REFLECTIONS ON LIFE
By Melvin Arrington
“Is this heaven?” I asked myself this question repeatedly throughout the day. Everyone around me declared that this was almost like being in heaven. They all affirmed that heaven must be something like this place. But no, this was not heaven; it was Missouri, to be specific, the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, where, on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, our busload of pilgrims from Oxford, Mississippi, joined with 50,000 other souls gathered there for the three-hour-long beatification mass for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. It was a celebratory event I had been looking forward to for a long time. It did not disappoint.
The breathtakingly beautiful opening procession, which lasted almost as long as a typical Sunday Mass, included 1,000 priests, 850 seminarians, 850 men and women religious, 260 deacons, 89 bishops, and four cardinals. This visual spectacle combined with the celestial sounds of the choir and orchestra transformed what was once a pro football arena into what seemed like a little corner of heaven.
An overwhelming sensation of joy came upon me as I realized I was being granted the privilege of participating in this very special moment in the life of the Church!
The high point of any Mass is always when we receive Our Lord’s precious Body and Blood in the Eucharist. But there were so many other spectacular moments as well, such as when the now sixteen-year-old James Fulton Engstrom, the so-called “miracle baby,” processed in carrying Archbishop Sheen’s relic, his lower jawbone.
James was born with no heartbeat, no pulse, nothing. His parents immediately began praying, asking for Sheen’s intercession. Then, after 61 minutes had passed, when the doctors were about to call the time of death, the child began to breathe. He not only survived but grew into a normal little boy with no signs of organ damage. In 2019 Pope Francis officially recognized the baby’s healing as a miracle, which cleared the way for the beatification to take place.
How appropriate that Sheen’s mandible serves as his primary relic! For over three decades his majestic voice was heard regularly on NBC radio’s Catholic Hour. In the 1950s, his television program “Life Is Worth Living” reached an estimated audience of 30 million weekly at the height of its popularity. Paying homage to Sheen’s finely-honed speaking skills, Billy Graham called him “the greatest communicator of the twentieth century.”

While many people consider Fulton J. Sheen to be the first great Catholic televangelist, young people are now calling him the first Catholic influencer and content creator. I’m not at all sure what that means.
It has been said that the archbishop has more converts to his credit than anyone else in history, including St. Paul and St. Francis Xavier. When Pope Pius XII asked him how many conversions he was responsible for, Sheen responded: “Your Holiness, I have never counted them. I am always afraid if I did count them, I might think I made them, instead of the Lord.”
Whatever the total may be, I include myself in that number because I owe my conversion to the Catholic faith to Blessed Fulton J. Sheen. In my view, Sheen must be a saint because he continues to lead souls to Christ today, almost half a century after his death.
At a time in my life when I was searching for something more than my Protestantism could provide, trying to go deeper into my Christian faith, as C. S. Lewis would say, “further up and further in,” I re-discovered Fulton J. Sheen. Re-discover is the proper word because I can recall seeing him on television when I was very young and completely captivated by his theatrical gestures, his visually stunning vestments (especially that cape!), and his soul-piercing eyes. But as I got older and he became less visible to the public eye, he totally fell off my radar screen.
Then, in 2001, by chance, I came across a book titled “America’s Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen” by Thomas C. Reeves, and from that moment on, everything changed. I saw Sheen’s picture on the cover and recognized him immediately. To say that I stumbled upon that book by chance is not accurate; surely, it was God guiding me all along the way.
Curious to find out more about this enigmatic figure from my past, I began to do a little research and found out that he had been a university professor, which meant that he must have written something. A quick check revealed that he had authored dozens of books, numerous pamphlets, and countless magazine and newspaper pieces, which explains why part of the archbishop’s hand was chosen as one of his relics. In addition to all those books, I also ran across many of his old “Life Is Worth Living” TV shows.
Slowly, I began to work my way through all this print and video material. Sheen’s sharp insights, the clarity and compelling nature of his arguments, and his good cheer and humor gradually won me over. At some point it dawned upon me – I was no longer Protestant.
Continuing to plow ahead, I eventually made my way to the Catholic faith, thanks to Sheen’s teachings. What began as a brief nostalgic reflection ended with a life-changing conversion. Thanks be to God! Although Sheen died in 1979, I’m absolutely convinced that during all those years when I was seeking the truth, he was praying for me.
The beatification Mass in St. Louis was the experience of a lifetime for me and my traveling companions. So, what’s the next step? What do we do for an encore? Maybe there will be another opportunity for a pilgrimage, this time to Sheen’s tomb in the Cathedral of St. Mary’s of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois. If so, I’m ready!
Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us!

(Melvin Arrington is a Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages for the University of Mississippi and a member of St. John Oxford.)