Illinois May Get It’s First Native Canonized Saint

Will Illinois lowkey take over the Catholic leadership?

About a year after Pope Leo (the Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost) took over the holy duties, there may be another important figure in the Catholic church from Illinois.

According to ABC7 Chicago, the Vatican has approved a blessing for beatification (which is the last step before sainthood) for Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who was born in El Paso, Illinois.

Sheen lived from 1895-1979. In the early days of television, Sheen was a televangelist that was nicknamed 'America's Bishop'.

Now, it's based on one miracle Sheen was involved in that brings him into beatification.

The Miracle Story

In 2010, well after Sheen had passed away, Bonnie Engstrom's son was born without a pulse. She says that there was a knot in his umbibical cord and it cut off his blood and oxygen supply, leaving him essentially stillborn.

The doctors tried to restart her son's heart and she says she was praying and says she remembers repeating Fulton Sheen's name in her head.

Then, 61 minutes later, her son's heart started beating again and today, he is a healthy 15-year-old. The doctors found no medical explanation for it and the Vatican attributes it as a miracle tied to Sheen.

Bishop Louis Tylka with the Diocese of Peoria, told ABC7:

Everybody was made to feel that they were the most important person with him. He was able to speak truth to power. He spoke the truth of the gospel, and he did so with great wisdom and wit...To have a Chicago-born pope, you know, be the one to finally sign off on moving forward... signing off on a remarkable individual who's another son of the land of Lincoln. It's just kind of all those things line up.

The beatification ceremony for Archbishop Sheen is set for September 24th in St. Louis, Missouri.