As beatification nears, new book explains why Fulton Sheen was ‘America’s Apostle’

With the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen approaching, a new book on the life and legacy of the evangelist and television and radio show host explains why he was “America’s Apostle.”

Allan Smith, founder and director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Mission Society of Canada, published the book “America’s Apostle” on Sept. 15, just ahead of the archbishop’s beatification on Sept. 24.

“I think … the title is a perfect one — ‘Americaʼs Apostle,’ because he really was an apostle to the American people in the great tradition of apostles,” Vice President and Editorial Director of EWTN News Matthew Bunson told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo on Sept. 22.

The book was published through EWTN Publishing and Sophia Institute Press.

“[Sheen] was a brilliant communicator; he had immense gifts on television, radio, as a writer, as a poet,” Bunson said. “But all of that was geared toward proclaiming Jesus Christ in exactly the same way that a good apostle should.”

Sheen began his media career as a priest, hosting an hourlong radio show called “The Catholic Hour” in 1930 until he was consecrated an auxiliary bishop in New York in 1951 and transitioned to television,…