State Supreme Court Rules Archbishop Sheen’s Remains to Stay in New York for Now

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The body of Archbishop Fulton Sheen will remain in the crypt of St. Patrick’s Cathedral at this time, the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court ruled Feb. 6.

The decision reverses a lower court order, but the case is being sent back to the lower court for a further hearing.

“We believe that Archbishop Sheen clearly stated his intention in his will, written just days before his death, that he be buried in New York, where he conducted his ministry, and where he lived most of his years,” said a statement issued the same day by Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the archdiocese.

Archbishop Sheen died in New York on Dec. 9, 1979.

Joan Sheen Cunningham, Archbishop Sheen’s niece and his oldest living relative, filed a petition in June 2016 asking that the trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York—where Archbishop Sheen was entombed in a crypt following his death, according to the Archbishop’s stipulation in his will that he be buried in the archdiocese—and the Archdiocese of New York allow his remains to be disinterred and transferred to Peoria for interment in a crypt at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Cardinal Dolan said at that time that a decision on whether to release the body from its resting place was not his to make, but was a matter of New York state law.

Msgr. Hilary C. Franco, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and an advisor on the staff of the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said in an affidavit dated July 14, 2016, that he could “attest and state unequivocally,” from his many conversations with Archbishop Sheen, and their friendship which spanned the last 20 years of his life, from 1959 to 1979, “that a permanent transfer of his remains to Peoria would violate his intention to remain in New York even after his death.”

Msgr. Franco served as an assistant to Archbishop Sheen at the national office of the Propagation of the Faith in New York and assisted him as peritus at the Second Vatican Council.

During that time period, the two shared a residence in Manhattan. Msgr. Franco said not only were the two colleagues and brother priests, “but he was a mentor to me and we became close friends.”

When Archbishop Sheen was named Bishop of Rochester, Msgr. Franco briefly accompanied him to assist him in assuming his new duties as ordinary there.

Later, throughout Msgr. Franco’s more than two decades serving at the Vatican, the two remained close friends and regularly corresponded until the last year of Archbishop Sheen’s life.

The Diocese of Peoria, Ill., where Archbishop Sheen had served as a priest earlier in his ministry, indefinitely suspended his cause for canonization nearly four years ago.

“It is our hope that the Diocese of Peoria will re-open the cause for the beatification and canonization of Archbishop Sheen,” Zwilling continued in his Feb. 6 statement. “There is no impediment to his cause progressing, as the Vatican has told us there is no requirement that the earthly body of a candidate for sainthood reside in a particular place.

“We offer our support and thanks to the Diocese of Peoria, which has done so much to advance the cause thus far, in working towards the much hoped-for day that Archbishop Sheen will be raised to the altars and proclaimed a saint.”

In 2000, the Archbishop Sheen Foundation was officially organized, and two years later, Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky petitioned the Vatican to open the canonization process.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared Archbishop Sheen “venerable,” meaning he lived a life of heroic virtues. The next steps would be beatification and canonization.

Archbishop Sheen became a radio and television pioneer, winning the 1951 Emmy for outstanding television personality for his show “Life Is Worth Living.” The renowned charismatic preacher also hosted a nighttime radio show, “The Catholic Hour,” for 20 years.

For 16 years in the 1950s and 1960s, as auxiliary bishop of New York, he was an advocate for the Church’s missionary work through his leadership of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States, where he served as the national director in Manhattan. He was bishop of the Diocese of Rochester from 1966 to 1969.

Archbishop Sheen is the author of dozens of books, including his autobiography: “Treasure in Clay.”