Can Cardinal Dolan truly be in Line with Catholic Church Teachings In Light of Cardinal Dolan undermining the canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen and in interview for the Boston Globe where the Cardinal state that the Pope Francis wants pastoral, social justice-focused bishops “who would not be associated with any one ideological camp.” The Cultural Wars Are Coming To A Close. The Culture War Is Over Cardinal Timothy Dolan https://youtube/watch?v=hLSHaxfT_E0&list=PLxqqo6Ofo2W69QGqD4KTOEPEpV6A92mda&index=35 New York Archdiocese Stalls Fulton Sheen Canonization Process (5090) An unresolved dispute between two dioceses over the popular Catholic televangelist’s body has brought the canonization process to a halt. ncregister/daily-news/new-york-archdiocese-stalls-fulton-sheen-canonization-process AP Photo/Journal Star, Eve Edelheit Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Ill., gives a homily next to a painting of Archbishop Fulton Sheen and the sealed box of documentation for the alleged miracle performed by Sheen at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria. – AP Photo/Journal Star, Eve Edelheit NEW YORK — Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s sainthood cause came to an abrupt stop Wednesday over allegations the Archdiocese of New York reneged on agreements over where to locate Archbishop Sheen’s body, thereby torpedoing the process. A Sept. 3 news release from the Diocese of Peoria, Ill., whose Bishop Daniel Jenky is president of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, announced that 12 years of work to make Archbishop Sheen a canonized saint was now relegated indefinitely to the archives of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. “The bishop is heartbroken not only for his flock in Peoria, but also for the many supporters of the Sheen cause from throughout the world who have so generously supported Peoria’s efforts,” it said. The beloved U.S. televangelist’s cause passed several major hurdles this year with the approval of a miracle by both medical advisers in March and theologians in June. The miracle required only the approval of a panel of cardinals and then Pope Francis in order for Archbishop Sheen to go through the beatification process. But the beatification process cannot be completed without examining the remains of the candidate for sainthood. The diocese’s news release stated that the Vatican expected the body of Archbishop Sheen to be transferred from his tomb in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York back to the Diocese of Peoria for the official inspection and taking of first-class relics. The Archdiocese of New York, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, is now refusing the request, according to the Sept. 3 news release, putting an end to Sheen’s cause for the foreseeable future. But the Diocese of Peoria stated it had obtained assurances from the New York Archdiocese of its cooperation. “Countless supporters, especially from the local Church in Central Illinois, have given their time, treasure and talent for this good work with the clear understanding that the body of Venerable Sheen would return to the diocese,” the statement said. “Bishop Jenky was personally assured on several occasions by the Archdiocese of New York that the transfer of the body would take place at the appropriate time.” Issue Arose Earlier The Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Peoria, however, have been involved in this dispute before. Back in 2010, Archbishop Sheen’s cause ground to a halt over the dispute of which diocese would have custody of the body. Back then, the archdiocese was also charged with having broken verbal commitments to allow Peoria to have the body. Both Peoria and New York have different claims on Archbishop Sheen: Peoria was the archbishop’s boyhood home, where he was ordained a priest and briefly served as a pastor. New York, however, is where Archbishop Sheen was ordained a bishop and became a famous televangelist with his Life Is Worth Living program. Transferring Archbishop Sheen’s body to Peoria could enable the diocese to create a national shrine to him there. However, that would leave an empty tomb for Archbishop Sheen at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. But the archdiocese’s latest intervention this late in the process — as opposed to four years ago, when Archbishop Sheen had no verified miracle — has generated substantial dismay and confusion. Bonnie Engstrom, whose now completely healthy son James Fulton was the stillborn baby allegedly healed by a miracle through Archbishop Sheen’s intercession, expressed frustration at the announcement on her blog, AKnottedLife. “We had every reason to hope that James’ alleged miracle of being brought back to life and full health after being dead for over an hour would soon be approved by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and then the Holy Father, thus allowing for Sheen’s beatification to occur,” she wrote. “We feel very strongly that James’ story and the life and writings of Fulton Sheen contain an awesome potential to change hearts, bring souls to Christ and glorify almighty God. It is a shame that this good work has been brought to a standstill by the Archdiocese of New York.” The Register contacted Cardinal Dolan’s spokesman for more information and has been told a statement will be forthcoming. Postulator: Suspension Will Be Temporary The postulator for Archbishop Sheen’s cause in Rome expressed confidence that the dispute between Peoria and New York will only be a temporary obstacle. The office of Andrea Ambrosi told Catholic News Agency that the archbishop’s postulator is “aware of the issue regarding the transfer of Archbishop Sheen’s remains but does not believe that this will be a lasting impediment.” It added that Ambrosi expects “the suspension of the cause will be temporary, since there are many people still committed to this cause and the beatification of Archbishop Sheen.” Peter Jesserer Smith is the Register’s Washington correspondent. Catholic News Agency contributed to this report by PETER JESSERER SMITH 09/04/2014 Comments (18) Tug of War for Bishop’s Body, or Its Parts, Delays Sainthood Archbishop Sheen’s Corpse Is Subject of Long-Running Dispute By SHARON OTTERMANSEPT. 13, 2014 nytimes/2014/09/14/nyregion/archbishop-sheens-corpse-is-subject-of-long-running-dispute.html?_r=0 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Ill., has already constructed a museum in honor of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a native son whose Emmy-winning television show during the 1950s brought Catholicism to the American living room. It has documented several potential miracles by him and compiled a dossier on his good works for the Vatican. It has drawn up blueprints for an elaborate shrine in its main cathedral to house his tomb and sketched out an entire devotional campus it hopes to complete when its campaign to have him declared the first American-born male saint succeeds. There has been just one snag in the diocese’s carefully laid veneration plans: the matter of Archbishop Sheen’s body. Since his death in 1979, his remains have been sealed in a white marble crypt at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, the city where he spent much of his life. And though the Peoria diocese says it was promised the remains, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, who considers Archbishop Sheen something of a personal hero, has refused to part with them, citing the wishes of the archbishop and his family. Now the dispute over Archbishop Sheen’s corpse has brought a halt to his rise to sainthood, just as he appeared close to beatification, the final stage before canonization. Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, Peoria’s leader, announced this month that the process had been suspended because New York would not release the body. To be sure, disputes over remains of saints are nothing new in the Roman Catholic Church, and in the past the resolution has sometimes been to divide the body. St. Catherine of Siena is enshrined in Rome, but her head is revered in a basilica in Siena, Italy. St. Francis Xavier, the 16th-century missionary, is entombed in Goa, India, but his right arm is in Rome, in a reliquary at the Church of the Gesu. That type of compromise does not seem to be a possibility this time. Cardinal Dolan’s latest offer to Bishop Jenky was that he could have bone fragments and other relics from Archbishop Sheen’s coffin, but not the body itself. And certainly no limbs. The very public tug-of-war over the body of Archbishop Sheen, has shocked many Catholics, in part because it seems like something that belongs in another era. “We should have moved out of the 14th century by now,” said Joan Sheen Cunningham of Yonkers, a niece of the archbishop and, at 87, his oldest living relative. “I would have thought so.” She wants the body to remain where it is. “All this focus on the body, the body,” Mrs. Cunningham said in an interview last week. “It’s forgetting what the purpose of the whole thing is. To keep someone from coming beatified over this, I think, is wrong.” Archbishop Sheen was best known for reaching up to 30 million viewers each week as the charismatic host of the television show “Life Is Worth Living,” which ran from 1951 to 1957. At a time when American Catholics were still struggling for acceptance in the United States, he became a hero to many, including Cardinal Dolan, then a young boy. To honor his legacy, Cardinal Dolan used archdiocesan funds to create the Sheen Center, a performing arts center in Manhattan that opened this year. And he has repeatedly said the body should remain in New York. “You know, Bishop Sheen only spent a few years in Peoria,” he said in 2009 when the issue started brewing. “And he loved New York.” Archbishop Sheen had bought a plot at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, intending to be buried there, Mrs. Cunningham said. But just after his death at age 84, Cardinal Terence Cooke offered the space in the crypt. Being buried in his home diocese of Peoria, Mrs. Cunningham said, “is just not what my uncle wanted.” Bishop Jenky said he believed that Archbishop Sheen would now feel differently. In 2002, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, then the archbishop of New York, declined to sponsor Archbishop Sheen’s cause for sainthood, an expensive and time-consuming process. So the Peoria diocese, in which Archbishop Sheen was ordained, stepped up. Over the past dozen years, it has spent countless hours on the cause, collecting 15,000 pages of testimony about Archbishop Sheen’s virtues, seeking out miracles and, yes, designing a tomb. According to Peoria diocesan officials, Cardinal Egan twice assured the diocese, in 2002 and 2004, that the archbishop’s remains would be transferred at the appropriate time. Back then, they said, even Mrs. Cunningham was supportive, and his memorial foundation furnished a copy of a 2005 letter she wrote to the Vatican as proof. But in 2009, Cardinal Dolan, who was then an archbishop, became the head of the New York diocese, and things appeared to change. “Bishop Jenky would never have begun this if he weren’t personally assured that the tomb of Fulton Sheen would come home to Peoria,” Msgr. Stanley Deptula, vice chancellor of the Peoria diocese, said. In 2010, Bishop Jenky briefly tabled his campaign for Archbishop Sheen’s sainthood, saying in a news release that the New York archdiocese had “made it clear that it is not likely that they will ever transfer the remains.” Pressured by devotees, however, Bishop Jenky soon resumed work on the cause. In 2011, Cardinal Dolan posted on his blog a letter to Peoria that stated that his own study of the matter had revealed “that there was in fact no evidence of such a verbal promise.” Meanwhile, Archbishop Sheen drew ever closer to sainthood. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared the archbishop “venerable.” In March, a panel of Vatican medical experts certified a miracle attributable to him. Bishop Jenky speculated that Archbishop Sheen could be beatified as early as 2015. After that, only one more certified miracle would be required before sainthood. Suddenly, the matter became urgent: By canon law, the body should be exhumed and authenticated before beatification, and relics — bone fragments and other physical remains — taken for the purpose of veneration. Bishop Jenky wanted that process to take place in Peoria. This June, however, he received a letter from the New York archdiocese saying it “would never allow” the exhumation of the body, the securing of relics or the transfer of the body, a statement from Peoria said. And on Sept. 3, Bishop Jenky announced “with immense sadness” that the cause had been suspended. New York had been on the verge of offering a compromise. Mrs. Cunningham said she met with Cardinal Dolan on Sept. 2 and agreed to permit her uncle’s body to be exhumed and relics collected for the shrine in Peoria. “I think the cardinal was worried that maybe Bishop Jenky would cut off a hand or an arm or something,” Mrs. Cunningham said. Neither Bishop Jenky nor Cardinal Dolan would comment directly on the matter, but the public statement from New York indicated one way forward: If Peoria would not reconsider its position, it said, “the Archdiocese of New York would welcome the opportunity to assume responsibility for the cause.”
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:23:29 +0000
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