Latest / The Catholic Current / Getting Ready for Blessed Fulton Sheen (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.)

Transcript

Getting Ready for Blessed Fulton Sheen (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) · The Catholic Current

0:00
Hey friends, we have a treat here today. You know, usually when I do videos,
0:03
it's just me, and every now and again I'm very fortunate, I have someone really
0:07
interesting to talk with. I said, well, let's put that on video and see what
0:10
the response is. Today's such a case. You know, I've been doing a series on
0:13
the writings of Fulton Sheen in anticipation of his beatification.
0:17
Let's talk with someone who has been very much involved
0:21
in getting people ready for the beatification process and to help you
0:25
to kind of make a pilgrimage to get to St. Louis to be there for
0:29
the beatification. If you're able. Dr. Peter Howard,
0:33
welcome to The Catholic Current. Thank you, Father. It's an honor to be on
0:36
your show. I grew up hearing stories
0:40
of my father who, when he was first married, used to
0:44
make— it was an event to watch Fulton Sheen on
0:48
television. And then when I got to college, I discovered some more
0:52
of his videos, read some of his books. And then when I was
0:56
a priest and taught homiletics and rhetoric, I would use, of course, his videos
1:00
as kind of the gold standard for Priestly Communication.
1:03
And then as a recovering academic, I discovered some of
1:07
his earlier writings, especially the stuff from the '30s and '40s— untapped
1:12
veins of gold there. So I think
1:15
his legacy needs to be better known. How did you
1:19
first become smitten, if you will, with Bishop Sheen?
1:23
Well, it was kind of— well, she wouldn't say it was by accident, but it
1:27
felt like that at first. I was living in Texas. This is, you last
1:31
millennium. So this is like '98, and I
1:35
was taking a retreat, a personal retreat. Uh, what is the Lord doing in my
1:38
life? I was in my mid-20s at the time. Um,
1:42
and yeah, right about 24, 25.
1:45
And, um, I had about a 3-hour drive, and my
1:50
sister said, hey Pete, why don't you come by, and I want to give you
1:53
something that maybe you'll like, maybe you won't like. I don't know, it's a retreat
1:57
given by Fulton Sheen back in the '70s. I was kind
2:00
of like, uh, it's kind of funny because like I had only heard of him.
2:03
I didn't watch him, and back then we didn't really have access to YouTube and
2:07
stuff anyway. But right, true, I had only heard of him. My undergraduate
2:10
was at Franciscan University in Ohio. Maybe a professor
2:15
might allude to him on something, but like I, at one point I wasn't even
2:18
sure if he was American or if he was English or Irish. I was like,
2:20
so anyway, I took— she's like gave me the stack of cassette tapes and
2:25
she said, why don't Why don't you give it a shot? And I was like,
2:28
I will. All right. I'll give him about, in my mind, 10 minutes. Like,
2:31
I'll know if I connect with this person. It's like Father Harden. I love
2:35
Father Harden, but I would put him on, like, if I want to go to
2:39
sleep too, I put him on because he's the most gentle speaker with
2:43
profound content is solid. But, and I
2:46
had cassettes of Father Harden too, and trying to do long drives and, and I
2:51
couldn't do it. I'd have an accident. Same thing with Cardinal Dulles as well.
2:53
I have students who said about Cardinal Dulles, the T at the end of his
2:57
name is silent. That was delivery. It wasn't content. Yeah,
3:00
exactly. So little did I know what I was getting myself set
3:06
up for. So I left, had a 3-hour drive from Dallas to East Texas,
3:10
and I put it in. And within probably no
3:14
more than 5 minutes, without exaggeration, I was completely captivated
3:18
by this, by this man. This was a remastered
3:24
retreat. So it sounded as clear as I'm speaking to you. It wasn't
3:27
old hissing or so. And here I am,
3:31
and I felt like he's in the seat next to me. And this was a
3:34
retreat given to priests and seminarians. This is Holy Trinity Seminary in '72.
3:39
I learned later on when I actually got my hands on the original
3:42
remasters from the man who did it, it started on my birthday,
3:46
which, well, 2 years later would have been my birthday, but on January 18th.
3:50
So I thought that was interesting. But I listened to this and I simply
3:55
knew. I don't know how to explain it. My life was never going to be
3:58
the same. This man has invaded my life in
4:02
a way that I couldn't get away.
4:06
But I felt I finally found— I considered
4:10
him like a spiritual director. I considered him a lot of things, like a
4:14
general of the faith. A life coach.
4:17
I mean, he— everything that he packed in this retreat for priests and
4:21
seminarians were the questions that I was wrestling with. And his
4:25
directives, like, this is what you need to do, I felt like
4:30
they weren't suggestions. I was like, I got to make a daily Holy Hour.
4:33
I have to do this. And I started doing it ever since then.
4:37
So he rocked my world. And then eventually I ended up doing I
4:41
went to Rome for my graduate and postgraduate studies and eventually
4:45
the doctorate. And I was able to write on Sheen. So my doctorate was on
4:48
Fulton Sheen and his Mariology. Oh,
4:51
interesting. Interesting. Well, you know, I said I'm a recovering academic and I
4:55
want to nerd out with you and ask for a copy of your dissertation.
4:59
Absolutely. You know, I had some
5:03
Sheen cassettes and I remember when I was a freshman in college,
5:07
And it was one of the last public talks he gave, and I believe it
5:10
was at the cathedral of the Diocese of Camden. And that's when he
5:15
had made clear that he had made his peace with God. He was ready to
5:17
face our Lord and the gloves were coming off. And so he's greeting
5:21
the clergy and he's doing it in a very structured way. And he says,
5:24
Bishop Shadd, Bishop Guilfoyle, my brother priests,
5:29
long pause, recognizable sisters.
5:34
And all our dear friends in Christ, especially our beloved youth. I said, all right,
5:38
this guy knows how to throw a punch. So, and that's how I discovered more
5:42
of his work over time. And I said, for me,
5:47
as a professor of philosophy and theology, when I look
5:51
at his early writings, you can see his education
5:55
shine through. He was a highly intelligent man. He was well-read.
5:59
He was very deeply cultured. He was— and then, of course,
6:03
he was at the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America,
6:07
my alma mater, of course, many decades before I knew
6:11
him. And then I knew a priest who, as a young seminarian,
6:14
wrote his master's thesis under the direction of Fulton Sheen, which I
6:18
think is very, very cool bragging rights. I'd like to find
6:22
out if he ever directed any dissertations as well. I think that would be worth
6:26
having a look at. And so when I started teaching, I said, well,
6:30
you know, Fulton Sheen is more of a media person.
6:34
I'm an academic. I'm never going to be involved in media,
6:38
you know, showing it once again. I have the gift of the not prophecy.
6:42
And one of the things I admired about him was,
6:46
I mean, he was the guy. He was the Catholic
6:49
pioneer in radio and then on television.
6:54
You know, he was Mr. Television for a while in the '50s.
6:58
His show got a bigger audience than Milton Berle, for example.
7:02
But he— it didn't seem to affect
7:06
him. I mean, I imagine humanly speaking there were temptations, but he didn't become
7:11
a media hound. I don't think he read his own press
7:14
clippings. And as an older priest,
7:18
I worry sometimes about some of my younger clerical brethren who
7:23
seem to like being on camera and I
7:27
think are a little TMI when they're on camera.
7:31
And I think Fulton Sheen was very clear that he was
7:35
the messenger and not the message.
7:38
Absolutely. Well, as you're talking, it makes me think of one
7:42
of my favorite sayings of Sheen. He's like, unless souls are saved,
7:45
nothing is saved. And that's not just a flippant saying. Like,
7:48
that was, that was his, his obsession,
7:52
was the salvation of souls. And that's why he studied everything. It's why he did
7:56
what he did. And as you were mentioning too, like Fulton Sheen,
7:59
what was his life would have been like? Was he attracted to all of that?
8:03
He did confess in his autobiography that that was the one
8:07
thing that he lamented is that he wasn't,
8:10
um, it didn't, it didn't, uh, dictate his life, but he
8:14
said he certainly enjoyed it. He says, I didn't necessarily have to have a Cadillac,
8:19
but you know, so it's interesting how he shared those things, but God kept
8:23
him humble. I mean, you look at his life too. Because he gave
8:26
him a heart in preparation for these things when he was the head
8:30
of the National Director for the Propagation of the Faith, traveling the world in the
8:34
missions where he's beginning, where he had ongoing conversions of,
8:38
I mean, the story of when he gave crucifixes out to lepers
8:41
on a leper colony and he got to the last one and
8:45
he looked at the hand and it was just, he said it was indescribable.
8:49
And so he brought the crucifix over and he dropped it into his hand.
8:54
And he said, at that very moment, I knew that that leper colony of 100
8:57
now became 101. And he
9:02
was so attached to the poor. I mean, he gave all of his money from
9:05
his television proceeds. All of it went to the missions. And that was,
9:08
if you, today's money, it's almost $100 million. So, you know,
9:13
he kept, he was so, he made his daily holy hour. He met
9:17
with future converts. His day was completely spent
9:22
for souls, and I think that was the secret of it. And once you deviate
9:25
from that, like you're saying, it is a concern,
9:28
of course, for priests. I think it's a concern for anybody who's a media
9:32
personality today, and you see the ups and downs, the falls, the— you
9:36
have to be grounded. And, you know, as you and I, the word for
9:41
grounding is humility, right? I think his was genuine. He was very
9:44
self-deprecating in the right ways. He just captivated
9:49
people with that. They never felt like he was,
9:51
you know, way above them. You know,
9:55
and I want to interject for a moment because I have so many favorite stories
9:59
of Fulton Sheen and some I've just heard firsthand
10:03
and maybe you can verify the source. But apparently there was some fundraising
10:06
event and he and Richard Burton were asked
10:10
to recite the 23rd Psalm. And Richard
10:14
Burton did it and he did it magnificently because,
10:17
you know, he's Richard Burton. And then Fulton Sheen did it
10:21
and people people lost their minds and took out their checkbooks, etc.
10:25
And the commentator said, uh, one knew the text,
10:28
the other knew the shepherd. Did you hear anything about that event, or the when,
10:31
or the where, or who wrote about it? Surprisingly, I haven't
10:35
heard that story, but it sounds very— it sounds
10:39
very genuine. Yeah, I mean, it does. It certainly— it rings true,
10:43
uh, for, for sure. So let's fast forward
10:47
now, uh, each of us in our own way have come
10:51
under his spell, so to speak. We recognize this is
10:55
a holy, prayerful, learned man who— and as
10:59
human as you and me— but it was unquestionable that he
11:03
had a zeal for souls. There's absolutely no question
11:07
beyond that. And the Church has begun to recognize him. And now he's
11:11
going to be beatified in a few months. Let's shift
11:15
a little bit. How are you involved in promoting
11:20
that event and helping people to get all available graces
11:24
for that upcoming celebration? The cause for
11:29
Fulton Sheen was always something that I was fascinated, you know, is it going to
11:32
go anywhere? When I was doing my Rome studies, this was like 2000 to 2002,
11:36
right after that time is when he became Servant of
11:39
God. And then, so I just started speaking
11:43
on Sheen wherever and whenever I could. Um, at sometimes
11:48
a university, Air Force Academy. I was in, um, Colorado Springs.
11:52
So I, I tried to spread him in every chance, every, every opportunity,
11:56
conferences. And then once his, um,
12:00
he became a venerable,
12:03
then I wanted to, you know, do whatever I
12:07
could to, to help with that cause. But the Diocese of Peoria
12:11
really was in charge of that. And so I just kept doing what
12:16
my calling was, and that was to bring the mission and the wisdom of Sheen
12:19
everywhere, kind of preparing the way, knowing that this
12:22
beatification process is going to be coming through. And then, you know,
12:26
2019, we had the scheduling of the
12:30
beatification and then the tragedy of it being pulled
12:34
3 weeks from the actual Mass. At that point,
12:38
It became even more personal though. I'm like, everybody was outraged
12:42
about that. And within a few years of that, we started a movement
12:47
and that movement was, had a petition attached to it and
12:52
it was to give the voice of people from all around the world, you know,
12:55
countless thousands of people to say, hey, we need Shein,
12:59
whatever these reasons are, Rome never had a problem. And so
13:03
we just kept really kind of fighting for that, keeping it on
13:06
the front burner, putting, holding, feet to
13:10
the fire of like, we don't know if this is ever going to come back.
13:13
There were rumors that this was being iced. I mean, the backstory is,
13:16
is kind of crazy. Um, and I don't want to say it's kind of,
13:20
you know, in a certain sense, I guess it's water under the bridge because now
13:23
the beatification is here. You're looking forward. Yeah. So yeah. Um, but that
13:27
was, you know, it was providence to see within the last 6 months, you know,
13:30
uh, what, what has transpired. And even right before then,
13:34
uh, I promised everyone that if we ever got to Rome,
13:38
I would hand-deliver the petition to the congregate or the Dicastery
13:41
for the Causes of Saints. God provided that opportunity
13:44
with the canonizations of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati.
13:48
And then we happened to see Pope Leo like 10 feet away, and, you know,
13:51
I'm like yelling, please beatify Jean, please beatify Jean. It's an American pope. I'm like,
13:55
he actually knows what I'm saying, right? And, and then he stopped and
13:59
looked, and he gave a quick thumbs up, and then he kept going. So I
14:02
was like, okay, that's pretty interesting. And then we met with the, with the,
14:05
uh, Dicastery, and it wasn't just handing off the book or the—
14:10
well, it was a nice package my wife put together. It was really nice.
14:14
Um, and it wasn't just for the portoria. It was
14:17
the, uh, the undersecretary came down. He says, come on
14:21
up. And we talked for about 40 minutes on Sheen, on the cause,
14:25
and I got a lot of good insights into things and a lot of confirmations
14:28
like this is happening. This really is. And then within about 2 months of that
14:31
was the announcement of the new date. So we have been just
14:35
the, you know, the movement part of things preparing
14:38
for, I think, what the real mission of the movement is about to begin
14:43
with this beatification. We've been paving the way so that the world can
14:48
now discover Sheen in a way that he wouldn't
14:52
be. Like, he's accessible now everywhere. You can go on YouTube, watch his stuff,
14:56
but who's putting together why Sheen is so relevant.
15:00
Why is he so important? Because that's a, that's a whole nother mission,
15:04
I think. And I felt like that's something that we were all about, and that's
15:08
something I'm all about. And I think that moving forward,
15:10
that's, that's going to be it. The 250th anniversary of our country, he's being
15:14
beatified now. Sheen would say, why don't we pause like theologians
15:18
and ask the question why? Because he says, I quote
15:22
him, I quote this all the time, Sheen says, God doesn't do anything
15:26
in history without the greatest finesse of detail.
15:31
Yes, he was talking, he was talking about why 1917,
15:34
why Fatima, you know, and communism, all these things of 1917.
15:38
Well, here we are, the 250th anniversary of our country. We should
15:42
be pondering that. This is a country that's rudderless in many respects
15:46
and a vacuum of leadership. Things, you know, these things so
15:50
well, Father, but we need to put a saint,
15:55
as Sheen would say, we need an American saint.
15:59
You know, somebody who was actually brought through, you know,
16:02
the American story, who could lead us in a way that we
16:07
desperately need it. And here we are, 250 years, where are we going? This is
16:10
the Quo Vadis America moment. Sheen asked that question on
16:15
his last set of telecasts that I'm not even sure really
16:18
reached the air. It was called What Now, America? It's like a— yeah,
16:22
it's like an armistice. Like, it wasn't an end to what
16:25
his mission was. It was to be picked up at another time, and I think
16:29
it's now, before it's too late. So this is an exciting moment that,
16:34
you know, conservatively a billion people are going
16:37
to hear the announcement. The Church has a new blessed.
16:41
They're going to hear the name. The Holy Spirit's going to move them. A lot
16:44
of people are going to be sitting there like, I've heard of this man.
16:48
And if only 1% of those people discover Sheen in a way that like I
16:51
did, you have, Father, that's what, 10 million
16:55
of a billion? Is that 1%?
16:58
That's a— just do the math on how many Pentecosts that is.
17:03
Yeah. No, it's a very exciting time.
17:06
And, you know, there have been many people who said that we
17:11
need witnesses, we need role models, we need icons. And, and I
17:15
think that Bishop Sheen can certainly play, uh, that part, uh,
17:19
as well. You know, I think back to his book called The Priest Is Not
17:22
His Own, and, you know, a priest is meant to live with an
17:26
undivided heart. I, I am a sinner, but I'm trying to
17:30
move in that right direction. So I think for my brother
17:34
priests, and candidly for, for the bishops who lead us,
17:37
to have that zeal for souls, to have that undivided
17:40
heart. I think Sheena is a very great exemplar for that. I also
17:45
think that it's important for people to say there was someone who was really
17:50
on fire, who wasn't sleepwalking,
17:54
who wasn't telegraphing it in, who was absolutely giving
17:58
his best and couldn't rest until Christ
18:01
was known and loved everywhere. And we definitely need to see
18:05
that in our own here and now. The beatification
18:09
is going to be here in a few months. You've been doing some work to
18:13
help people have a richer experience of that. Tell us about
18:16
that, please. Sure. Thanks, Father. Yeah, we have 2 things really. One,
18:20
it begins with a pilgrimage for those who want to really get ready and dive
18:24
into the preparation for what this event means historically and spiritually,
18:29
beginning in Peoria on September 19th.
18:32
September 20th is the anniversary of his priesthood. So we'll be celebrating
18:36
that. Many don't know that Fulton Sheen was bi-ritual.
18:39
So we're actually going to be celebrating a broader picture of Sheen, not just on
18:43
that day, but throughout the pilgrimage. And, and at the, as we'll
18:47
see in a minute, the conference that we're having, um, both sides of Sheen,
18:51
the East and the West. He's such a Catholic priest and
18:55
bishop when you think about what he represents and why he did it.
18:59
Um, we're going to be experiencing the Divine Liturgy,
19:02
Vespers. We'll be visiting the museum in Peoria, just getting
19:06
ourselves ready, having a holy hour every day. You can't
19:10
do anything with Sheen without being faithful to the one thing that he asked of
19:13
everybody. And, and so that leads up
19:16
to the, um, the day before the beatification.
19:20
The beatification is on September 24th, Thursday. Then the
19:23
day before, we have an incredible conference all day long,
19:26
9 AM to 9 PM. We have Bishop Joseph Coffey,
19:30
who's going to be with us to accompany us on the pilgrimage and
19:34
lead the liturgy on that day. And we have speakers that
19:38
will be involved that not just to give a
19:42
rally, like a Sheen rally, like we had some of those in the past where
19:47
people just get excited about Sheen. These are people who have been deeply moved
19:51
and personally transformed by him. They know the heart
19:55
of Sheen and they represent an aspect of his life that every Catholic needs
19:58
to understand rather than just the popular sheen.
20:02
You know, as a theologian, my job as a doctorate
20:06
when I wrote that was to show that he is a brilliant theologian, 'cause a
20:10
lot of clerics and theologians are kind of, you know,
20:13
they just saw him as a populist and it was nothing could be further.
20:17
So this conference on September 23rd,
20:21
Wednesday, is going to lead us through all of these
20:24
different facets of Sheen's life, from his dedication to
20:27
the vulnerable. We have Jason Jones and the Vulnerable People Project. We have
20:32
Sister DeeDee Byrne. She actually reached out and says, I've got to be a
20:36
part of this. And her background doesn't need much of an introduction.
20:40
But we have 2 Byzantine priests who will be there, Father Thomas
20:43
Loya and Father Jason Charon,
20:47
or Charon. I'm not sure how you pronounce exactly. I have to get his name
20:51
right. So, and many others throughout the day.
20:54
So this is an opportunity to really, as we say,
20:59
learn to think like Sheen and to pray
21:03
like Sheen and to love like Sheen. This conference is gonna do it. So when
21:06
we hear the words, which happen very quickly, as you know,
21:09
beatification moments, it's like within minutes. Once we hear
21:14
that he's now raised to that altar with blessed,
21:18
they're going to understand why, and they all will have a mission.
21:22
And I, I see it also as a big part of what we call the
21:24
Holy Hour Revolution, which has been a huge part of our movement these
21:28
past few years, is people all around the world have been signing up.
21:32
There's no— not a formal, any, you know, club or anything
21:36
like that. It's an opportunity to say, like the Declaration of Independence, I believe
21:41
in this, we need this, here I am, I'm putting my John Hancock
21:44
on this, and they're all around the world, people making
21:48
these Daily Holy Hours, priests and laity. So this is our moment
21:52
of convergence and our moment of launching into a mission that
21:58
I'm so excited about what's going to happen because I don't know what's going to
22:00
happen. All I know is that this is the turning point
22:04
of our country, and it's a turning point that I
22:08
think got us oriented to 2031
22:12
because— this is a whole other conversation, Father, just the kind of mind-blowing things
22:16
of just connecting like the why of Sheen, what heaven's been doing.
22:20
His feast day is May 9th or December 9th,
22:24
and that's, that's the day Our Lady was sent to the middle,
22:27
the geographic center of all the Americas, to evangelize the Americas.
22:31
And if God doesn't do anything in history without the greatest finesse of detail,
22:35
why did God choose to honor the one
22:38
prayer that Sheen said over and over. And I have— this was at the
22:41
retreat that I listened to for the first retreat. He says, I pray every
22:45
single day of my life that I'll drop dead before our Lord in the Blessed
22:49
Sacrament on a feast day of Our Lady. And December
22:53
9th is— I just went down that theological
22:56
spiritual rabbit hole, right? It blew my mind
23:01
what that means for America,
23:05
the Americas in general, and the evangelization, I think, of the world.
23:08
Because now forever that's his feast day,
23:12
and wow, it's tied into Our
23:17
Lady of Guadalupe's mission as the star of the New Evangelization. The spotlight's
23:21
on Sheen. What does God want us to learn from him? What is— like you
23:25
were saying, he was so prophetic. What, right,
23:28
what should we be not just learning from him, but about him,
23:32
so that it applies to what our role is.
23:35
This gets me really excited rather than making him just an icon
23:39
on the wall. Like, you can't see it over my shoulder, I have an icon
23:42
of him, but a living one. And that was his biggest thing. We— Christ needs
23:45
to be in us, moving us, using us,
23:49
and not static. The Spirit moves. So that's a
23:53
lot right there, but This is— well, we're going to put
23:57
links to all your work in our show notes. We don't
24:00
have to worry about that.
24:04
As I've been reading more of Fulton Sheen and, you know, his doctorate
24:09
in philosophy from the University of Leuven, and then he got the postdoctoral
24:14
degree, the agrégé. So he was a serious
24:18
world-class scholar. I think he's underappreciated in
24:21
that way. He saw things with startling clarity.
24:25
And I think he can be a voice voice of contrast to
24:28
people who should really know better but, but apparently don't.
24:32
So my hope, friends, is that everyone will
24:35
rediscover Fulton Sheen. If you think you already know
24:39
him, because there's always more. If you've only known the name but don't know the
24:43
legacy, this is a really great opportunity. And thanks be to God we have
24:47
another intercessor, uh, as well,
24:50
because I think Fulton Sheen would say we've all got to join the pilgrimage
24:55
following Christ crucified through the narrow gate
24:59
into our Father's house where already a banquet is
25:03
prepared for us. Uh, Doctor, we're going to wrap up here. Do you have
25:07
any, uh, last closing thoughts for us? Yeah, so before— I almost forgot to say,
25:10
before people ask, well, how do I get anything related to the beatification?
25:14
How do I get there? Simply go to foltensheenconference.com.
25:17
foltensheenconference.com. Govern everything.
25:21
Right. Well, before we get— oh, I was going to say, I just want
25:25
to reiterate what Sheen, the heart of Fulton
25:29
Sheen, the broader quote is, if souls
25:33
are saved, everything is saved.
25:36
Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved. And as
25:39
we look forward to our moving, you know,
25:43
where is our country going here in America? God's given
25:47
us like a General MacArthur to help us in the
25:50
easiest of ways. He dedicated his life. He's done all of the heavy lifting for
25:55
us. Just pick up anything from
25:59
Shane. I would say start with his autobiography and then probably grab something like Way
26:03
to Happiness, something that's going to connect with you very easily,
26:07
but to get you on a path of hope in your life.
26:11
Right. I don't know of anybody else who could better do that than
26:17
blessed elect Fulton Sheen. So,
26:20
you know, thank you, Father, for being a megaphone.
26:25
I wish you could see over my shoulder. I actually have the microphone he used
26:29
while at that retreat. It was given to me by the man who— yeah,
26:32
I'd have to like pan out. You could see it. It's he.
26:36
Let's see if I can— yeah, I see. I see with the blue light right
26:40
there. Soon to become a second-class relic.
26:43
Congratulations. That, that the— but the power of the media, the power of what you're
26:47
doing, Father, and doing it in the way that you are, very,
26:50
very Sheen-esque. I just did a little bit of homework and I'm getting to know
26:54
who you— a little bit about you. I'm like, I really like this priest.
26:57
Like, it's— I'm from New Jersey originally, so you know how we are. Yeah,
27:01
I know. We're like, you kind of make— this is not— I don't encourage this,
27:04
but you kind of— we make decisions or judgments really quickly. I like this person.
27:08
I don't know, I don't really like this. Father, I listened a little bit.
27:10
I'm like, I like him. And, oh, well, thanks be to God.
27:13
Yeah, now, as if that means anything. But with the,
27:17
with the, the microphone, it's just a symbol of— well,
27:20
I think kind of a living symbol though. Imagine if that wasn't
27:25
recorded, if that message wasn't given that kind of an attention. I think
27:29
that, you know, that's what another thing of Fulton Sheen is. While we can use
27:33
the power of the media Amen. For souls. So thanks,
27:36
Father. Right, right. Glad to be of service. God bless you. Very good
27:40
work. Thank you for your time today. Hey friends, thank you for visiting
27:43
with us. I hope that you found this useful. Please do check out the show
27:47
notes so you can benefit more fully from the upcoming great
27:51
celebration of the beatification of Fulton Sheen. Join us tomorrow
27:55
for another great episode of The Catholic Current. Go in peace. Thanks be to God.