I’ve just received an e-mail from a priest who recounts a delightful anecdotal memory of Fulton Sheen. Here it is:
I noticed in looking over your “electronic portfolio” that you are of course greatly interested in G.K. Chesterton. Just to help confirm your interest in Chesterton, let me tell you of an experience I had while attending HTS Seminary around 1976. I had written the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen in 1975 asking his advice about writing a master’s thesis on his works. He responded personally to my letter and recommended that I write not on him but on G.K. Chesterton. He wrote that everything he did was inspired by Chesterton! Later the next year Archbishop Sheen arrived at our seminary in Dallas to offer mass and preach. After mass he greeted people personally and when I approached him I reminded him of my letter. He immediately responded by saying, “You’re the one! Yes, Chesterton’s the man. I could not have done anything without Chesterton. Write on him.” I was amazed that he remembered my letter and I was amazed at his frank humility about his work. Even though I never wrote a thesis I enjoyed my communication with Archbishop Sheen. He was one of my childhood heroes.
Dr. James Patrick (who helped found St. Thomas More College in Ft. Worth, Texas) was the head of our graduate theology program at that time and made a copy of my letter and filed it, as he was a Chesterton fan himself. He remarked that a direct attribution was what literary historians look for, but often never find.
Save this for when GKC’s cause is judged. Archbishop Sheen is likely to be canonized first, and if St. Fulton Sheen says “I owe it all to Chesterton”…well, that ought to go a long way. 😉
There is no doubt that Sheen borrowed heavily from Chesterton, both his wit and even the unique ascending meter of his prose in essays. CS Lewis liberally took Chestertonian ideas and restated themes his own. Both are great tributes to the great GKC.
Your message has been directed to me for comment. All I can say is that it sounds very much like what I know of Archbishop Sheen. He told an acquaintance of mine that anything he said that was of significance, he got from G K Chesterton and Ronald Knox. I think that sometimes he was so familiar with their writings that he used them without attribution, but at least he broadcast them to a wider audience.
Thanks for the information Mr. Pearce. I used to watch Bishop Sheen with my parents on TV in the 50’s (long before I became Roman Catholic). I just finished two more of your excellent books (Solzhenitsyn and Belloc) and enjoyed them very much. You autographed both of them at the talk you gave at St. Joseph Church in Salem, Oregon. Thanks for coming to Salem and speaking about Hillaire Bellock. I am thinking of re-subscribing to Gilbert and StAR magazines. I owe a lot to Bishop Sheen, Chesterton, Bellock and YOU !! Hurray to subsidiarity !!
What a wonderful afternoon this has turned out to be. Here are three of my all time favorite people together in one article: Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Gilbert Keith Chesterton and Joseph Pearce! What could possibly be better. Happy Thanksgiving to all. We have so much for which to express gratitude.
Thank you for the insight into the link between the two towering figures of letters and theology. Chesterton’s words in a 1909 article in Hibbert Journal “where (Christ) seems right to us is often in tune with matters not ancient but modern” and followed with, “But what nobody can possibly call him is a Galilean of the time of Tiberius,” were the words that broke through my hardness of heart to the belief in Christ’s divinity. The great moment of my life.
Chesterton wrote the introduction to Bishop Sheen’s first book. The two write and speak in angelic prose that soars into poetry.