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It may be hard for younger people to comprehend, but for people of a certain age Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was a popular television personality, at least as big as “American Idol” creator Simon Cowell is today. His weekly program, “Life Is Worth Living,” reached a viewing audience of 30 million during the 1950s earning him an Emmy in 1955.
On May 11, Archbishop Dolan opened a new multi-media exhibit—“Bishop Fulton J. Sheen: A Voice Crying Out on the Airwaves” at St. Agnes Church, 143 East 43rd St. in Manhattan—that goes a long way toward explaining the engaging prelate’s popularity across religious and cultural lines. Archbishop Sheen began his ministry in New York at St. Agnes in 1930 and for many years the church hosted his famous broadcasts. His last Good Friday homily was preached at the church in 1979.
“He’s undoubtedly the best known Catholic priest or bishop we’ve ever had,” said Archbishop Dolan before blessing the exhibit. “But more importantly he was successful in achieving what you might call the American Catholic dream, which was to build a bridge and to show, the solidarity, the unity between what was best in America and what was best in the Catholic Church. And he was able to teach the immutable, timeless truths of our Catholic faith to an American audience that was, kind of skeptical...He was truly Catholic in the true sense of the word.”
The exhibit, which was created by the Bishop Emil J. Mihalik Byzantine Catholic Cultural Center with the cooperation of the Fulton John Sheen Foundation and sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York, is divided into several modules that tell the story of Archbishop Sheen’s amazing broadcast ministry.
Upon entering the exhibit, the viewer is immediately transported back in time to a 1950s living room with the flickering black-and-white image of Archbishop Sheen on an early model television. The images alternate between Archbishop Sheen’s own program and his humorous appearance on the popular game show of the day, “What’s My Line?” There is also a module recreating the set where his show was produced, including the famous blackboard he used to illustrate some of his points. Visitors can also hear a broadcast from his earlier radio ministry on an old cabinet style radio. A particularly interesting and perhaps surprising exhibit tells the story of Archbishop Sheen’s connection to and affinity with the Byzantine Church. He was the first Latin Rite bishop to offer a solemn Byzantine Rite Mass in English.
“I mean, ’55 Emmy winner beating out Lucille Ball, Edward R. Murrow and Arthur Godfrey, he was a big name as far as that went popularly,” explained Father Richard Plishka of the Byzantine Catholic Diocese of Parma, Ill., who created the exhibition. “But I think also, we could call him the first televangelist. What’s become so popular in mainstream Evangelical Protestantism began with our evangelist, Fulton Sheen.”
The exhibition, which runs through Sunday, June 26, is open Sundays noon to 3 p.m.; Tuesdays, 4 to 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, 5 to 7 p.m.; Thursdays, noon to 3 p.m.; and Saturdays, 4 to 7 p.m.
