TV's Archbishop Fulton Sheen delivered a miracle, Vatican says

Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, Bishop of Peoria has received word that the Vatican has approved a miracle attributed to Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a priest known very well to Americans of a certain age. The approved miracle allows the cause of declaring Sheen "blessed" to proceed. One more miracle and he can be approved as a saint.

What was the miracle? In September 2010, Bonnie Engstrom gave birth to a stillborn child. She immediately began to pray for the intervention of deceased Fulton Sheen, whose talks remain popular decades after his death. After 61 minutes, the baby was restored to full life, and three years later James Fulton Engstrom is developing normally. A seven-member board of physicians convoked by the Vatican issued a report in March affirming that there was no medical explanation for the recovery. Read more details from Catholic News Service.

Sheen was born in Peoria, and became a priest in 1919. He would eventually serve as Archbishop of Rochester. Along the way he authored scores of books, and became one of the most popular Catholic preachers in American history, eventually launching a television show on ABC, in which he gave lectures on Catholic doctrine, philosophy, and anti-Communism. --Michael Brendan Dougherty

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