The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the magnetic television evangelist who hosted a popular TV show in the 1950s, is being considered for sainthood.
John Cardinal O’Connor gave the go-ahead to start the necessary work to see if Sheen, whose program “Life is Worth Living” aired from 1951 to 1957, is a candidate for Catholic sainthood.
“It would be the first saint who won an Emmy,” said Sister Patricia Schoelles, president of St. Bernard’s Institute in Rochester.
Sheen, a one-time bishop of Rochester, died at 84 in Manhattan in 1979 and is buried beneath the high altar in the crypt of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Once the study is completed, the findings are given to the cardinal and the decision is made whether to present it to the pope, who would officially open the cause for sainthood. The process can take anywhere from decades to centuries.