Remains of Abp Sheen on the way to IllInois?

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The scandal of this controversy may be heading to closure, as reported by Church Militant. The article states that the Diocese of Peoria has spent $1 M advancing the “cause of sainthood” of Sheen.

Canonization by the Pope does not push anybody into heaven. So…what is the $1 million for? This is what I hate about the canonization process. It’s seems so politicized, because the money has to come from someplace and somebody’s pocket and most assuredly ends up in somebody else’s pocket.

This is a step behind the sale of indulgences. It’s like a bribe for the Vatican to do something. To me, it seems enough to enshrine such a person’s legacy for their writings and / or actions for promoting the gospel.

St, John Paul II canonized over 500 persons. It seems noble to acknowledge the holiness of people around the world, as an example for others. But, how much money changed hands to canonize over 500 people?

My mother’s aunt was a nun, and she was ecstatic over the canonization of St Faustina who was of the same order. What can we mortals add to the glory and eternal reward that God wants to bestow upon a person? It seems that this is a dubious sideline of the Church.
 
There is/was a great deal of research that has to go into the process, the gathering of information. I believe the Positio, that is given to the Holy Father (Sheen’s was presented to BXVI) has to be in Latin. People have to be paid to do this work. There are fund raisers. And Peoria has already built a shrine for his body (I am sure that was a several pretty pennies).

The postulator has to be paid I am sure. Expenses go on and on.

Not saying I agree with any of it, but I can see where the money goes. Especially the shrine part.

I have been part of the periphery of his cause since '07
 
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AngelaMarie said:
There is/was a great deal of research that has to go into the process, the gathering of information. I believe the Positio, that is given to the Holy Father (Sheen’s was presented to BXVI) has to be in Latin. People have to be paid to do this work. There are fund raisers. And Peoria has already built a shrine for his body (I am sure that was a several pretty pennies).

The postulator has to be paid I am sure. Expenses go on and on.

Not saying I agree with any of it, but I can see where the money goes. Especially the shrine part.

I have been part of the periphery of his cause since '07
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Yes. It’s a long process which includes research and expenses. And people have to be paid for their work. $1 mil is actually a fairly small sum in the grand scope of things. It’s not some kind of bribe as the OP is suggesting.

As someone who has a devotion to Sheen, I hope this decision marks the end of this embarrassing legal battle and the transfer and beatification can happen soon.
 
CTBcin said:
As someone who has a devotion to Sheen
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Hi CT.
Have you been part of his cause, or is it devotion only.
I was in Peoria for the Mass of Thanksgiving back in Sept '12 after BXVI declared him Venerable 🙂
 
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I’ve only been Catholic for a few years (4 yrs this Easter), but I’ve had a devotion to him since I became Catholic. I have family in the Peoria area, so I’ve been to the diocese/cathedral/museum several times.
 
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Well, welcome home! 😃

Sheen is a favorite of mine, too. Peoria was so excited at the Mass of Thanksgiving that they were already planning for his beatification and how they would do it (small place)

We will see how this all plays out.

Don’t know if you knew this, but the thinking of why things went so quickly back then was BXVI personally knew Sheen as they worked together at Vatican II when BXVI was a theological advisor for one of the German bishops. When he was presented with the Positio, he had a great big smile on his face. 🙂
 
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Thank you! I am really, really hoping to attend his beatification when it happens! I’m curious as to how and where that will be set up.

It makes sense that Sheen and Benedict would have been familiar with each other, as they were both prominent theologians at V2. I guess I never considered the possibility of them knowing each other personally, though.
 
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I can’t speak to now, 2019, but back in 2012, beatifications were usually held in the diocese of where the Cause is.

So, Bishop Jenky and those who worked on the cause were starting to brainstorm how to get Peoria ready. They were hoping that then Pope BXVI would attend since he knew Sheen.

Now? No clue
 
Well, a pope doesn’t need to be present, just the bishop doing the beatification. Presumably, the pope would send a representative, such as the papal nuncio. The big question for me is the where part. When Bl. Solanus Casey was beatified in 2017, it was done at a Ford field in front of a capacity crowd. Presumably, Sheen’s beatification would attract similar interest; but, Peoria doesn’t have the luxury of having a major sports stadium.
 
Oh yea. I didn’t mean to imply that the pope has to be present. I know he doesn’t. It was just the hope of those involved in his cause that BXVI would attend since he personally knew Sheen. Sorry for the confusion.

Yes, not sure how Peoria would manage this. But they will find a way
 
Oh, no problem. And I’m sure they’ll find a way. I just hope they find a venue that can accommodate many people, because I want the chance to go.
 
The Church isn’t being paid to canonize someone.
The money is used to pay for all the documentation, travel, and other costs that go into investigating the person to see if their life meets the standard for a canonized saint.
It’s a rigorous process because obviously the Church doesn’t want to canonize someone and then have some big skeleton come out of the closet about the person’s past.

If the person is canonized, then the order and/or diocese that promoted the canonization will likely reap a lot of rewards, including good publicity (which could lead to vocations for an order) and economic benefits from tourism, such as people coming to see the saint’s shrine, attending retreats at the saint’s shrine, buying from the gift shop, etc. Money spent on a canonization cause is an investment of sorts.

The money isn’t coming out of your pocket, and it isn’t being used to bribe or pay off the Church, so why do you care? As with your other Mary thread, if you don’t like a spiritual practice such as venerating saints, just don’t do it yourself, and leave other people’s preferences alone.
 
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CTBcin said:
Presumably, Sheen’s beatification would attract similar interest; but, Peoria doesn’t have the luxury of having a major sports stadium.
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It’s a shame New York City dropped the ball on his canonization. They could have simply used Yankee Stadium.

It is also exasperating to have Sheen’s remains in that crypt at St. Patrick’s. There is no public access to the crypt. You can’t touch his tomb to pray or any of that. Totally different from Bl. Solanus Casey, whose crypt could be touched and prayed over even before he was beatified (which resulted in his beatification miracle).
 
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Indeed. I’m happy to say that there’s a shrine chapel for Archbishop Sheen that’s already built and ready to go in the Peoria Cathedral and it’ll be totally accessible to the general public.
 
If and when he gets there, I will definitely travel out to Peoria to see it. I am very frustrated by having made umpteen trips to St. Patrick’s Cathedral with zero access to his crypt. It took me about three trips to even know he was there because the little sign about him is stuck behind the sanctuary in a not-visble spot.

The Archdiocese of New York was not kind to Archbishop Sheen during his life. I think it’s very egotistical of Cardinal Dolan to try to make what is essentially a money and publicity grab now.
 
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I want to give Cdl. Dolan the benefit of the doubt, I really do; but, when the Archdiocese is responsible for continuing to elongate this embarrassing legal battle, it really gets on my nerves.

After New York passed on Sheen’s cause, Peoria picked it up and spent all their time/money/effort on it. Now NY (who did nothing) wants to reap the rewards by keeping his body. Which seems so unfair to me.
 
This is pretty much the very thing Scripture tells us to avoid in 1 Cor. 6.
5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is defeat for you.
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Couldn’t the two dioceses have at least submitted this to Rome for a judgment? That is the traditional purpose of the papacy after all.
 
I think it should’ve been taken up by Rome. But, oh well, here we are.
 
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