Fulton. J. Sheen, or Fulton John Sheen, also called Bishop Fulton Sheen or Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, American religious leader, evangelist, writer, Roman Catholic priest, and radio and television personality.

Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923.

In 1920, he came to The Catholic University of America to continue his studies. He stayed only a year before leaving to pursue advanced study in philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Five years later, he returned to Catholic University to teach.

For the next 23 years, Catholic University was where Father Sheen honed his skills as a scholar, educator, orator and evangelist. He worked, first in the School of Theology and Religious Studies, then in the School of Philosophy, teaching courses that touched on both of those disciplines, including “Philosophy of Religion,” “God and Society,” and “God and Modern Philosophy.” Students – and untold numbers of visitors – crowded into Room 112 McMahon Hall to hear his lectures.

Father Sheen’s talents as a preacher did not go unnoticed even in his early years. In January of 1927, at age 30 and still in his first year of teaching at CUA, he was selected to preach at the annual University Mass on the patronal feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. A decade later, it was Monsignor Sheen, not a high-ranking administrator, who was the principal speaker at the University’s Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Steadily the reputation of the young CUA professor grew, first on campus, then in wider circles as his brilliant oratory attracted more attention from the media. Father Sheen’s first experience in broadcasting was in 1926 when he was invited to record a series of Sunday evening Lenten sermons on a New York radio station. Four years later, the young priest was asked to be a summer fill-in for two weeks on The Catholic Hour radio program. The audience response was so positive that he was asked to continue as a weekly speaker on the show.

For 20 years as Father Sheen, later Monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen’s final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier Life is Worth Living show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Church Channel cable networks. Due to his contribution to televised preaching, Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.

From 1961 to 1969 he hosted another popular television show, The Bishop Fulton Sheen Show. He published 34 books during his 23-year teaching career at Catholic University and another 32 after he left the University. In addition, transcripts of his weekly radio talks were published in dozens of booklets by the show’s sponsor the National Council of Catholic Men. Many of his other talks and sermons were published as pamphlets. He also was a syndicated columnist in the secular press.

He was consecrated a bishop on June 11, 1951. In the Fall of that year, he began his famous television series, Life is Worth Living. It was a tremendous success, eventually reaching an estimated 30 million viewers each week, which would make it the most widely-viewed religious series in the history of television. He won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, and became one of the most influential Catholics of the 20th century.

The following video is a Radio Broadcast of Father Sheen, originally aired on March 1, 1942.  The broadcast was a part of the Sheen’s series “Peace” and the talk is entitled “Peace: Spectators and Actors in the Drama of the Cross.” Sheen appeared on The Catholic Hour from 1930-1952 usually in the winter and early spring of each year the Lenten season.