TORONTO (CANADA)
Catholic Register
Dec. 12, 2019
The call went up to have Archbishop Fulton Sheen declared a saint almost from the day he died 40 years ago. So current disappointment at a Vatican directive to touch the brakes on the popular American’s sainthood cause is no surprise, but the decision is appropriate.
Sheen was to be beatified, the final step before canonization, on Dec. 21 in his hometown of Peoria, Ill. But on Dec. 5, the Vatican took the extraordinary step of postponing the ceremony after the American bishops’ conference relayed possible concerns about some unclear aspects of Sheen’s past. The Vatican gave no explanation, which only fuelled anxiety.
It was left to the bishop of Peoria, Daniel Jenky, to declare no one has accused Sheen of sexual abuse. That was followed by suggestions that Sheen may have failed to act against an abuser priest when Sheen was Rochester’s bishop in the late 1960s.
So the beatification stutter-step appears to be based on some 50-year-old hearsay which has set off alarm bells, due no doubt to a general unease that hangs these days like a dark cloud over Church leaders.
There has been no specific evidence pointing to any misdeed, nor any allegation from a victim or witness. No, just whispers about something that may or may not have happened a half century ago which, in the current climate, is sufficient reason to transform certainty about Sheen’s saintliness into what if?
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.