The Holy See is expected to announce in coming weeks a date for the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the Emmy-winning American prelate known for catechetical television programs in the 1950s and 1960s.
Sheen, who came within three weeks of a scheduled beatification in 2019, is expected to be formally beatified in September, according to sources close to the process.
Announcement of the beatification will come after the Diocese of Rochester saw resolved its six-year bankruptcy process, and established a settlement fund for abuse survivors of more than $250 million.
Sheen’s scheduled December 2019 beatification was delayed after Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano asked the Vatican to postpone the process, over concerns that Sheen — who served as Rochester’s diocesan bishop from 1966 to 1969 — might be accused of mishandling cases of sexual abuse or misconduct.
At specific issue was Gerard Guli, a former Rochester priest, who was accused of abusing adults in the early 1960s — before Sheen arrived in the diocese — and who reportedly asked Sheen for an assignment in 1967.
Msgr. James Kruse, then-director of canonical affairs in the Diocese of Peoria, told Catholic News Agency in 2019 that Sheen never assigned Guli to ministry, even while his successor, Bishop Joseph Hogan, did.
“The documents clearly show that Sheen’s successor, Bishop Hogan, appointed Guli, and it’s at that assignment that Guli offended again,” Kruse said in 2019.
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