This edition has a very interesting forward by Raymond Arroyo and it tracks basically the downfall of poor old Fulton from being pretty well the most famous and influential Catholic clergyman in the USA, the public face of the Catholic Church to being buried in Rochester a rural backwater. His downfall was engineered by Cardinal Spellman of New York whom he fell foul of. Fulton was in charge of the the Propagation of the Faith, taking care of the Churches Missions. The American Government donated a huge amount of powered milk for use abroad and Cardinal Spellman duly handed this on to Sheen (as he should have). But here's were it gets sticky. Spellman then wanted Sheen to pay him millions for the powered milk which he got for nothing and was meant for the missions anyway. Sheen saw this as daylight robbery , the arguments got heated and Sheen appealed to Pope Pius xii who happened to be good friends from way back with Spellman. Nevertheless Pope Pius backed Sheen and told Spellman to back off. Spellman blew a gasket and told Sheen he'd get his own back if it took 6 months of ten years. He was true to his word. He got Fulton kicked off the air and stopped him speaking in the New York area, getting him buried in Rochester in the middle of nowhere. Poor old Fulton got buried.
Just to take a closer look at the very redoubtable Cardinal Spellman. He was known at the time as the American Pope and rightly so. I doubt if their has been an American Prelate before or since who was so powerful . The only guy in Ireland I can think of who was simliar was the redoubtable Archbishop John Mc Quade. Spellman was an adminstrative and financial genius . They say he put some $ 500 million into reorganising the New York Diocese. Money seemed to grow from his fingertips. He had the most enormous political influence being right wing, extremely anti Communist (he helped out the FBI) and (unlike Fulton) he supported the Vietnam War. I think now we can safely say that numerous reports Spellman was an out and out homosexual were and are correct: https://www.ncregister.com/news/new...ponds-to-cardinal-spellman-groping-allegation New York Archdiocese Responds to Cardinal Spellman Groping Allegation Lucian K. Truscott IV, a longtime journalist and writer, made the claim about the former archbishop of New York in a Feb. 9 essay. NEW YORK CITY — The Archdiocese of New York has said it had only recently learned of an allegation that the deeply influential Cardinal Francis Spellman groped a visiting West Point cadet in the 1960s, but says it will take the accusation seriously and has invited the accuser to contact the archdiocese. “This is the first time we have learned of this allegation and take what the writer says seriously, as we do all allegations of abuse or inappropriate conduct,” Joseph Zwilling, director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York, told CNA Feb. 11. “We have never had a substantiated allegation of abuse against Cardinal Spellman, who died in 1967.” Lucian K. Truscott IV, a longtime journalist and writer, made the claim about the former archbishop of New York in a Feb. 9 essay at Salon. According to Truscott, the alleged incident took place in 1967 in Spellman’s private quarters behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Truscott said he was a junior at West Point who had sought to interview Spellman for the cadet magazine, The Pointer. In Truscott’s account, apparently written decades after the fact, he was in a sitting room with the 77-year-old Spellman, his monsignor assistant and two other West Point cadets, including the magazine’s photographer. Even before the interview began, Spellman placed his hand on the cadet’s thigh and attempted to grope him, Truscott said. According to Truscott, the monsignor intervened, chastised the cardinal and placed the cardinal’s hand back in the lap. Truscott said this happened several times during the interview. Truscott wrote that the cardinal gave him a small gift after each attempted incident of groping. “He did it over and over again, and I just kept asking questions and recording his answers like nothing happened. I left the cardinal’s residence that day carrying a couple of tie clasps, three key chains and a couple of gold-plated tie tacks,” the essay claimed. Truscott said he was shocked the incident happened in front of others and was sure he would not be believed if reported. He claimed the photographer had taken photos of the incidents and he and the other two cadets treated it as a joke after it was over. Truscott said he now wishes he hadn’t laughed off the experience and wishes he had reported it instead, given revelations about sex abuse in the Church. “I wasn’t an innocent victim. I was an adult, a cadet at West Point, and I knew better,” said Truscott. Zwilling said the archdiocese encourages reports about alleged misconduct. “We would welcome Mr. Truscott in contacting the archdiocese, and reporting his allegation to our safe-environment director and/or the victim-assistance coordinator, so that we might offer whatever assistance might be needed,” Zwilling said. While Truscott was not a minor at the time of the alleged incident, the New York Legislature recently passed legislation extending the period for child victims of sex abuse to bring civil charges until the age of 55. Criminal prosecutions can be brought before the victim turns 28. The legislation also creates a one-year window for victims of any age to come forward. Cardinal Spellman was one of the most influential Churchmen of the United States. Originally a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, he worked in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State in the 1920s and 1930s and smuggled Pope Pius XI’s anti-fascist encyclical Non Abbiamo Bisogno to Paris for its 1931 release. He served as an auxiliary bishop of Boston from 1932 to 1939 and was named archbishop of New York by Pope Pius XII, a role that included oversight of the military vicariate of the armed forces during the Second World War and beyond. He was a staunch anti-communist close to controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. He has been the subject of rumors about sexual misconduct, though not necessarily abuse. The cardinal’s lengthy FBI file, as published in a somewhat redacted and possibly incomplete form at the FBI website, includes many interactions with the bureau and with Hoover; his public statements and speeches; and information about Vietnam War protests targeting the cardinal. At one point a Jan. 20, 1954, memorandum to Hoover described Cardinal Spellman as an FBI contact who “can be of assistance in furnishing information concerning prominent Catholic priests and laymen” and who has “on several occasions made available information in connection with research matters.” The released files include a December 1954 request from Cardinal Spellman’s office to the FBI to investigate an anonymous tip that a communist-linked publisher aimed to print a book vilifying the cardinal and the Catholic Church, apparently claiming the cardinal had a scandalous relationship with a woman. FBI agents found no proof that such a book was forthcoming.
With really heroic virtue Fulton Sheen does not once in this book refer to Cardinal Spellman doing a Darth Vader thing on him, in fact he actually praises Spellman in his book. This reminds me very much of an incident in the life of Padre Pio. Originally Padre Pio had the strong support of his Archbishop who, like Spellman was a homosexual but also a child molester: https://spiritdailyblog.com/commentary/archives-padre-pio-and-obedience An archbishop who mercilessly persecuted Saint Padre Pio, the famed Italian mystic, was the center of a scandal rivaling any in our present day. The prelate, Archbishop Pasquale Gagliardi of Manfredonia, was accused of sexual molestation and had even been arrested by civil authorities, according to Padre Pio: The True Story, a landmark book about the mystic and available in our bookstore. Records show that “Gagliardi was on several occasions publicly accused of sexual molestation and unchastity,” says the author, Bernard Ruffin. “Although there is no solid evidence for any practice of homosexuality on Gagliardi’s part, it was beyond question that he showed a preference for priests who had been convicted of this crime.” Gagliardi appointed as archpriest in the town of Vico a man who had been arrested and convicted three times for sodomy. In the same town, the archbishop appointed another priest who had an extensive police record for `continued and habitual pederasty.’ Several witnesses testified that many of these homosexual priests sent Gagliardi expensive gifts after he gave them positions in his archdiocese.” The archbishop’s personality apparently engendered strong bias and dislike — making it difficult, especially so many years after, to know exactly which charges to believe. Moreover, this is not to judge; we have no idea how God viewed the Manfredonia archbishop, who was surely possessed of certain good qualities and had been elevated to the archepiscopate at the age of 38 by no less than Pope Leo XIII (who will rank in the pantheon of popes alongside the likes of Gregory the Great and John Paul II). But according to Ruffin, “there were complaints about sodomy in the archdiocese, about `ignorant and immoral’ candidates for priestly office being preferred over men of character. There were complaints that the aging prelate no longer even took the trouble to confer the sacrament of confirmation.” We are talking here of events that occurred in the 1920s — indicating that the current Church crisis is one in a long history of tribulation and showing the level of spiritual warfare that has always been waged. In the case of Pio, the goal was clearly to halt his tremendous ministry, and it was Archbishop Gagliardi who, railing constantly against the mystic, took the cause all the way to the Vatican. That campaign, joined by several other powerful members of the Church’s inner circle, led to a series of mandates that for a period greatly limited Pio’s priestly duties. Among the sanctions was a 1922 order by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val of the Vatican that limited the soon-to-be saint’s contact with “devout people seeking counsel”; disallowed him from showing or discussing his stigmata; and prohibited Pio from blessing crowds from his window. At one point there had been a move to transfer Padre Pio away from his adoring followers in San Giovanni Rotundo — and even thoughts of relocating him in America. Later still, in the early 1930s, Padre Pio — who will be canonized June 16 before what is expected to be the largest crowd for a canonization at the Vatican ever — was stripped of all priestly faculties except celebration of Mass in his friary’s inner chapel. Padre Agostino Daniele, Pio’s best friend and confessor for more than fifty years, charged that Gagliardi waged “a veritable satanic war” against Padre Pio, soliciting letters with “accusations, exaggerations, and calumnies” to forward to the Vatican — while it was the archbishop himself who was the center of controversy. So bad was the situation that a number of priests in the archdiocese petitioned Pope Pius XI to end what they saw as the “disorder,” “immorality,” and “clerical degeneracy.” This was not the case, however, with Padre Pio. He never retaliated against the archbishop, nor even criticized him. In fact the angriest the famous mystical priest was seen to get was with a supporter — a Pio defender — who had attacked the archbishop. Although shattered, Pio was said to have submitted to the bishop’s attacks with what Father Agostino recalled as “holy resignation.” The same was true of Padre Pio’s spiritual director, Padre Benedetto Nardella, who uttered no complaint against the unfair sanctions. “God’s will be done,” Pio, a Capuchin monk, is quoted as saying. “The will of the authorities is the will of God.” Later, when Archbishop Gagliardi died, Pio immediately said a Mass for him. But with the patience — with the longsuffering, with prayer — had come supernatural interventions. According to Ruffin — whose book is the best-documented account of Pio’s life that we have seen — during the summer of 1923, when Pius XI was about to suspend Padre Pio a divinis — from all priestly functions — “suddenly, while he was speaking, a Capuchin friar appeared, knelt, and kissed his feet, saying only, `Your Holiness, for the good of the Church, do not take this course of action.’ He then asked the Pope’s blessing, kissed his feet again, rose, and left.” When the Pope asked who let the friar in, no one knew. The guards strenuously denied having seen any friar either enter or leave. When this was reported to the Pope, he grew silent and ordered no one to speak of the incident, writes Ruffin. Pius did, however, ask a cardinal to find out where Padre Pio was at the precise time — and learned to his bewilderment that the holy Capuchin had been in the choir of his friary, which was more than 150 miles to the east, saying his daily Office. After this, there was no further talk of suspending Pio from his priestly faculties, at least not by Pope Pius.
Lessons from this? Well one lesson is not to get on the wrong side of homosexuals, especially homosexual clergy they'll track you down to the ends of the Earth and Crucify you upside down. Something to bear in mind this present day when homosexual clergy appear to be almost running the Church. If a priest, Bishop or Cardinal turns bad they are really, really evil as poor Fulton Sheen and Padre Pio found out to their cost. It explains a lot about the Stalinist Reign of Terror we are currently undergoing in the Church. Papa Frankie has been promoting homosexual Bishops and Cardinals like there is no tomorrow and these folks , well, you'd be a lot better off shooting yourself in the head with a shotgun as to get on the wrong side of them. As poor old Fulton found out to his cost.
And don’t think just because you’re a layperson they won’t try to go after you. I learned this summer that a particularly noxious homosexual priest I helped expose decades ago literally tried to get me personally excommunicated at the time.
God allows these kinds of trials to test and humble His saints...to be examples for us and shine all the brighter, while winning many more souls through their suffering than they would have if all had loved them.
Homosexual clergy reminds me of the old saying about the Afghans, 'An Afghani will wait a hundred years to take his revenge and curse himself for his impatience when he does'.
The stories of the saints in the Church remind me of the old Greek Legends of the Dragons Teeth. The Old Dragon has his own children sown all over the Catholic Church, particularly amidst the higher clergy. These are the dragons teeth. They remain hidden until a saint appears or a Marian Apparition then the teeth are awoken by their Father Lucifer and go into action. We see this happening time and time and time again, to persecute the saints and attack Our Blessed Lady wherever she appears. Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Two things I really loved about Fulton Sheen. First his love for telling stories, such an Irish trait. Secondly his love for writing and talking about the supernatural / miraculous. For instance in talking about vocations. When he was an altar boy serving his Bishop after Mass as a buy his Bishop told him he would one day study in Louvain University in Belgium and himself become a Bishop. Both things, of course, came to pass. One time Fulton was in an hotel when a shoe shine boy began swinging on a curtain in the dining room and got chased out by the staff. Fulton saw the boy had a vocation followed him out, found out he had been expelled from a local Catholic school. Fulton got him back in and eventually the boy became a Jesuit priest working on the missions in Alaska. Sheen tells several stories like this. Love it. When I was a teenager a very old , very holy old Passionist priest called me into his room in Religious House and told me that God wanted me to be a saint. I kind of nodded at this casually. But the priest said was impatient, 'No you don't understand me. I don't mean He wants you to be a saint the way He wants everyone to be a saint. I mean he wants YOU (with great emphasise tapping me on the chest) to be a saint'. I kind of shrugged this off until a few months later at another Passionist Religious House another venerable old priest called me into his room and told me the exact same thing. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Before Cardinal Spellman pulled the plug on poor Fulton some 30 million people watched him every week on his show, 'Life is worth living'. I think he was probably the most popular person on TV at the time. Not only from Catholics but right across the board, for instance he had a huge mail from Jews and Protestants. People were lining up to convert to the Catholic Faith in their hundreds and thousands right across the Nation. Why was he so successful? Well for myself the prime reason I would guess was Fulton's prayers life , which was superb especially his Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He spent loads of time on his knees. On a human level he was just very,very good at what he did because he put a huge amount of work into doing what he did. Considering he was the most famous TV personality in the USA he was very,very humble about it all and none of it seems to have gone to his head. Perhaps the fact that he remained humble was the greatest of all his achievements.
They said Sheen killed the opposition. When they asked him how he did it, he said I have better writers-Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
Fulton had the big, big advantage of having the truth on his side. It made things loads and loads easier for him. I watched in fascination recently various political and cultural leaders being asked to define what a woman is? They sank like a stone amidst bluster and fluster. They couldn't do it.It was fun but cringe worthy watching them.
I think another big advantage Fulton had was the tide of the times. He wasn't going against the cultural/ political/ religious currents of his day. If he tried to sat things now that he said back then in the first place the advertising sponsors would pull the plug on him right away. The Woke Elites that own the media would have buried and censored him in two seconds. Democratic New York back then is not Democratic New York now, they would be looking Fulton's Head on a stake for what he represented. Worst of all not only would that Vatican and his fellow Bishops not have had his back they would have been ripping it to shreds. It reminds me of how Billy Graham got started. He became famous and influential because the famous News Paper magnate, Randolph Hearst, backed him. Without that no one would ever have heard of him.
I think sometimes in history people may be very open to the Truth. At the time Sheen spoke between Two Great World Wars ,Americans tended to be very patriotic as Sheen himself was. American Society was based on the family unit. Was very successfully Capitalist. Was at least compared to today a society of very strong values and a wonderful kind of innocence. It believed in its own dream, it believed in itself. It seems almost child like when we look back on it. Fulton was not going against the tide as the Church is today, he was very much swimming with it. It was an Age of Great, Great Innocence
I think there is that about sin and living a sinful life style. It make life very,very complicated and dark. On the other hand believing in God and keeping the Ten Commandments make things very simple and child like and full of Light.
The Ten Commandments were removed from the public view in the US. Prayer and Bible reading were removed from schools. (I want to say 1961 for the school prayer) The oath taken in the courts on a Bible, swearing "so help me, God" was changed, removed. This all happened in a space of probably about 10 years, or less. (my estimate from memory) One by one the dominos fell.
It's mind blowing the amount of Apostolic Work Fulton Sheen did as a Bishop in the USA and right across the World. He must not have had time to sleep at nights! A human dynamo and a second St Patrick! For instance in Alabama he set up several Churches travelling with the future Bishop Durick there in a trailer evangelising in a trailer right from scratch. In one case he set up a whole new parish after and African American lady sent him a letter. He went right across the country and the world doing all kinds of good non stop.
He was a TRUE servant of our Lord! I listen to him every Sunday morning on the way to Mass on Relevant Radio. All of his talks are so helpful in today's world. He was truly a prophet!
So knowing this WHY was his Cause delayed in spite of a bona fide miracle from his intercession. Why? What are they afraid of?
