Three priests from the Archdiocese of Sydney were among an estimated 50,000 Catholics who witnessed the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen in St Louis, Missouri.
Fr Noel Custodio, Fr Roberto Keryakos and Fr Gerard Woo Ling attended the 24 September Mass at The Dome at America’s Center, along with Fr Jack Green of the Diocese of Parramatta and Australian priest Fr Jason Rushton SJM, who is serving in Kazakhstan.
They are believed to have been, if not the only, among the few Australian priests present for the historic occasion.
For Fr Keryakos, assistant priest at St Mary’s Cathedral, the pilgrimage honoured a priest whose teaching helped transform his own relationship with Christ in the Eucharist.
“My introduction to Fulton Sheen was when I was in the seminary, at the Seminary of the Good Shepherd in Homebush, Sydney,” he told EWTN.
The seminarians made a daily Holy Hour, a practice of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament promoted by Archbishop Sheen. Fr Keryakos said its significance only really became clear after he began reading Sheen’s writings.
During his fourth year, he began practising a Holy Hour during his holidays.
“I thought, ‘I want to be close to the Lord and I want to spend that time with him like I do in seminary,’” he said.
“I can’t say I’m as consistent as Fulton Sheen…but certainly it is the great priority for me in the day, to keep that Holy Hour.”
Fr Keryakos said Sheen retained a following in Australia because his intelligence, warmth and storytelling made profound truths accessible.
“He’s very charismatic. He tells great stories. He’s highly intelligent but breaks things down very simply for people like me to understand,” he said.
The then-Monsignor Fulton Sheen visited Australia in 1948, adding another Australian connection to the American archbishop’s story.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided over the beatification as Pope Leo XIV’s delegate. After a brief biography was read, he proclaimed the papal decree permitting Sheen to be called “Blessed”.
James Fulton Engstrom, whose medically unexplained revival after 61 minutes without a heartbeat following his stillbirth in 2010 was recognised as the miracle attributed to Sheen’s intercession, presented a major relic during the Mass.
In his homily, Cardinal Tagle said Sheen’s blessedness came not from his fame as a radio and television personality, but from communion with Jesus and solidarity with the poor and vulnerable.
He recalled Sheen’s description of himself as a porter who led people towards the open door of God’s house without claiming their conversions as his own.
“Blessed are you, porter to the house of God’s house!” Cardinal Tagle said.
“Once asked by a friend why he became a priest, he replied, ‘I was called to tell this story, the Gospel, the story of Jesus. I never tire of telling it. I never tire of improving my telling of it. I love my calling.’
“O, blessed are you, storyteller of Jesus, encountered in his Word, in the Eucharist, in the Holy Hour, and in his body, the Church. Blessed Fulton J. Sheen.”
