After 12 years of effort, the push to have the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen made a saint has been suspended indefinitely. Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky says Vatican officials decided instead to move the Sheen cause for sainthood to the Congregation’s Historic Archive. The move follows a denial by the Archdiocese of New York to move Sheen’s remains to Peoria. The Vatican expected to inspect Sheen’s remains as part of the sainthood process in Peoria.
Jenky says that he was assured multiple times that Sheen’s body would be moved from New York. Sheen was born in El Paso in 1895. His family moved to Peoria so he and his brothers could attend Catholic school. He later became a popular radio and tv personality. He died in 1979.