[NKP_Vet]

“We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.” (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)

[oprahstheantichrist]

Fulton Sheen was wonderful. This is interesting, also:

http://catholicism.org/bella-dodd-from-communist-to-catholic

[Pajamajan]

Bookmark

[Pajamajan]

Bookmark

[Praxeologue]

The Catholic Church tried to diffuse some of Sheen’s comments by posting a lookout in the radio studio. The mandate was clear: cut the microphone if Sheen mentioned anything about the Russians and communism. Sheen had said all along that his battle was not with the Russian people but with the Soviet government’s polices. Still the Church wanted no backlash. Because of the scrutiny, Sheen nearly quit the radio show, but endured the pull of the church’s leash with grace. ... Shortly after the war, during a speech in Akron, Sheen was approached by a high-ranking official in the clergy and asked, “What are you talking about tonight?” Sheen replied matter-of-factly, “About Russia and Eastern Europe and how Russia will take over all of Eastern Europe.” The man was furious. “You’re crazy! Russia is a democracy,” he insisted. “It is no longer communist.” Sheen started down a flight of stairs. He wanted no part of a confrontation. But as his foot hit each step, Sheen remembers the man pointing his finger and yelling at him from above. “You’re wrong! You’re wrong! You’re wrong!” the man said. Sheen reached the bottom, turned and looked up. “Someday you will see,” he said, “Eastern Europe will belong to the communists.”

Seven decades ago, the American Catholic Church was trying to prevent Fulton Sheen from revealing atheist communism.

They were, and are, the political ideologues, not Sheen.

[Bigg Red]

Wow! Great story. I read the whole thing.

I can remember that my mother used to watch Bishop Sheen, but I was too young to comprehend what he was talking about.

[onedoug]

Where was Sheen’s anti-communism during the Vietnam War? Seems to me when he had to put up or shut up he took he took the peacenik’s mantle and ran with it.

[ebb tide]

Great article and thanks for posting. But I don’t understand why Bishop Sheen rebaptized a man who was raised a Catholic and had even served as an altar boy.