Janine Ricker, global mission outreach coordinator for the St. Paul-based Center for Mission, said that through her office, 45 pilgrims attended the beatification Mass of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen in St. Louis Sept. 24.
“Most are from this Archdiocese (of St. Paul and Minneapolis), but we also have people joining us from as far away as Fargo and Green Bay,” Ricker wrote in an email Sept. 11. “And we have three priests from the Diocese of Kitui (in Kenya) also joining us!”
One pilgrim from Green Bay, Wisconsin, was 26-year-old Lily Smith. Being one of the youngest pilgrims on the bus to St. Louis, Smith said it was a gift to see the experience through the eyes of people older than her.
Archbishop Sheen died about 21 years before Smith was even born. Still, Smith said Archbishop Sheen is the reason she was baptized.
“My family wasn’t (Catholic),” Smith said. “When I converted to the faith, Bishop Sheen was my primary catechist.”
Everything she knows about the faith she originally learned from Archbishop Sheen, Smith said.
“I discerned with a cloistered Carmelite order because of his influence, and I’m studying theology and sacred art now. He’s been a huge, huge influence in my life.”
Much of Archbishop Sheen’s productions, such as TV shows and radio broadcasts, have been preserved online, which is how Smith found him.
“I think there was probably like 20 or 30 years in between the time he died up until the internet became a thing that a lot of his media wasn’t easily accessible,” Smith said. “But he was so prolific in his creation of these things that you could find him talking about just about anything. That’s a lot of what I consumed when I was in RCIA (now OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) and just trying to learn more about Jesus.”
Smith will have been Catholic for 10 years this coming Easter. She joked that she’ll be 10 years old.
The Center for Mission, which promotes and coordinates the global mission outreach of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, sponsored the trip with Father Spencer Howe, pastor of Holy Cross in Minneapolis. Ricker and Deacon Mickey Friesen, director of the center, were the two leaders from the Center for Mission.
The group left Sept. 21 and returned Sept. 25. On the way to St. Louis, the Center for Mission pilgrims stopped in Peoria, Illinois, to visit sites related to Archbishop Sheen.
Janie Marie Rief, a pilgrim on the trip with her husband, Mike, said Ricker took care of everything and made the trip easy.
“It was a beautiful trip on the way down,” Jane Marie Rief said. “We enjoyed prayer together. We watched Fulton Sheen videos, and that was fun.”
At the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, before Archbishop Sheen’s beatification, the altar was covered in a cloth. His tomb was covered too, said Joel Justin, a pilgrim on the trip with his wife, Karin.
“On Tuesday, we had time at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria,” Jane Marie Rief said. “We had ample time and a tour of St. Mary’s. Then we had time to just sit in prayer by then-Venerable Sheen’s tomb. That was lovely.”
Then, on the way back from St. Louis, the group stopped for Mass again at the cathedral in Peoria. There was a long line to pray in front of Archbishop Sheen’s tomb, Joel Justin said.
“The moment (Archbishop Sheen) became a (blessed) in St. Louis, they showed a video of the people in Peoria removing the cloth from the tomb and from the altar and everything,” Joel Justin said. “We were there Tuesday. Most people at the (beatification) probably had no idea that feeling that we had because we saw the altar being covered and then to see it being removed at the exact same time was very, very powerful. It was just too awesome for words.”
Jane Marie Rief said this moment made both churches feel united.
Joel Justin said he watched Archbishop Sheen’s TV programs on EWTN.
“I’m not old enough to (have) watch(ed) it on TV. My parents were,” Joel Justin said. “When I heard about (the beatification), I told Karin we’re going. It’s the same thing back in 2024 with the Eucharistic Congress. There hasn’t been one for a long, long time; Karin, we’re going. I’m really serious about my faith. I thought the Eucharistic Congress was going to be once in a lifetime. And the beautification Mass? I found out there are only two of them in our country.”
On Sept. 23, the group went to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and attended the vespers that night for Archbishop Sheen.
Smith said Bishop Robert Barron, of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, gave a moving speech.
“It was amazing to see all of the priests and seminarians there, and the whole place was packed,” Smith said. “I was amazed because I got to see my bishop and vicar general there, and I didn’t see anybody else I knew.”
Smith said that during the beatification Mass Sept. 24, there were easily 50,000 people in attendance. The Mass was close to three hours long, Joel Justin said.
Mike Rief said the entrance procession for the beatification Mass had thousands of seminarians, priests, bishops and cardinals coming into the church.
“That didn’t even count the (religious) sisters and any brothers that were already present before the procession started,” Mike Rief said. “It was just such a beautiful outpouring of support from everywhere and everyone possible.”
“It was kind of hard to walk around. There were so many people,” Smith said. “It was a huge grace to see just how loud the expo hall would be, and then you go in for adoration or see people waiting in line for confession, and it was as quiet as you can get.”
During the Mass, a relic of Archbishop Sheen was unveiled. Smith expected a tuft of hair, or something small. She couldn’t believe it when Archbishop Sheen’s jaw was brought out for veneration.
“It was amazing to be able to see the jaw that taught me everything I know and introduced me to Christ,” Smith said. “He’s as close as a family member to me, I would say, in regard to his intercession in my life, and in regard to his mission and how much he loved the poor.”
During the trip, Joel Justin met a woman from another country in an elevator. She gave him extra books about Archbishop Sheen that she didn’t use. Joel Justin gave the books to Ricker to give to others back home, because “not everybody could have gone.”
In Peoria, the Center for Mission group stopped at the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Museum. There, the Justins picked up a video about Archbishop Sheen that they watched on the bus ride to St. Louis.
“That made the trip to St. Louis really special,” Joel Justin said.
On the way home from St. Louis, Archbishop Bernard Hebda traveled with the group. During the trip back, Archbishop Hebda spoke and let the pilgrims ask any questions they had.
“The conversations were just a real blessing,” Jane Marie Rief said. It started with “questions about the beatification process, and then just kind of grew into just questions about the archdiocese and the Church outright. … That was a real pleasure to have lunch and to interact with the archbishop in that way.”
Mike Rief said he feels far more enlightened about Archbishop Fulton Sheen than ever before. Jane Marie Rief agreed and said that whenever she reads the works of the saints, “it’s like a journey, getting to meet a new friend.”
“I feel like I know Archbishop Bolton Sheen better now,” Jane Marie Rieef said. “You just really get to know these saints. You’ve got another person that you can ask to intercede for you.”
Jane Marie Rief said she and Mike Rief went to the beatification because it’s a rare opportunity to see a beatification Mass in the United States.
“Once upon a time, as a very young married couple, the pope (St. John Paul II) came,” Mike Rief said. “He was in Iowa, and we said, ‘Oh, we’ll catch it the next time around. We’re busy. We’re still going to school. We got studying and tests and whatnot.’ What a dumb thing to say! How often does the pope come around? Having missed that and kicking ourselves, we’re not getting another opportunity like this.”
Jane Marie Rief said the year was 1979. She and her husband were attending Iowa State in Ames, only a 30-minute drive from the gathering.
“Michael’s parents called us and invited us to come with them, and we said, ‘Oh, we just couldn’t manage to. We had too much going on. We couldn’t do that.’ Never knowing what a special moment that was.”
“We weren’t gonna have that happen a second time,” Mike Rief said.
