Blessed Fulton Sheen & St. John Henry Newman

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) will be beatified by Pope Leo XIV on September 24th, 2026, the 107th anniversary of Sheen’s ordination to the priesthood. Best known as the first and perhaps greatest “televangelist,” a phrase coined to describe his religious celebrity-status, it is not as well known that Sheen was one of the foremost Thomistic scholars of his generation, and a renowned professor at the Catholic University of America. His reputation as a speaker and writer steadily grew until his first radio and TV appearances in the 1950s. His famous TV show, Life is Worth Living, aired from 1952 to 1957 and reached millions of viewers worldwide. But it was not until he was 54 years old that he left academia and turned his full attention to evangelization and raising money for global missions. In a survey of his book and work with media we will find some strong resemblances to St. John Henry Newman’s life and work. They both are models of holiness and intellect, who used popular media for evangelization, and advocated for religious faith against a skeptical modern culture.

First, they both loved learning for its own sake. Sheen was a prime example of Newman’s ideal for “cultivation of mind” across disciplinary boundaries. Newman excelled in classics and mathematics in college, entertained a law career before discerning the Anglican priesthood, and while a student found himself fascinated by surveying rock and mineral collections. Likewise, Sheen’s books evince a bewildering absorption of many disciplines: physics, art, architecture, mathematics, biology, history, poetry, literature, and more. As deep men of faith, Sheen and Newman delighted in wondering at God’s creation and finding there the echo of His voice, the ripples of His handiwork.

Both also became keen debaters and excellent disputants. But neither started out that way, exemplifying the importance of hard work and cultivation of moral and intellectual habits. In college, Sheen was told that he was a very bad public speaker by his debate instructor. But the instructor promised that would change. Sheen applied hard work and industry to steadily grow as a speaker, and, of course, became, by certain estimations, the most renowned public religious figure in American television history, even winning an Emmy in 1952 for “Most Outstanding Television Personality.” What is remarkable about this is that nobody in the entertainment industry expected his show to be popular—who would care to watch a Catholic bishop give a lecture on philosophy with nothing but a chalkboard? Sheen’s dedication, application, and effort at growth helped him develop his skills that would serve the Church and the world in powerful ways.

Similarly, Newman was shy and awkward as a boy, but had a keen desire to please his teachers, grow in virtue, and glorify God. Through his study, hard work and virtuous life he became one of the most important and influential pastors and intellectuals of his time.

Sheen applied himself as a student at the Catholic University of America, excelled in philosophy, and produced a top-honors thesis. He went on to modify this thesis into a “super-doctorate” or agregé degree for the Catholic University of Belgium, the first American to ever earn this highest of distinctions. His expanded thesis was published as the book God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy. Sheen used St. Thomas Aquinas to critique modern philosophies and provide a better foundation. Whereas modern philosophers had reduced the mind into being a mere machine for rational processes, like that of an advanced animal, Sheen insisted that the human mind does not only reason, but also makes comparative judgments and apprehends realities that cannot be entirely reduced to words and formulas. Newman made similar comments to the effect that our minds not only reason, but also perceive, feel, sense, judge, grasp, trust, and believe. This means that our minds are capable of reaching out to the invisible realities of God and the angels.

Second, Sheen was concerned that modern philosophers had done much damage to modern culture by attempting to replace God with man, either lowering God to the realm of creatures or exalting the human mind, will or passions to the status of deity. Newman also saw a similar reduction of God in his own time. He was concerned that God was merely being treated as a “divine glow” upon nature. Sheen and Newman both insisted: there is a radical, even infinite distance between the Creator and his creation, but this radical distance highlights the radical love of our Creator who became Incarnate, suffered, died, and rose again to save us and sanctify us.

Sheen makes very strong statements about the necessity of God for intellectual and university-related pursuits that are right in line with Newman’s thinking in The Idea of a University, as well as his teachings on faith and reason. In a powerful essay, “Education and the Deity-Blind,” Sheen asserts that a university which rejects God is more a place of “unlearning” than learning, and that students who study at a God-less university will have to “unlearn” their disordered learning. Like Newman, Sheen asserted that God is necessary for there to be any unity of knowledge, and without him our intellectual and moral lives begin to disintegrate.

Both Sheen and Newman prioritized their priesthood, service, and work of evangelization above academic pursuits. Although Sheen found it painful and toilsome, he went to great efforts to plan, design, and execute his television broadcasts, seeing a cultural moment of great need that he could speak to. The threat of nuclear warfare, the lingering effects of the Great Depression, and the onslaught of toxic philosophies trickling down into culture made his message on Life is Worth Living like a torrent of rain upon drought-stricken souls. Newman was not unfamiliar with the pain and suffering involved in writing and speaking, but he likewise found captive audiences in Oxford, Dublin, and Birmingham who were thirsty for a union of faith and intellect in the midst of the Industrial Revolution and increasing religious relativism.

Like Newman, Sheen bore this patiently and with great faith and service. Even after false accusations, slander, and resulting years of quiet hiddenness, both men were vindicated by Popes. Newman was made a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII after years of misunderstanding and false accusations from fellow clergymen. Sheen, before his death, was visited by St. Pope John Paul II, who embraced him and said, “You have written well of our Lord. You are a loyal son of the Church.” This must have been like balm to the soul of Sheen, whose world-renowned TV program had been cancelled unjustly due to Archbishop Francis Spellman’s personal animus toward him.

In conclusion, it will be unsurprising to Newman-lovers that Sheen read and relished Newman’s sermons and poems, which he quotes from in his writings. It is unclear if Sheen ever read Newman’s other works, but some strong resemblances remain. Both men loved poetry, the arts, and a good sense of humor. Sheen references The Dream of Gerontius in an essay on “Fear of Death” which asserts  that Purgatory will involve the pain of “never having loved enough.” Both men loved God and neighbor deeply, and grew in charity especially through devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Sheen’s strength and drive arose from his daily holy hour of adoration that he never gave up throughout his entire busy life, setting what is now the standard for devotion in American seminaries. Sheen called Christ’s cross, which we mystically encounter in the Eucharist, the “reservoir of Divine Life,” and quoted from Newman’s wonderful sermon, “The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World,” a fitting summary of the close-knit hearts of Newman and Sheen:

… the great and awful doctrine of the Cross of Christ, which we now commemorate, may fitly be called, in the language of figure, the heart of religion… it involves the belief in Christ’s true divinity, in His true incarnation, and in man’s sinful state by nature; and it prepares the way to belief in the sacred Eucharistic feast, in which He who was once crucified is ever given to our souls and bodies, verily and indeed, in His Body and in His Blood. But again, the heart is hidden from view; it is carefully and securely guarded… as regards this world, with all its enjoyments, yet disappointments… Let us not trust it; let us not give our hearts to it; let us not begin with it. Let us begin with faith; let us begin with Christ; let us begin with His Cross and the humiliation to which it leads. Let us first be drawn to Him who is lifted up, that so He may, with Himself, freely give us all things.

Blessed Fulton Sheen and St. John Henry Newman – pray for us

Sheen’s Life is Worth Living episodes

Short documentary about Fulton Sheen

“The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World”

Fulton Sheen on Philosophy & Education