In 1953, TV's biggest personality wasn't Lucille Ball—it was a Catholic bishop with a chalkboard. Fulton J. Sheen, whose show Life Is Worth Living drew millions in the 1950s, will be beatified on Thursday in St. Louis, a major step on the Catholic Church's path to sainthood that leaves him one recognized miracle short of canonization, reports NPR. The Mass at the Dome at America's Center will be led by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who's a star in his own right in the Philippines, and broadcast by EWTN and the Diocese of Peoria in Illinois. The AP reports that the stadium was chosen as the ceremonial venue because there wasn't a site large enough in Peoria to accommodate the 50,000 or so pilgrims expected to show up for the event.
Sheen, born in 1895 in rural Illinois, built a national audience through radio, then TV, blending theology, philosophy, and humor. The Washington Post notes that Sheen eventually achieved "Rat Pack levels of fame"; when he won his Emmy, he thanked his "writers"—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, of Gospel fame, per NPR. The outlet notes that Sheen's beatification rests on a Vatican-approved miracle involving James Fulton Engstrom, now 16, who was born without a pulse and survived despite 61 minutes in that state, an outcome doctors couldn't explain (read a first-person account here from James' mom). Watch the livestream here of the beatification, starting at 3pm ET.
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