Peoria: Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria is inviting the faithful to pray a novena beginning Dec. 12 to “petition God unceasingly” that Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s sainthood cause may move forward. Sheen, a beloved American evangelist and television personality who died in 1979, was set to be beatified Dec. 21 in Peoria, but the Holy See announced Dec. 2 that the beatification was to be postponed.
“I know how deeply saddened we all are about the postponement of the beatification of Fulton Sheen,” said Bishop Jenky said in a video message Dec. 9. “But in these turbulent times when our faith is being tested…we need to remain faithful to prayer like Archbishop Sheen.” The novena will begin Dec. 12 and include daily meditations on reflections from Sheen, Jenky announced.
In the days after the Diocese of Peoria announced the postponement, Catholics around the world reportedly led a grassroots effort to have “a million” Masses celebrated for Sheen to pray for his beatification to move forward. CNA
