New York City, N.Y., Dec 11, 2009 / 02:53 am
At the Mass marking the 30th Anniversary of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s death, Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan thanked God for the life of the “magnetic” television and radio personality. He said Sheen’s talent and wisdom were at the service of his key goal of getting himself and the world to heaven.
In attendance at the Mass, celebrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, were many of Sheen’s friends and admirers who still look to him with “love and gratitude,” Archbishop Dolan said in his homily.
Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, representing Sheen’s home diocese, was present as was Msgr. John Kozar, who succeeded Sheen as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
In his homily Archbishop Dolan noted that Pope John Paul II had embraced Archbishop Sheen and praised him as “the preacher to the world” in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on October 2, 1979. Sheen himself was interred in the crypt below the main altar, beside Ven. Pierre Toussaint and the previous archbishops and bishops of New York.