My Uncle, Fulton Sheen: An Interview with Joan Sheen Cunningham

My Uncle, Fulton Sheen | Jim Graves | Catholic World Report



Joan Sheen Cunningham remembers life with her uncle, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who was the face of the American Catholic Church for decades.

Pope Benedict XVI
declared Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) “venerable” on June 28, and the
Illinois-native could soon become the first male American-born saint. A few
generations back he was the face of the Catholic Church in America for many, employing
his strong speaking ability, personal piety and learning, and modern media to
win many converts to the Catholic faith.

Sheen was born in
El Paso, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Peoria. He was ordained a priest for
the Diocese of Peoria in 1919, and was made auxiliary bishop for the
Archdiocese of New York in 1951 and bishop of Rochester in 1966. But Sheen is
best known for his evangelization work through the media. He hosted The Catholic Hour radio program from
1930 to 1950, and Life is Worth Living,
a television program for which he won an Emmy Award, from 1951 to 1957. He also
authored more than 70 books on theology, philosophy, spirituality, marriage,
the priesthood, and current events, and he helped convert a number of notable
personalities to the Faith.

Someone who knew
Sheen well and hopes to live to see his beatification is his niece Joan Sheen
Cunningham of Yonkers, New York, age 85. Seventy-five years ago Joan left her
midwestern family and came to New York to attend school under the guardianship
of her uncle. She recently shared her memories of Archbishop Sheen with Catholic World Report.

CWR: What
was your relationship to Archbishop Fulton Sheen?

Joan Sheen Cunningham: My father, Joseph Sheen
(1899-1956), was the younger brother of Fulton Sheen. There were four Sheen
brothers; Fulton was the oldest, and my father the second oldest. The two other
brothers were Thomas and Al. My father was the closest to Fulton.

I was born into a
family of eight in Peoria, Illinois. My father was a lawyer. When I was age 10,
he sent me to New York to go to school, under the care of my uncle, Fulton
Sheen. He was like a second father to me.

CWR: So,
you were close to him?

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