Prayer for the Canonization of Fulton Sheen

This is the official prayer for the canonization of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, composed for his cause by the Diocese of Peoria, which promotes it. It is a prayer of a particular kind: not a prayer to a canonized saint, but a prayer that asks God to glorify His servant — to grant, if it be His Will, a favor through Sheen's intercession, that such answered prayers might serve as signs advancing his cause. It carries the Imprimatur of the Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., Bishop of Peoria, marking it free of doctrinal error.

Fulton John Sheen (1895–1979) was among the most influential Catholic voices of the twentieth century in America. Born Peter John Sheen at El Paso, Illinois, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919. A gifted philosopher and teacher, he became a household name through radio's The Catholic Hour and, later, the Emmy-winning television program Life Is Worth Living — reaching tens of millions with the Faith at the height of the broadcast age. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of New York, then as Bishop of Rochester (1966–1969), and was afterward named a titular Archbishop.

His cause for canonization was opened in 2002, and he was given the title Servant of God. On 28 June 2012, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the decree recognizing his heroic virtue, so that he is now rightly called Venerable. In 2019 a miracle was approved through his intercession, clearing the way for beatification; the ceremony first set for December 2019 was postponed at the last hour, but it has since been rescheduled — Archbishop Sheen is to be beatified on 24 September 2026 in St. Louis, after which he will bear the title Blessed. Until that day the prayer's address to him as "Your servant" reflects the language proper to one whose cause is still underway — the Church, in her prudence, does not presume the verdict she prays to receive.

The prayer itself is thoroughly Trinitarian and God-centered. It begins by confessing that the Eternal Father alone grants "every blessing in Heaven and on earth," and that He does so "through the redemptive mission of His Divine Son" and "by the working of the Holy Spirit." Only within that confession does it ask for Sheen's intercession — and it closes, as every Christian prayer finally must, "through Jesus Christ, Our Lord."