Pope moves America's 'first televangelist' closer to sainthood

[douglas9]

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a charismatic figure of U.S. Roman Catholicism in the 20th century and a pioneer in using media for religious purposes, is one step closer to sainthood.

A Vatican statement on Saturday said the pope had approved a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Sheen’s intercession, meaning he will be beatified. No date for the ceremony was given.

Sheen, who was born in Illinois in 1895 and died in New York in 1979, was sometimes called the first “televangelist”.

Between 1930 and 1950 he hosted “The Catholic Hour” on the NBC radio network, which had an audience of four million.

He moved to television with “Life is Worth Living” which had a prime time audience of 30 million people and did so well it challenged the rating of shows hosted by Frank Sinatra and other stars. That show ended in 1957 and he returned to television in 1961 with The Fulton Sheen Program, which aired until 1968.


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