In preparing America's Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. Sheen I discovered a brilliant, charismatic, and holy man who has been underestimated by historians, largely overlooked by the contemporary mass media, and forgotten by too many Catholics. Indeed, I came to the conclusion that Fulton J. Sheen was the most important Catholic of twentieth century America.
Strange to say, I cannot remember our first meeting, which was in 1980 when I was studying in Rome.
Fr. Thomas Cook of the Diocese of Winona, MN, got an early start discerning his vocation.
High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword hilt.
His legs imparted security as I leaned my little body into them. My babble continued, fired by desire to entrust to my beloved daddy all the secrets a three-year-old heart could hold. When finished, silence pervaded the darkening shadows. He sat there, fingering his rosary and gazing out at the evenings first stars. Even at that tender age, I knew my father wasnt always present to this world.
Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden.
Reader, behold your hand. Sometimes I watch my own as I write; or as I hold it up, fingers spread, so that it gleams like a pale star against the dark background of books piled on my table. The human hand this bundle of bones, flesh, and nerves think of all it can do. It can bless or curse.
Pope John Paul II is leading the Church from the cross. With pain and difficulty, but without embarrassment or complaint, Karol Wojtyla is spending out his life in witness to the truth on which he has staked his life.
