The month of October is dedicated to Mary, especially in regard to praying the Rosary. It was Pope, Leo XIII who consecrated October to the Rosary and established the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7. He wrote twelve encyclicals on the Rosary and established it as a major public devotion while strongly urging families to pray it together. The month of October is also Respect Life Month as established by the USCCB with its first Sunday, (this year, October 4), being Respect Life Sunday. It is very fitting that this year the Bishops have chosen the theme of Mary, Mother of Life, for Respect Life Sunday. As they express, “The life of the Blessed Mother teaches us to respect each human life at every stage and circumstance. Mary is our model for upholding the sanctity of all human life.”
On September 24, we celebrated the formal Beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. He was an extraordinary religious figure in the United States, who devoted his ministry to evangelization. Both Mary and the sanctity of life were primary in his preaching and teaching, and it is most fitting to reflect upon that during this month of October. The influence of Blessed Archbishop Fulton Sheen was so prevalent during his lifetime and, as the Beatification Mass demonstrated, still is. He was a most holy man who lived his faith and proclaimed it with great effectiveness by word and example. So strong was his influence that his television program, Life is Worth Living, aired at the same time as Milton Berle’s comedy hour and out ranked it in ratings. He also won an Emmy Award for it.
Archbishop Sheen had tremendous devotion to the Blessed Mother. She was primary in all of his talks and presentations. He wrote a book about her entitled, The World’s First Love.
His personal spiritual life included the daily recitation of the Rosary. Archbishop Sheen continually taught that Mary’s greatness was rooted in her freely giving herself to God’s will at every point in her life and most especially at the Annunciation. She understood that life was a gift from God and accepting God’s will in this life is what brings us true freedom and joy. Blessed Archbishop Fulton Sheen lived his conviction that to draw closer to Mary is to draw closer to Christ each and every day. He often joked that at the final judgment, one of the greatest assurances of entering into heaven would be for Christ to say, “Let the soul in, I heard my Mother speak highly of this person.”
One of Archbishop Sheen’s favorite poems was a simple prayer of Mary Dixon Thayer, entitled, To Our Lady. He often used this poem during his television presentations, especially at the end of his program. The poem identified Mary as one that would represent any mother who is close to her child, especially as she was with her child teaching the child to pray. The poem concludes, “Lovely Lady, dressed in blue, teach me how to pray! God was just your little boy, and you know the way.” The poem was symbolic of the depth of the Archbishop’s devotion to Mary, and his profound holiness in knowing her as a real mother and person.
Blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen ‘s love of Mary was certainly a great factor in his love of the gift of life. This love was especially most evident in his care and concern for the poor and in looking after the forgotten and needy. He was the Director of the Office of the Propagation of the Faith and went to great lengths to ensure that the needs of the less fortunate were taken care of. He firmly believed that every person was made in the image and likeness of God from the moment of conception until natural death and did everything to respect each person’s unique dignity. His niece recalled that whenever she walked with her uncle in New York City, he was frequently approached by people asking him for money and he always gave it
to them. His great nephew remembered seeing the Archbishop give his coat to a homeless man. He was known to give away his salary from his weekly TV show to the Propagation of the Faith. He wrote, “A person is merciful when he feels a sorrow and misery of another as if it were his own. Disliking misery and unhappiness, the merciful man seeks to dispel the misery of his neighbor just as much as he would if the misery were his own.” Blessed Archbishop Fulton Sheen had respect for the gift of life at every stage and he demonstrated this in his life.
Archbishop Sheen was very clear in his opposition to abortion and did not hesitate to denounce it. His ministry took place during and after the passage of Roe v Wade, and he made clear how the taking of an innocent life in an abortion is the ultimate disrespect for the gift of life. He sharply criticized those who referred to an aborted fetus as “only scar tissue.” He predicted that many women, who were beginning to receive abortions during the 70s, would undergo extreme psychological disruption in their lives, and would need to be healed. He not only was opposed to the tragedy of abortion and its legalization, but foretold the grave harm it would cause.
Perhaps one of the most telling events of Blessed Fulton Sheen’s respect for the gift of life, particularly in regard to the unborn, had to do with the first miracle for his beatification that was accepted by Pope Francis. It concerned a newborn baby, whose mother was deeply devoted to Archbishop Sheen, and prayed to him all during her pregnancy. When her son was born, he went into a serious medical emergency, and the doctors and medical professionals could do nothing to turn the situation around or to bring the boy the ability to breathe once his heart ceased to beat. The mother prayed fervently to Archbishop Sheen during this crisis. After sixty-one minutes, the baby was ready to be pronounced as deceased when his heart beat and breathing returned to him and with no serious results to his health, of which there should have been many.
The boy is fully alive today and was present for the Beatification of Archbishop Sheen carrying his relic in procession. This miracle is a witness to the opposite of what happens in an abortion as the Archbishop interceded for life to an infant who was about to be pronounced dead.
Archbishop Sheen’s television program was originally entitled, Is Life Worth Living? The Archbishop decided to change the title of his program to Life is Worth Living to demonstrate that there is absolutely no question about the value and dignity of life when lived as God had intended. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen had respect for the gift of life at every stage and was a model of how to live that respect. He was a man of tremendous faith who was respectful to everyone, possessed a sense of humor, great diligence, and a firm commitment to treat all people as equal and worth in value as God had created them. How much that respect for life is needed in our world today in so many different levels.
During this month of October, let us recommit ourselves to our respect for the gift of life at every stage in the world, torn by war, violence, prejudice, and lack of respect for the immigrant on different levels, and in the world that continues to allow the crime of abortion. May we look to Mary as the Mother of Life and continue to do all we can to protect the gift of life which God has given us and all of our brothers and sisters. We continue to pray the Rosary as a prayer for life. I firmly believe that we have been effective in much of the disruption of abortion, especially in regard to the overturning of Roe v Wade, through the simple prayerful use of the Rosary. May we continue to intercede with our Blessed Mother and to use this gift of the Rosary, as did Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, to engender a greater respect for life in our world today. As St. John Paul II exhorted, “Oh Mary, Mother of the living, to you we entrust the cause of life,” and in the opening words of Archbishop Sheen’s often quoted beloved poem, “Lovely Lady, dressed in blue, teach me how to pray to you.”
Most Reverend Gerld M. Barbarito
