Fulton J. Sheen
"Life Is Worth Living" was a television program hosted by Fulton J. Sheen that became one of his most notable works, bringing his voice as a Catholic theologian and bishop directly into American homes.
Sheen was born on May 8, 1895, in El Paso, Illinois, and received an extensive religious and academic education that shaped his career across multiple disciplines. He attended the Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute and Peoria Notre Dame High School before moving on to St. Viator College and the Seminaries of Saint Paul. His education continued at The Catholic University of America and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and he also studied at the Old University of Leuven and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. That foundation in theology and philosophy supported a career that spanned the roles of Catholic priest, bishop, theologian, radio personality, television presenter, essayist, and writer — an unusually wide range of platforms for a member of the clergy.
He served as Bishop of Rochester from 1966 to 1969, one of the more concrete institutional roles he held during a long public life. His work in broadcasting and writing brought his theological perspective to audiences well beyond a single diocese, and his output in English reflected the plain, direct register he favored across radio, television, and the printed page.
Sheen died on December 9, 1979, in New York City. Over the course of his career he received several recognitions, including the Order of Lincoln, the James Cardinal Gibbons Medal, and a Primetime Emmy Award — the Emmy being a notable acknowledgment of his work as a television presenter. The Library of Congress catalogs him under the authorized label "Sheen, Fulton J. (Fulton John), 1895–1979," a modest marker for a figure who worked across so many different forms of public communication throughout the twentieth century.
Quotes by Fulton J. Sheen
Fulton J. Sheen's insights on:
Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, 'God is hard to find.'
Never forget that there are only two philosophies to rule your life. The one of the cross, which starts with the fast and ends with the feast. The other of Satan, which starts with the feast and ends with the headache.
There are two ways of waking up in the morning. One is to say, ‘Good morning, God,’ and the other is to say, ‘Good God, morning!'
The Rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men.
As love comes from knowledge, so hatred comes from want of knowledge. Bigotry is the fruit of ignorance.
The pure in heart shall see God, because they always do His will. Purity does not begin in the body but in the will. From there it flows outward, cleansing thought, imagination, and, finally, the body. Bodily purity is a repercussion or echo of the will. Life is impure only when the will is impure.
We live in days of assassins’ – where evil is sought in lives more than good to justify a world with a bad conscience.
Celibacy is like poetry keeping the idea ever in mind like a dream; but marriage uses chisel and brush, concentrating more on marble and canvas. Celibacy jumps to a conclusion like an intuition; marriage, like reason, labors through ebb and flow, step by step.