SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Beyond the Weekend with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast at the Diet of Patterson, New Jersey. Join us for conversations about our Catholic faith, and together let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love. Thank you for joining us. I'm Jay Agnisch. With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney. Bishop Kevin, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:26

I'm good, Jay. How about yourself? Doing well. So today. Happy first anniversary to Pope Leo. May 28th. I'm sure everybody remembers where they were. I uh had the privilege of actually celebrating, as I shared in my column, two masses that day. Um one in uh St. Teresa's in Summit for several sources, a wonderful pro-life group, uh with Bishop Elias Lorenzo, and then um confirmation in St. Peter the Apostle. What better parish to have confirmation on the day that you get a new Pope than at St. Peter the Apostle, a uh first pope? So thank God for Pope Leo and we keep him in our prayers. Um and uh also the uh memorial feast day of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich. Uh so blessed Miriam Teresa and Pope Leo have com something in common and uh the uh birthday of uh Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who we'll talk about later with uh with our guest. Um but um so um wonderful time of year and uh a beautiful day today. Um and uh um we're looking forward to a conversation uh about soon to be beatified uh Archbishop.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Bishop Fulton Sheen, right, with someone who was a friend of his. So yeah, pretty amazing interview. Can you tell me about Miriam Teresa Dev Janovich's local tie to Patterson of Dyce?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Sister of Charity of Convent Station, who passed away on May 8th, um 1927, so 99 years ago. And um we'll put a link to the uh website for her to get information about her, but uh a later vocation, she was uh helping at home, she was working, um, but felt this call. Uh she actually, I think, grew up in actually the Newark Archdiocese. Uh she had a relationship with uh she was a family relation of one of our priests, uh Monsignor Denkovich, I believe. And um but and then entered the sister charity and uh um was deeply spiritual and and a spiritual writer. Um she actually um wrote retreat talks that a priest would give, because in those days the priests gave the retreats, um they still do sometimes, but uh others can give retreats as well. And um uh maybe similar to Saint Teresa's uh going back and reading her diaries um led the sisters and others to see her deep, deep spirituality and love for the Lord, and um and uh um they opened the cause and Dr. Mary uh Mazzarella are uh of happy memory who passed away j um a few months ago um was Father Pavel Tomchek, but Bishop Saratelli were all part of um her cause and the which is still going on uh uh but um she was um beatified or named Ven Venerable Um Blessed Mary and Teresa, yeah. So beatified uh in the cathedral in uh of Sacred Heart in in Newark. Okay. Um I want to say 2018 or 2019.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yeah, I remember this. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Right, right. We had coverage in the beacon before I arrived here in Patterson, but uh um so and many of our priests have a strong devotion to her, and we often mention her in the Eucharistic prayer, which you can do once somebody is blessed, and uh so um uh her cause goes on, and uh like Archbishop Seen, we hope both will uh get to uh be canonized as saints one of these days.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Okay, so Bishop, before we get to our guest today, is there anything else that's been going on?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

We had a wonderful event on uh Wednesday with uh Coach Jay Wright, uh the former coach of the Villanova Wildcats, even though St. John's alum. Uh uh Father Patty O'Donovan, one of our priests, uh, is a personal friend of Coach Wright.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

And my wife was asking, how did you get Coach Wright?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Yeah, yeah, Father Patty. And uh John Camarata, the executive director in St. Paul's Inside the Walls, and Father Paul Manning, our vicar for evangelization and for education. Uh uh, they really worked um uh with the team there at um uh at um at St. Paul's and uh teamwork uh has applications between sports and I think the spiritual life and our life as uh uh ministers of the Lord, whether it be in Parish or the Darkson level, and Coach Wright gave this phenomenal talk on work winning and losing as a team and some of the challenges you face. And uh wow, um, you know, I had followed it kind of peripherally um uh uh just a college basketball fan when they won their championships. But um we now have the Nova Knicks. Uh three of his former players, uh uh Josh Hart, uh Jalen Brunson, and Mikhail Bridges are leading the Knicks in their own. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're up two games to none. They play the Sixers tonight, uh hopefully the have a short series to get on to the next round, the Eastern Conference Finals. So uh but um a man of faith. Uh um I I think some of it might be available. Uh I think some was recorded. So um he just gave a really wonderful, and I I think there were 250 or 300 people in attendance and uh wonderful night. Um so um uh great time of year, first communions and confirmations, and um uh Pentecost will be coming soon, so um uh great time of year for the vibrancy of the church, and part of that is the uh the cause um of those who um live lives of um uh exemplary holiness uh or heroic virtue um uh in the process to name someone venerable and blessed, and then as a saint, and so uh as we pray for Maria Saint uh Blessed Maria Miriam Teresa's elevation, uh we look forward to now uh having a chance to find out about Archbishop Sheen's uh upcoming beatification.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Okay. So we will, you know, and I also wanted to mention um the broadcaster for the Yankees, Sterling, Oh, yeah, John Sterling, yeah. He was great.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

He was great. He was listening to some of his broadcasts. Uh Yankees win, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was one of a kind. Uh 30 years without missing a game, incredible. Wow, yeah. Yeah, yeah. God rest John Sterling.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a beloved, world-renowned Catholic radio and TV evangelist in the United States between the 1930s up until the late 1960s. His Emmy Award-winning television show, Life is Worth Living, reached an audience of millions. The Archbishop, who had a worldwide reputation as the 20th century's greatest English-speaking Catholic televangelist, had close ties to the Patterson Diocese. He befriended Patterson bishops, preached at parishes in the diocese, and kept in touch with friends and family who lived in the diocese. Today we are speaking with one of those friends, uh Loanne Mayer, formerly of Corpus Christi Parish in Chatham Township, New Jersey. Mayor first heard Fulton Sheen speak at Christ the King Church in the New Vernon neighborhood of Harding Township back in 1974. They met briefly after the talk and would strike up a friendship. Fulton Sheen sought out her uh her and others' views on particular topics to help make his talks more relevant to his audience. Sheen baptized her and her husband Raymond's youngest child Michael at Corpus Christi in 1975. Sheen kept in touch with the family, and Loanne and he actually spoke a couple times a week up until he died in 1979. So from 1974 to 1979. And she was at Fulton Sheen's funeral. Loan, 85, now living in Manchester, New Jersey, heard the news on March 25th that Archbishop Sheen, now venerable Fulton J. Sheen, is getting a step closer to sainthood. With joy, she plans to attend with her family the mass of his beatification, where he will be designated as blessed. This will take place on Thursday, September 24th in St. Louis, Missouri. Hello, Loanne.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Hi, Loanne, Bishop Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Hi there, I'm Bishop Kevin. It's good to be on the on the radio with you.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Thanks for your time. So uh maybe we could begin. We were talking just a little before we came on the air. Um uh the coldest Ash Wednesday you can remember, 1974. Was that right?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

That's right. Uh 1974, uh as I mentioned mentioned it to you, it was my mother's parish at the time.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Christ the King in New Vernon, right? Uh um and so you were standing outside in the cold because the doors were locked, every waiting to get in. You got in, you got into the last uh pew, and um you eventually were walking with your mom and uh Father Korr and Father Patch, who I believe were great friends, uh came up, came up to the church from downstairs where they had left a crowd, and you bumped in to Archbishop Sheen. Is that is that right literally. Take us from there, please.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Well, when I uh I I was really kind of stunned for a moment because I didn't expect to see him, and the minute that the rest of the people there might be 25 people still left in the church who saw him, there was a big swarm around him. So I just spoke for a second. And I'm even to this day, I can't tell you what I said. I was just so surprised. And then I backed out of the group and went back uh back to get my coat. And when I turned around to put my hand in my coat, uh I found this machine my coat.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Oh wow, a gentleman.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

And uh he said to me, I I would like to have your name, your address, and the name of your children. I'm going to send you something in the mail. And of course, typical woman, I had a little pocketbook with nothing in it but a hinge bill at the time. So I said, Well, I don't have a pen. And he said, I will wait while you get a pen. And uh so I wrote everything up and I gave it to him, and he said, Thank you, and he turned around and walked away with the patch and the core.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

And uh it was very odd. And I remember telling my husband when I got home the funniest thing happened, you know. And uh and then a couple, maybe maybe the following week, we got a big box with uh books for children and a biblical of a whole lot of powerful narratives that he said for the for the family. And uh I asked the children if they would write a a um a thank you note, and the newspaper up there at the time, the Mars Cow Daily Record, had had a good scene uh under the that beautiful cross, and I noticed that there were no nails. First time I ever noticed it. And so I wrote a little note saying, I hope you looked up while you were there, because there were no nails in your in the cross that was hanging above you. Right and on my way, and expecting anything more than that. And then uh maybe a week or ten days later he called, and we talked for quite a long time. In fact, I used to say my ha my phone was on the wall and I had sticky notes all over the place. You should read this, you should do that. And so I wrote it down, just put it all around the phone so that I I would remember to do what he was telling me to do. So it it became uh um I would call back doing suggestions, and then he would call me back with more suggestions and questions. He would ask me things like um, what are your children learning in school? What kind of books do they have? Uh what what grades are they in? Um, what do you think of Saint Joseph? Uh I really think a lot of that was just to give him more f food for his own sermon.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

So he could be more relevant.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

And then uh he would come and baptize your I guess you had a a a son after um what was that like?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I had a son, yeah, I'm uh seventy-five. Michael was born in July of seventy-five, and I called Bishop Sheen from the hospital and I said to them, Would you be willing to come and baptize Michael? And um we had at the time we ha raised two brothers. My husband's two brothers were Benedictines, so it's not like we needed a priest to baptize the children, but I thought what a special thing it would be if he would come and baptize Michael. And he said, Yes, I'll be there on September first. And it turned out at the time I thought it's so funny because he didn't know that we named Michael Michael Joseph, and he picked the feast of St. Joseph to baptize.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Oh beautiful. Beautiful. Um, so um really wonderful. Um and uh and then that continued for uh he died in 79, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

So um go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I was gonna say he seemed to like this area. Um uh I think it had to do with his heart. I didn't know, he never mentioned that he was had a heart condition. But his uh his sister-in-law, uh, who I got to know fairly well, told me that he had a very serious heart condition when he was in New York. In fact, they said that when he had hearts uh needed blood, there was a line around the the the whole block. Wow, right and environment and ordinary people who came to give blood for him. I think those of us who were never mentioned it to me.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Um I would have been uh four years old when uh in that 1974 Ash Wednesday. Uh so he was a little bit, I would say, before my time, but certainly hearing about him growing up and having learned now um uh his overwhelming popularity um at that time, huh? The love of Catholics and others um uh it is certainly the popularity of his TV show, but um but great affection for him, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Tremendous affection. And it it it it seemed almost one of my sons said to me looking back, he said, he had an aura of faith around him.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

That you just wanted to you just wanted to stay there, you know, even if he said nothing.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Um I don't not sure if you're familiar with um Bishop Barron. Some have compared him, uh he does this. Um and uh one thing that Bishop Barron always says is that when he was uh in seminary formation, he was the rector of the seminary in Chicago, that um some of the seminarians uh encouraged him to uh make sure they did a daily holy hour. And then um he Bishop Barron then speaks of uh how Archbishop Sheen would encourage the daily holy hour. Um a couple of years ago when we were doing the Eucharistic revival, I think it was the first time I heard, he gave about a 40-minute talk at a retreat about the importance of the daily holy hour. Um would you remember uh his emphasis on that, or um in in your memories uh in terms of uh what how he encouraged people to live their faith, uh something that might stand out to you in your in your recollections?

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Well, I know two parts of that. I know that he never missed a daily uh holy hour in the world.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Right, fifty-four years.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Except once. Once he said when he was in Paris he fell asleep during his holy hour. But he said the good Lord said it counts.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

And that's how the apostles did their first one in the Garden of Cassembly.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Oh but but I do know that um the holy hour was something towards the end of his life, he gave a lot of retreats for priests almost exclusively. And uh he had very strong concerns about priesthood.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Right, oh right. I you could hear it in that talk of that time, kind of between the lines, uh, and and about the church and maybe some of the changes, uh and certainly about the society. Um and uh um but him saying s as I mean his voice, his um way of speaking, his use of words, um, he would say it's the one thing that Jesus asked specifically, can you not spend one hour with me?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah, yeah. Was it something else?

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Right, right, right, right. I know Jay has some questions as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Loan, so when I was getting ready for the episode, I you know, I was looking back at some of his television broadcasts and radio broadcasts, and it really struck me like he he really comes from kind of like a different time in society, right? Where you mentioned newspapers, like uh there used to be religious sections in newspapers, like they some of them still have them, right? And he was invited to be on a secular radio station, I believe, right? To to give a talk during at the time radio stations were looking for Christian or Catholic content on their secular radio stations and and then also television stations. And I feel like that's really shifted over the years, but it was kind of a different era. Can you can you put yourself back there in in that time of when you'd watch him on television or hear him on the radio? Did you watch his television show?

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Uh did I watch it? Yes, of course I did. We were required to. We had to write a report when I was in school, you had to write a report about what he said.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Did you go to school, um Catholic school?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Several.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Five to be five different my folks who are and so um, you know, we're coming up to the 250th anniversary of uh our independence of our nation, and uh I think Archbishop Sheen was also uh a a good example of um living our faith as as as good citizens as well. I think he was very patriotic as well. Would you say that?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

He was what?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Very patriotic?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Oh my gosh, yes. He went with uh Spellman to uh, you know, they went on all those tours around the Far East and The propagation of the faith, the propagation of the faith, the missions, right? Right. The missions and he also went uh with uh Cardinal Spellman on this tremendous tour of the Far East, where they stopped at all the different places where the soldiers were in the city. Right, the military. Yes, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yes, uh visiting the soldiers, right, you're right, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Um and maybe a little bit about your those those phone calls and some of your personal conversations. Um uh obviously he liked to recommend books and reading and uh was interested in your children. Other things that stood out in terms of uh um uh those phone calls and conversations?

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Well, you know, it's been 40 years. Um the exact conversations, I can't remember. The main gist of the conversations was he made me be aware of the fact that there were books that that that were worth living. You know, life is worth living, uh books um that he recommended on the TV. There were so many Catholic books that he recommended that I read. And having five children under seven at the time, eight, I guess. I didn't do much reading, but he uh he did encourage me to go back and do some of the reading. And I know um the life of Christ was the one that was at the top of the list and it really changed me. In that we did. It was a it is an incredible book. In fact, I saw it when I saw when uh Cardinal Dolan was leaving his post uh right before that he went to the Holy Land and he said he was only taking two things, the Bible and the life of Christ.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Wow, wow. Um by our uh was that the Life of Christ by Arch Archbishop Sheen?

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Right. And um uh in the talk he gives on the holy hour, he recommends a scripture scholar named Barclay, and he repeats it a few times saying, read Barkley, read Barclay. Um uh not easy to do. Right. Um uh boy, um well, um I was gonna ask about um his holiness and um the cause for his um uh please God eventual beatif um uh he's gonna be beatified in September. And uh canonization, please God. Um uh um what what would you stood out say stood out in terms of your knowledge of him, in terms of his um his own personal holiness and and his example?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Well, as as uh my son uh that I mentioned mentioned, he had an aura of faith about him. He could translate anything into an example of how that would affect your faith, good or bad.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

And it's just he was in fact one of the the memories I have after I I wanted him to go to the caramel.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

And at the time I was pestering him about that. He was not enthusiastic. There was a lot of things going on with the nuns.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Oh, yes, yes. There was a difficult time. Yes, I've heard.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Yeah, well, I was I pestered and pestered, and he finally said, Okay, okay, I'll go. So I went I drove him in to um I went to New York and got him and brought him home, but I was putting him at the time so it was for the day that he requested. And um, but he I still remember we got to the door with Mother Primaris, who was there and alive at that time. He knocks on the door. door and he said um here I am bishop came to give you a retreat and she said well you just go in the chapel and we'll go into the other I don't know what they call it. Yeah behind the grill behind the grill you can Yeah. And he said no no no no he said I would like to come in and give it to you. She three times she told him no.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

And he finally looked at me and he said Where did you find these people? I don't know. I don't know but he said I am a bishop I have the right to break closer open the door and so she did.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Um you know what uh he also had a great sense of humor didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yes he had a wonderful sense of humor and laughed heartily heartily yes yes but but just to just to follow up with that little little part I told you I came back later in the day um I had to lie down for the afternoon and I came back and I s I talked to him and I I said well I was gonna take him to our house for dinner and he said you know Loanne he said I really thank you. He said this is a very holy place. Oh beautiful beautiful beautiful uh he got past the rough start um uh the sisters will be happy to know that um and and it is it's a beautiful place I celebrate mass there uh when I can and um and yes uh yeah he struck up a relationship with with those sisters right after that I don't know if he followed up on a relationship at all I never asked him a lot of things happened around that time and I he was getting so many requests um to go places and he was his heart was giving him trouble at that time and I didn't realize that's one of the reasons he stayed in the Morris town area because he uh when we had Michael was baptized and he was sitting on the porch one of my husband's friends is a uh uh or was a uh congressman and he said to the uh to the congressman he said no one has ever asked me to uh speak at the prayer breakfast the congressional prayer breakfast I would really like to do that and um Matthew made arrangements for that to happen but he had to go with his because he was that frail.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Well and how did how did you gr reconcile his his fame with your conversations or or your interactions with him and your family?

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Well I'll give you an example I I he did I he didn't get the feeling that he was conscious of it. Maybe he was but I never got the feeling that he was conscious of it. It was like I invited him to come to dinner after doing the the the retreat of the nuns for the caramel and and he came back and I don't know where my brain was but I asked the children to sit with him while I fixed dinner. And all of a sudden there was this quiet and I went back into the living room where the children were uh with him and they were all sitting around him like one was two were on the floor one was sitting on the side of the of the uh chair one was standing in front of him and they were acting so to him that I actually walked to the end of the ch of the house it was a pretty big house got a camera came back took a picture and that was the first they noticed me. Wow wow and he was just speaking to them uh softly answering their questions talking about things that they would be interested in and that's what I loved he could talk to paupers and kings uh PhDs and little people children he never made you feel like there was any difference between you and him ever.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

And and he was always a priest, right? I mean like a parish priest visiting a family right uh interested in the Lord and interested in people and uh not putting on heirs but um but just um trying to be the priest he was called to be right to to share the life of our Lord.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yes, exactly. He came from a I think a pretty large family in Peoria um most of them never came left Peoria. He was he was uh ordained in Peoria um but he really loved New York very very much and he wanted to be buried in New York and he was buried in New York until they uh the bishop of uh Peoria made arrangements for him to go to Peoria but it was uh and hopefully that's all yeah all in God's plan right uh and uh the great thing I hope so I wasn't happy about it but that he's gonna be beatified is a great thing right so uh uh yes oh listen I uh this is what I lived for for forty years I can't I knew it could happen but I didn't think it would happen in my lifetime because the church often moves very slowly.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

I've I've um I've gotten to know the the current bishop of Peoria Bishop Louis Tilka he uh yes he was ordained in 2020 the same year that I was and we get together when the bishops meet and uh for the you know since 2020 since he's he started um he's been uh really working to try to get the movement uh and thank god uh you know I'm sure with others uh but um that it that uh I remember I saw him oh uh maybe in November and I said how's it going with uh Bishop Sheen's case it's gonna be good news it's gonna be actually I want to say what might have been in um February 6th we were in New York for the uh installation of the new Archbishop uh Archbishop Hicks and uh bishop Bishop Tilke was saying to me any day now any day now so he's very very happy that it's been a moved along.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Well here let me give one I think you you need to give a lot of credit to the new uh head of the propagation of the faith too senior Hanley okay he uh the way I understand it when he became uh uh head of the propagation of the faith he looked over the you know the background of everything that happened and he said to me this is ridiculous he has to be canonized we're gonna make that happen great and he really uh has been uh at the forefront of making that happen so quickly great that I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Monsignor Roger Landry know is it is that it's that's him.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

Right, right right uh Jay has some information I think I believe so yes right there and people think so highly of him yes yes um uh good for him thank god thank god it all happened um I think Jay has some information he wants to yeah I just want to tie a couple of uh things together so there's a little more on his background I think might be helpful for listeners and viewers Archbishop Sheen was born in May 8th 1895 in Al Paso's birthday yes first anniversary yes yes thank you bishop for schedule around and happy first anniversary to Pope Leo uh huh yes and it's also the feast day of blessed Miriam Teresa Domjanovich another one on the course to canonization uh a sister of charity of uh Saint Elizabeth of uh Convent Station so keep her in prayer as well so okay so full of Jean his family moved to Peoria and he grew up in the parish of the Cathedral of St. Mary where he was an altar server so an altar boy he or was ordained a priest at 24 in the cathedral in 1919. He served as a professor of philosophy and religion at the Catholic University of America before becoming a popular radio personality in the 30s. So he was a professor while he was drive my understanding is driving up to New York to be on the radio DC to New York. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of New York in 1951 where he remained until his appointment as Bishop of Rochester, New York in 66. He retired in 69, moved back to New York City until his death in 1979 at the age of 84.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

My brother-in-law's mother Claire Shanahan is a big big fan uh she gave me a set of discs um uh uh on on Bishop Sheen's talks and uh two of my nieces, so her two granddaughters went to Catholic University and she was so happy they were in Catholic University because Archbishop Sheen had been a a professor there.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yes. There's another little interesting story around that you might find uh way I heard it anyway, is that he uh he was after he uh graduated uh from um and became a priest they sent him uh no yes they sent him to Europe and he was uh he was for uh uh he was really uh astoundingly did well at his studies there and then when they came home the bishop that was I don't remember who the bishop was sent him off to a small poor parish just so that he he keeps his humility.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Right, right right yeah um and uh he was ready to do what whatever you know obedience right whatever was asked of him uh God bless you exactly yeah um exactly but um such a mind such great intelligence and given to the service of the church uh so um we see how God can work you might also want to know that he is his given name at birth apparently was Peter.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Wow yeah yeah uh he uh uh the way I heard him say it is that he cried so much when he was a child that his pa his mother didn't know what to do with him so she gave him to his to the Fultons who were the grandparents and the grandparents brought him up and so he changed it to Fulton.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Wow officially God works in mysterious ways you bet.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Right, right. So you know Fulton Sheen Loanne and you probably know this has other connections to the diocese as well. In fact he was he was friends with Bishop James McNulty who was the third bishop of Patterson and his classmate at Louvain University in Belgium actually and uh I'm gonna have a couple links in the show notes to this article that I'm referencing right now that uh Mike Mike Wochek, our beacon managing editor uh Oh no actually this is Catholic News Agency. Mike reached out to you for an article uh on you and your connections with with Fulton Sheen. But um were you aware of any of these other connections or no not yet.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah there's a great focus on this to be honest with you is that I wanted the people of the Mars County area particularly to be aware of the fact that he was going to be uh beatified because there's very little notif as far as I've seen very little uh information being shared yet. I don't think they even have the tickets yet. Um because I know we're getting ours through some people who do know but basically what I'm saying is that they the idea of knowing about it would at least allow them to watch it's going to be um uh on the EWP and they're going to film the actual uh uh mass and I think for the people who are older like myself uh they might prefer to watch it on T V.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

And uh I know it's gonna be at two PM their time. I don't know what that would be wherever there anybody is but I think just being a part of the the prayers that are being raised over this beatification um is a very important aspect of it because people felt felt like he was a part of their lives.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Yeah I think uh I think that that's important for them to know that there's a way that they could watch without having to go there although Ray and I are going to go.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

That's great. I'm I'm hoping please God to maybe be able to be there myself so uh if we uh if we're both there we'll have to connect and uh who knows we may end up with a group from the diocese and um uh as you say um we want to let everyone in the Morris County area know and uh here um with Jay and throughout the diocese we're gonna do our best to let everyone in Passaic Morris and Sussex counties the three counties of our diocese know uh about the upcoming and uh beatification and the plans and um and especially uh you know the the the lives of the saints can have such an impact on our own lives and uh and and Archbishop Sheen is such a wonderful example of uh a life of holiness and prayer and love for the church and living the faith. Um so but uh having known someone uh or hearing from someone who has known a saint uh as you please god he'll get that he'll be canonized one day but even a uh soon to be blessed um Archbishop Sheen uh Loenn thank you so much for sharing your personal um recollections and uh connections uh which with Archbishop Sheen and I think you've accomplished your goal reminding us of his connections with Morris County in our diocese.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Yeah oh I'm so glad it works out that way and thank you for taking the time to do it. It's from my point of view it really is very important that the people get the opportunity at least to watch it on T V. And uh a lot of us are older who actually knew him but there are a lot of young people who are affected like my children are are more your age and they they remember everything. They don't remember being in his apartment. They remember everything. And now with the so it just brings back good good good memories.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

The the internet does have some good things because so many of his talks are available on YouTube and so many of our young Catholics are going to listen to Archbishop Sheen. So I think it's gonna bring a revival for him as well. I I I I I agree with you that he can have that impact on current and future generations as well. So so thank you very much and we'll keep in contact uh between now and September and uh we'll we'll look forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

I look forward to meeting you Bishop Kevin God bless you.

SPEAKER_02 36:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Jay is going to just say a final word thank you so much Loyan yeah if you could just humor me I'm gonna take us out. So we we won't sing happy birthday to him but we'll uh wish him a happy birthday in heaven is uh here on his birthday so uh uh here we that's the best gift of all isn't it exactly exactly uh thanks again Loan and here's Jay Okay and thank you all for joining us please subscribe comment and leave a positive rating get to know us better by following Bishop Kevin's Instagram and beyond the beacon on social media read the bishop's weekly column on beaconnj.org get in touch if you have a question for the bishop or a podcast topic idea and discover our other podcasts see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Thanks Luann thanks everybody God bless you God bless you both thank you bye