{"id":1350,"date":"2011-03-07T07:39:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T14:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thisrestlesspilgrim.wordpress.com\/?p=1350"},"modified":"2021-10-01T08:48:25","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:48:25","slug":"fulton-sheen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2011\/03\/07\/fulton-sheen\/","title":{"rendered":"Favourite People: Fulton Sheen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When musicians, artists and writers are interviewed, they are often asked about their influences.<\/p>\n

Now, although I’m no Bono, something I’ve been meaning to do ever since I started this blog is to share with you some of my own influences. \u00a0These are the people who have made a profound impact upon me and substantially contributed to the person I am today.<\/p>\n

In this post I would like to briefly talk about someone who has had an impact upon me and my faith fairly recently. In fact, up until nine months ago, I had never even heard of him. The person I’m talking about here is Archbishop Fulton Sheen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An American Prophet<\/h3>\n

Those Americans reading this, particularly those of my parents’ generation, will almost certainly be familiar with this moniker and with the man himself. As someone brought up in England, however, and one who was only born the year after this great man died, I was completely ignorant of his existence and legacy.<\/p>\n

Very early on in his life, Archbishop Sheen gained\u00a0renown as a theologian, but\u00a0rose to public\u00a0prominence\u00a0in 1930 when he hosted a radio programme called “The Catholic Hour”<\/em>, which he did for twenty years. After this, he moved into television, presenting “Life is worth living”<\/em> for six years\u00a0and finally “The Fulton Sheen Program”<\/em> for another seven. All these shows were extremely popular and if you watch his appearance on “What’s my line”<\/a>, you start to get a sense of how much he was loved by the public. \u00a0He even won an Emmy Award for “Most Outstanding Television Personality”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Intersecting Paths<\/h3>\n

Although until recently I couldn’t have told you anything about Archbishop Sheen, I could vaguely recall hearing his name\u00a0occasionally mentioned on Catholic Answers<\/a>, so when I received an invitation to see a film about his life\u00a0I decided to go along to see what all the fuss was about:<\/p>\n