{"id":2714,"date":"2008-10-12T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-12T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/a-heavenly-sheen.html"},"modified":"2008-10-12T19:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-12T19:15:00","slug":"a-heavenly-sheen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/a-heavenly-sheen.html","title":{"rendered":"A heavenly Sheen"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>For me, Fulton Sheen<\/a> remains the gold standard for Catholic preaching — and his connection to the world of communications (notably, television) has always resonated with me. <\/p>\n

He also has a personal connection to my parish<\/a> in Queens. In the 1960s, he’d sometimes drop by to preach — he was friends with a bishop in residence at the parish — and the plaza outside would be mobbed with people. To this day, there are speakers set up outside, above the front doors — rusty relics of the Sheen appearances. <\/p>\n

And I can’t help but admit that I feel my knees go weak and my throat go dry every time I climb the pulpit stairs and think: “Sheen was here.” <\/p>\n

So I was intrigued to find this personal remembrance<\/a> of the archbishop, over at Busted Halo: <\/p>\n

In 1975, I was an intern reporter for WROC-TV news in Rochester, New York. The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was a famous priest who wrote numerous books and hosted a television series entitled “Life is Worth Living” (still seen today).<\/p>\n

He\u2019d also served as the Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester earlier in his career, and was back in town to deliver a noontime speech at one of the local hotels. The news director assigned me to assist a full-time reporter covering the event.<\/p>\n

When the cameraman and I arrived at the event, several other reporters milled about in a holding room waiting for Archbishop Sheen to make an appearance. And he most certainly did. Attired in colorful robes and attended by an entourage of church and hotel assistants, the Archbishop entered the holding room and headed directly toward the stairs leading to the stage.<\/p>\n

To me, unfamiliar with church pageantry, he looked like a king. I was amazed that all the other reporters simply watched as he glided by. No one asked for an interview. My full-time reporter colleague had not yet arrived, so emboldened with a cub reporter\u2019s drive to get the story, I decided to approach Sheen.<\/p>\n

The scene was chaotic. The noise from the preliminary speeches upstairs resounded in our holding area. News personnel clamored with heavy cameras, lights and film equipment (yes, we actually developed film in those days before videotape).<\/p>\n

The Archbishop\u2019s entourage marched forward. I was nervous, afraid of looking like a fool. I reached out and lightly touched the back of Archbishop Sheen\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you have a moment for Channel 8?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

By this time, I fully expected him to ignore my request and keep walking. I felt the eyes of all the other \u201creal\u201d reporters watching me. But the Archbishop turned around to look straight into my eyes. He was completely calm amid the media madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d he replied gently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You’ll have to read the rest<\/a> to find out what happened.<\/p>\n

And you should also check out this website<\/a> for information about the sainthood cause of Archbishop Sheen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For me, Fulton Sheen remains the gold standard for Catholic preaching — and his connection to the world of communications (notably, television) has always resonated with me. He also has a personal connection to my parish in Queens. In the 1960s, he’d sometimes drop by to preach — he was friends with a bishop in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,19,11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hanging-with-saints","category-links-r-us","category-media","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\nA heavenly Sheen - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/a-heavenly-sheen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A heavenly Sheen - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For me, Fulton Sheen remains the gold standard for Catholic preaching — and his connection to the world of communications (notably, television) has always resonated with me. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}