1974 -- We Have Seen Christendom Die

With his hypnotic gaze, disarming smile, and dramatic delivery, Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) was deemed a natural for television. Airing opposite NBC's highly popular Milton Berle show on Tuesday nights, Sheen was the only person to be competitive with Berle. Sheen drew as many as 10 million viewers each week. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine.

"The combination of travel, the study of world religions and personal encounter with different nationalities and peoples made me see that the fullness of truth is like a complete circle of 360 degrees. Every religion in the world has a segment of that truth." --Sheen

With the shutdown back on last, Father Mike in Duluth has resumed live streaming Mass again from the student chapel (see video below).

It's a remarkable time in the history of the Church. For the first time in history, it is possible to fulfill the obligations of weekly Mass attendance without actually being physically present.

Father Mike's sermon mentioned the famous Catholic-American preacher Bishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979), who was famous in Pop Culture from the 1940s until his death (see this 1956  Fulton Sheen appearance as mystery guest on What's My Line.). Sheen was highly conscious of the need for the Church to use modern mass media to connect to people, and he was willing to make himself a Pop Culture figure in order to achieve this goal.

Father Mike, in explaining the state of the (Catholic) Church today, drew on Sheen's assertion that we have arrived in civilization at the End of Christendom.  It seems to be a reference to something Sheen said in address called The Fourth Great Crisis in the Church. One can listen to the address, but the date and circumstance of the recording is not something I have found. Given other things people say about, I'm guessing it was part of a cassette tape ministry in 1974 or after, that Sheen made had retired from radio and television broadcasting, when he was at least 78 years old.

 “Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending — we’ve seen it die. Look at the symptoms: the breakup of the family, divorce, abortion, immorality, general dishonesty.”

Overall I think Father Mike's celebration of Mass this week makes the best "Introduction to Catholicism" I could possibly imagine, especially for American Protestants. It's also a good explanation of what Sheen meant by the "the End of Christendom".

Highly recommend giving it the time to watch:

1889 -- Completing of St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria.

1895 May 8 -- Peter John Sheen (later Fulton Sheen) born in Illinois.

Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, the oldest of four sons of Newton and Delia Sheen. His parents were of Irish descent, tracing their roots back to Croghan, County Roscommon, Connacht. 

Though he was known as Fulton, his mother's maiden name, he was baptized as Peter John Sheen. As an infant, Sheen contracted tuberculosis. After the family moved to nearby Peoria, Illinois, Sheen's first role in the Church was as an altar boy at St. Mary's Cathedral.

1913 -- Sheen graduates with valedictorian honors from Spalding Institute in Peoria. He then attends St. Viator College in Kankakee, Illinois, and Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota.

1919 Sept 20 -- 24 y.o. Sheen is consecrated a priest in Diocese of Peoria.

1922 -- The Wasteland, T.S. Eliot.

1923 -- Sheen wins the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy, establishing his repuation as theologian. He earns at appointment teaching at the Catholic University of America.

1924 -- Sheen pursues graduate studies in Rome, earning a Sacred Theology Doctorate.

Sheen was the assistant to the pastor at St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square in London for a year, while teaching theology at St. Edmund's College, Ware, where he met Ronald Knox. 

1925 -- Sheen publishes his first book, God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy

1926 -- Sheen is asked by the Bishop of Peoria to take over St. Patrick's parish in Peoria. After nine months he returns to Catholic University, where he teaches philosophy until 1950

1929 -- Sheen gives speech in French at the National Catholic Educational Association, encouraging teachers to "educate for a Catholic Renaissance" in the United States.

1930 –1952  -- The Catholic Hour, NBC Radio, hosted by Sheen. I have seen conflicting dates for the run of Sheen's NBC radio program, but he was on the air at least by 1930 and went to television by 1952. 

1939 -- Francis Spellman becomes Archbishop of New York, serving until 1967.

1946 -- Archbishop Spellman of New York made a cardinal.

1947 Jan 26  --  "Signs of Our Times" Archbishop Fulton Sheen radio broadcast on NBC. This seems to be a widely shared episode by Sheen on Youtube.

(7:56) In the midst of all his seeming love for humanity and his glib talk of freedom and equality, [the Antichrist] will have one great secret which he will tell to no one: he will not believe in God. Because his religion will be brotherhood without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counter-church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ."

1940 Mar 24 -- World's first televised religious service? Easter mass broadcast on experimental television station in Washington, DC. by Sheen. 

While at Catholic University of America, Sheen celebrated an Easter Sunday Mass in 1940 that was one of the first televised religious services. During the sermon, telecast on experimental station W2XBS, Sheen remarked "this is the first religious television in the history of the world. Let therefore its first message be a tribute of thanks to God for giving the minds of our day the inspiration to unravel the secrets of the universe."

1948 -- Communism and the Conscience of the West, published by Fulton Sheen

1951 -- Sheen named Auxillary Bishop in the Archdiocese of New York.

1952 Feb –Apr 1957 -- Life is Worth Living,  television series featuring Sheen.

On February 12, 1952, he began a weekly television program on the DuMont Television Network, titled Life Is Worth Living. Filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City, the program consisted of the unpaid Sheen simply speaking in front of a live audience without a script or cue cards, occasionally using a chalkboard.

It ran on the DuMont Television Network from February 12, 1952, to April 26, 1955, then on ABC until April 8, 1957, featuring the archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Similar series, also featuring Sheen, followed in 1958–1961 and 1961–1968.

The series consisted of Sheen speaking to the camera and discussing moral issues of the day, often using blackboard drawings and lists to help explain the topic. When the blackboard was filled he would move to another part of the set, and request one of his "angels" (one of the TV crew) to clean the blackboard. 

The show, scheduled in a prime time slot on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m., was not expected to challenge the ratings giants Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, but did surprisingly well. 

1952 Apr 14 -- Fulton on the cover of Time, as the "First televangelist". (link) The graphic behind him has a golden United Nations graphic superimposed over a red cross of St. George.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Sheen was notable for early efforts seeking common ground with Christians from non-Roman churches, whether Eastern or Protestant. He occasionally celebrated Byzantine Divine Liturgy, with papal permission awarding him certain bi-ritual faculties. 

1953 Feb 3 -- Sheen wins Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality at 5th Primetime Emmy Awards, at the Hotel Statler in Los Angeles, California, hosted by Art Linkletter.

Sheen accepted the award saying, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." 

When Sheen won, Milton Berle quipped, "We both work for 'Sky Chief'", a reference to Berle's sponsor Texaco. 

1953 Feb -- Sheen denounces Stalin on television,saying "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." Stalin dies within a week.

One of his best-remembered presentations came in February 1953, when he forcefully denounced the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin. Sheen gave a dramatic reading of the burial scene from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, substituting the names of prominent Soviet leaders Stalin, Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Malenkov, and Andrey Vyshinsky for the original Caesar, Cassius, Marc Antony, and Brutus. He concluded by saying, "Stalin must one day meet his judgment." The dictator suffered a stroke a few days later and died within a week (Mar 5 1953).

1955-56 -- The Honeymooners, CBS television

1956  -- Fulton Sheen appearance as mystery guest on What's My Line.

1957 -- End of Sheen's first television program. Forced off the air because of Sheen refused to pay the Archdiocese for powdered milk that it had obtained free from the government (see WP page)?

According to the foreword written for a 2008 edition of Sheen's autobiography, Treasure in Clay: The Autobiography of Fulton J. Sheen, Catholic journalist Raymond Arroyo wrote why Sheen "retired" from hosting Life is Worth Living "at the height of its popularity ... [when] an estimated 30 million viewers and listeners tuned in each week." Arroyo wrote that "It is widely believed that Cardinal Spellman drove Sheen off the air."^[

Arroyo relates that: "In the late 1950s the government donated millions of dollars' worth of powdered milk to the New York Archdiocese. In turn, Cardinal Spellman handed that milk over to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith to distribute to the poor of the world. On at least one occasion he demanded that the director of the Society, Bishop Sheen, pay the Archdiocese for the donated milk. He wanted millions of dollars. Despite Cardinal Spellman's considerable powers of persuasion and influence in Rome, Sheen refused. These were funds donated by the public to the missions, funds Sheen himself had personally contributed to and raised over the airwaves. He felt an obligation to protect them, even from the itchy fingers of his own Cardinal."

Spellman later took the issue directly to Pope Pius XII, pleading his case with Sheen present. The Pope sided with Sheen. Spellman later confronted Sheen, stating, "I will get even with you. It may take six months or ten years, but everyone will know what you are like." 

1961 -- The Fulton Sheen Program debuts on television (runs until 1968).

1966 Oct 21 -- Fulton Sheen named Bishop of Rochester.

1967 Jul -- Sheen denounces the Vietnam War.

1967 Dec 2 -- Death of Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York.

1968 -- Latest date that Sheen is regularly on broadcast television, on The Fulton Sheen Program.
1969 -- Sheen resigns as Bishop of Rochester.

1970 -- Sheen made the Archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales.

This ceremonial position gave him a promotion to Archbishop and thus helped to allow Sheen to continue his extensive writing. Archbishop Sheen wrote 73 books and numerous articles and columns.

1972 -- Sheen appearance at Crystal Cathedral, a Protestant mega-church.

Sheen often commended Protestant devotion to Bible study: "The first subject of all to be studied is Scripture, and this demands not only the reading of it, but the study of commentaries. ...Protestant commentaries, I discovered, were also particularly interesting because Protestants have spent more time on Scripture than most of us."

1974 -- Sheen starts cassette tape ministry

In September 1974, the Archbishop of Washington asked Sheen to be the speaker for a retreat for diocesan priests at the Loyola Retreat House in Faulkner, Maryland. This was recorded on reel-to-reel tape, state of the art at the time.

Sheen requested that the recorded talks be produced for distribution. This was the first production of what would become a worldwide cassette tape ministry called Ministr-O-Media, a nonprofit company that operated on the grounds of St. Joseph's Parish, Pomfret, Maryland. The retreat album was titled, Renewal and Reconciliation, and included nine 60-minute audio tapes.

1974  ?  -- Sheen proclaims the End of Christendom.

1979 Oct -- Pope John Paul II visits New York, embracing Sheen

On October 2, 1979, two months before Sheen's death, Pope John Paul II visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and embraced Sheen, saying, "You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a loyal son of the Church."

1979 Dec 9 -- Death of Fulton Sheen at age 83, following open heart surgery at Lennox Hill Hospital in Manhattan