Bishop Robert Barron said communism is making a comeback in America ahead of Fulton Sheen's beatification in St. Louis. He made the remarks Tuesday in front of the Gateway Arch, days before Sheen is scheduled to be beatified at The Dome at America's Center.
Barron called Sheen “one of the great voices against communism in mid-20th century America” and said, “Now, you don't need me to tell you that communism is making a comeback right now in our country.” He added that churchmen need to raise their voices against its re-emergence.
Gateway Arch and St. Louis
Tens of thousands are expected to gather in St. Louis on Thursday for the beatification, which will give Sheen the title of Blessed. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will preside on behalf of Pope Leo XIV, placing the ceremony under the Vatican's authority while centering attention on Sheen's anti-communist writing.
That writing goes back to Sheen's 1948 book, Communism and the Conscience of the West. Barron said Sheen viewed communism as “this hostility to religion” and said, “Fulton Sheen knew that atheism was not incidental to communism, it was essential to it.”
James Fulton Engstrom
The beatification rests on the Vatican's 2019 approval after it recognized a miracle involving the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom. He was born without a pulse in 2010, the case that moved Sheen's cause forward after years of delays and ultimately led Pope Leo XIV in February to approve moving ahead with the ceremony.
That leaves Sheen being presented in two ways at once: as a religious figure moving toward sainthood through a recognized miracle, and as a writer Barron is using to press a warning about communism in America. For readers in St. Louis, Thursday's ceremony brings both threads together at the same altar.
