Traditio had this article about Bishop Sheen in today's posts. It was an answer about the Archbishop after Vatican 11 was implemented.
Most of you know about Bishop Sheen, and his change after the Vatican Council.
Notice that the Fathers have nothing but praise in this post about Archbishop Lefebvre. This site is NOT against him. They have nothing good to say about Bishop Fellay tho. I think their comments are warrented.
Here is the article that appeared today:
July 3, 2011 - Sunday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart
Semidouble Sunday
A Reader Asks: "What Should a Traditional Catholic Think about Bishop Fulton Sheen?"
From: Jim
Bishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979), Pictured during His Popular Television Series
Sheen Was a Prominent Spokesman for Catholicism before Vatican II
But, unlike Archbishop Lefebvre, Then Fell Pray to the Modernist Council
Later in His Life He Seemed to Recant Many Principles of Vatican II
Claiming that the Council Had Been "Misinterpreted"
Dear TRADITIO Fathers:
In our traditional church bulletin today, there was a note about Bishop Fulton Sheen. Our traditional priest says that Sheen was good up until Vatican II, but fell under the sway of the Novus Ordo. A saint before Vatican II maybe, but not the Sheen after Vatican II. From what I have read, even his pre-Vatican II stuff was pretty Catholic "lite," mostly anti-Communist, but he was not the Catholic firebrand that Frs. Charles Coughlin or Leonard Feeney were. What should a traditional Catholic think about Bishop Fulton Sheen?
The TRADITIO Fathers Reply.
The Catholic Church might be in a different position today had Bishop Sheen joined Archbishop Lefebvre to expose the Newchurch of the New Order for what it was and remains: an unCatholic imposter.
Bishop Sheen was a powerful voice for Catholicism, although as you say, at times it was watered down. Whether that was an accommodation to the electronic media or his personal belief is hard to say. In the 1930s and 1940s he was one of the most popular radio figures with his Catholic Hour. In the 1950s and 1960s he switched to television. His Life Is Worth Living and Fulton Sheen Program and gained an audience larger than that gained by some of the biggest names in television at the time.
The cleric who was one of the most recognizable figures of the pre- and post- World War II era was unquestionably brilliant, probably the most educated cleric in the United States at the time. So why did he appear to fall prey to Vatican II's Novus Ordo fraud, which later in his life he came to reject more and more?
While teaching at the Catholic University of America for nearly 25 years and dealing with students, he noted with deep concern what was happening in Catholic education and the fact that many young people were losing the Faith since Vatican II (1962-1965). His warning on higher education, given around 1967, was as prophetic as it was startling:
You are better off going to a state school where you will have the chance to fight for your Faith, than going to a modern Catholic university where you will have the new watered-down, modernist version of the Faith spoon-fed to your unsuspecting minds, so that you will be apt to lose your Faith.
The answer to why Sheen succuмbed to the New Order indicates how unique a cleric Archbishop Lefebvre truly was. Sheen forgot the lesson of His divine Master not to be a "respecter of persons." Lefebvre followed Christ; Sheen followed man. Sheen, who is acknowledged even by his friends to have been egotistical, just couldn't break with the big-wigs who were taking the Catholic Church down the path of perdition, even though he knew better and at the end of his life rejected many of the basic tenets of Vatican II, which he preached to be unCatholic, although though he concealed his criticism, as many of that time and today do, by claiming that the Modernist Council was "misinterpreted."
Whether Sheen is truly a saint, Newchurch will not be able to judge. When the Catholic Church is restored, certainly Archbishop Lefebvre needs to be considered as the first candidate for Sainthood. While Sheen reminds us of the Arian heretics who took over the Church of the fourth century, Lefebvre reminds us of Athanasius, who was bitterly persecuted for his orthodoxy during the same period. When the smoke cleared, the Arian popes were condemned to oblivion, but Athanasius received the appellation Defender of the Faith, and was universally recognized as one of the greatest Saints and Doctors of the Church.
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