation into the miracle attributed to Sheen, brought a very special relic: Blessed Fulton Sheen’s zucchetto (a bishop’s red cap). Meanwhile Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Sheen’s home diocese, wore Sheen’s own pectoral cross for the occasion.

Volunteers across the country hand-crafted 75,000 custom rosaries for the event. Blessed Fulton Sheen was the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, an international Catholic association that supports missionaries in developing areas worldwide, and in this role he famously designed the World Mission Rosary, which uses five colors to represent the five different continents of the world. Each mystery has a different color and is intended for a different prayer intention. To honor his legacy, volunteers spent months leading up to the event making these custom rosaries to distribute to the faithful to pray at the Dome in St. Louis. The rosaries were just one of the thoughtful items in gift bags for attendees at the event, which also included a Mass program, a magazine, and two short books—all themed on Sheen—enclosed in a souvenir canvas tote bag.

Monsignor Gray shared the event statistics in a pre-Mass press conference, saying:

Besides more than 1,000 priests concelebrating, lay people came from all over the world, especially from the United States. Gray said:

Several other languages were included in the beatification Mass, either in readings or in the prayers of the faithful, including Spanish, Chinese, French, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Walking around the Expo and other conference events, dozens of religious orders could be seen in attendance. Many children named “Fulton” were present too, as parents could be heard calling the name throughout the venue — a name that may soon become even more popular with the beatification of Fulton Sheen.

The miracle baby: James Fulton Engstrom, who was stillborn in 2010 but miraculously restored to total health through the prayers of Fulton Sheen, carried up and presented the first-class relic of Blessed Fulton Sheen during the beatification Mass.

Hosted in an NFL stadium: To accommodate the massive crowds in attendance, organizers opted to hold the event in The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, a former NFL stadium. A beautiful sanctuary area was set up for the event, with a screen depicting a vaulted and star-studded church ceiling and a replica of Sheen’s TV set. 

Pope Leo XIV connection: The Holy Father, who was born and raised in Chicago, actually watched Archbishop Sheen’s television program himself as a child. Sheen’s televised lectures greatly affected the boy, and recently Pope Leo honored his witness, saying, “Archbishop Sheen was a light of faith, hope, and love that shone through the radio and television media for decades.”

Blessed Fulton Sheen was a popular media personality many decades ago. Why is his story and his ministry through the screen so relevant today?

In an era where anyone with a social media account essentially can have his or her own “television show,” his witness has never been more important. Any person today can reach countless viewers through social media, but what does it look like to do that with prudence, wisdom, and a healthy sense of perspective? Blessed Sheen shows how to reach millions of people through digital media without losing sight of what’s most important. 

“That was one question that came up early on,” said Monsignor Gray. “Who's going to care? All the people who knew him when his program was on are very old. But we've discovered young people are inspired by Sheen because he's a voice of integrity that inspires people who did not know him in life, but have discovered him in the years since.” 

Bishop Tylka said in the press conference how much the event meant to everyone involved: