Sheen devotees relish his beatification

When Fulton Buonomo, a fourth-grader at St. Gerald School in Ralston, prays a Litany of Saints with family members, he now addresses the holy man he was named after with a new title: Blessed Fulton J. Sheen.

His brother, Thomas, a sixth-grader, just added a new flourish to his schoolwork: a JMJ at the top of a page, underlined as the newly beatified saint would have done it.

The brothers are fresh off the Sept. 24 beatification ceremony of Fulton Sheen, which they attended with other family members in St. Louis – and they are feeling inspired.

They aren’t the only ones.

MARY SWEETMAN, MARY OUR QUEEN PARISH, OMAHA

Mary Sweetman, left, is at the beatification events with her son John and his daughter Mary. COURTESY PHOTO

Sweetman remembers her parents watching the archbishop’s television program, “Life Is Worth Living.” Later, at age 27, she had a personal encounter with him.

Sweetman was living with her husband in Hawaii at the time. While he was away on military duty, a friend invited her to a pro-life Mass in January 1973, when the Roe v. Wade abortion decision was made by the U.S. Supreme Court. Archbishop Sheen was among the clergy at the Mass.

In a procession at the end of Mass, he saw Sweetman in a back row, noticed that she was pregnant, and blessed her.

After that, Sweetman said she would try to listen to him at events whenever she could, including one in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she and her family later lived.

“He was just incredible,” she said. “What an evangelist.”

Sweetman, a member of Mary Our Queen Parish in Omaha, went to the Sept. 24 beatification with one of the twins she was pregnant with back in 1973, her son John, along with his wife, her mother, a granddaughter and two of the granddaughter’s friends.

The three-hour beatification Mass went quickly for Sweetman “because it was so awesome.”

The crowd, estimated at 50,000, and a 40-minute entrance procession, which included about a thousand priests and 90 bishops, were unbelievable, Sweetman said.

“Does this even end?” she asked herself during the procession.

Eucharistic Adoration was available before the Mass, which seemed like an appropriate way to honor the man who prayed before the Blessed Sacrament every day in a Holy Hour.

“I thought the Adoration room was just absolutely beautiful,” Sweetman said. She wished she could have stayed there longer.

Her initial encounter with Archbishop Sheen more than 50 years ago has stayed with her. “It’s something you never forget,” she said.

ASHLEY BUONOMO, MIDDLE SCHOOL RELIGION TEACHER, ST. GERALD SCHOOL, RALSTON

Ashley Buonomo and her children are pictured with a cardboard cutout of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen at the beatification site in St. Louis. COURTESY PHOTO

Buonomo and her husband, Mark, developed a devotion to Archbishop Sheen when they were young.

Mark learned about Fulton Sheen in high school, reading some of his books.

When the two were in college, they learned more together, reading Archbishop Sheen’s books, seeing his famous quotes, listening to recordings of his preaching.

One book in particular – “Lift Up Your Heart: A Guide to Spiritual Peace” – particularly impacted her. “I could have highlighted everything in that book,” Ashley said.

“So I’ve tried to read more and more of him as the years go by – because he wrote so much,” she said. “I don’t even think I’ve made a dent in all the things that he’s written.”

Blessed Fulton Sheen wrote 66 books, plus booklets, pamphlets and other writings. His writing was “prolific,” Ashley said, “and I think that’s an understatement.”

“We were really inspired by him, loved what he had to say. So when we were naming each of our kids, we always tried to name them after a saint. I had tried a few times to get Mark on board with Fulton, and he was not quite ready.”

By the time they had their fourth child, Ashley said, she didn’t give her husband an option. Their baby boy was to be named Fulton.

As the days drew closer to the beatification, the now 9-year-old Fulton became excited, “asking us every week if it’s time yet.”

Though the parents have introduced their son to Blessed Fulton Sheen, he’s still too young to grasp all of the archbishop’s teachings, his mother said. But “I think as he gets older, he’ll really appreciate the fact that he was part of this and learn more about his patron.”

The beatification was “a witness to the unity of the Church,” the teacher said, with a multitude of clergy, religious and families gathered for worship.

Seated with her parents and her seven children – with Fulton next to her – Ashley soaked in the proclamation of Archbishop Sheen’s blessedness, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s joyfulness in his homily and the veneration of a relic of Blessed Fulton Sheen.

“We were just floating around on a little cloud,” Ashley said.

Mark, a commander in the Navy, couldn’t make it to the beatification because he had to be in Connecticut for training, but on the way he was able to stop in Peoria, Illinois, for an hour of adoration. Peoria is home to the cathedral where Blessed Fulton Sheen was ordained a priest and where his tomb is located.

Fulton Buonomo and his family had been to the tomb twice before to pray at the tomb.

FATHER DAN ANDREWS, PASTOR & DIRECTOR OF THE ST. JOHN PAUL II NEWMAN CENTER, OMAHA

Father Dan Andrews, file photo

The beatification of the American-born archbishop “was a big moment for Catholics in the United States,” said Father Andrews, who was among the approximately 1,000 priests in the 40-minute procession into the Mass. “It was great to be part of.”

He was able to take home the priestly vestment he wore at the beatification, which was embroidered with Blessed Fulton’s Sheen’s classic “JMJ” on the back.

Father Andrews said the beatification was a once-in-a-generation opportunity, a chance to celebrate the saintly life of an evangelist who used the most modern media available in the mid-20th century – radio and television – to reach millions.

“He truly was a 20th-century missionary,” Father Andrews said. “He was a precursor to Father Mike Schmitz and Bishop (Robert) Barron” of today.

Father Andrews said he has listened to Fulton Sheen’s preaching through YouTube and other means.

The Church was visibly united at the beatification, he said, much like it was at the 2024 Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

Accompanying Father Andrews were four missionaries, two campus ministers and a student from the St. John Paul II Newman Center in Omaha.

Father Andrews was among at least two other Archdiocese of Omaha priests at the beatification.

Father Paul Hoesing, president-rector of Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, and Father Joseph Taphorn, rector and vice president of St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, brought with them men in formation at their seminaries. Blessed Fulton Sheen himself was formed for the priesthood at St. Paul Seminary.

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