First radio, then television. First the microphone, then the cameras. Always, at the center, the Gospel. Fulton Sheen was one of the great pioneers of Catholic communication in the twentieth century, a priest who could enter the homes of millions of Americans and speak to the conscience of an entire generation.
On the evening of September 24, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Church celebrated his beatification, recognizing in him a man who combined theological depth, a gift for communication, and missionary zeal. St. John Paul II had called him a “loyal son of the Church” and, on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary of priesthood, had written to him that God had called him “to proclaim his dynamic word in an extraordinary way.”
Fulton Sheen understood before many others that the Christian message could be conveyed through new media of his day without losing any of its depth. Radio and television thus became new pulpits from which to speak about faith, morality, suffering, family, and the dignity of the human person, reaching an audience that traditional preaching would have found difficult to reach.
He was more than a successful communicator. Above all, he was a priest who knew how to put communication at the service of evangelization, turning his popularity into an opportunity to bring Christ into the heart of contemporary society.