On Thursday Sept. 24, 2026, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was officially declared a blessed. He is the first American bishop to be beatified in the Catholic Church — a particularly beautiful milestone to be achieved under the papacy of the first American pope.
Among the 50,000 people who traveled to the beatification, a few different groups of UD students traveled to St. Louis in order to witness this historical event.
Senior theology major Dalila Sarinana commented on the beauty of the experience: “One [highlight] was just being able to see the thirty-minute long procession [to begin mass] with about 800 seminarians, 1,000 priests, and 89 bishops […] to see how alive the Church is, and to feel deeply a part of that.”
Along with all the bishops, priests and seminarians, there were many religious orders present at the beatification. It was a beautiful coming together of Americans from all over to celebrate the first Blessed American bishop.
During the three-hour long mass, Cardinal Tagle — the celebrant of the mass — read Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic letter declaring Sheen to officially be a blessed.
Sarinana said, “After they declared him a blessed, I sort of just was overwhelmed with this feeling of gratitude, but also it was so fitting because everybody was cheering, and I was like, yeah, of course we’re going to be cheering for our brother in faith who just won the race.”
Podcaster, radio host and UD alumna Katie Prejean McGrady gave a speech before the beatification mass. In her speech, she emphasized the fact that the beatification isn’t for the sake of Sheen but for the sake of the Church Militant on earth. The Church’s declaration that someone is blessed doesn’t catapult them into Heaven, it is a declaration to all of us on earth that the newly beatified is someone to whom the faithful can look for an example of holiness. The Church confidently says that the newly beatified is not only in Heaven, but also capable of performing intercession from Heaven.
Sarinana said: “[The beatification] gave me a lot of encouragement for my own life and for my own faith journey.”
She also noted the amount of families present: “Another thing that was really cool, particularly about the faith of the Church, was that whenever it was quiet, you could hear the babies crying around the stadium, and it was just so beautiful because everywhere you would turn, throughout the whole dome, it was filled with families.”
The beatification was a beautiful coming together of the Church. The variety of vocations present — priests, religious and families — shows the universality of the Church.
It was a true pilgrimage for many. Sarinana, along with four of her friends, drove to and from St. Louis, riding in the car for more than 20 hours over the course of the trip. The pilgrimage to attend the beatification included — as most good pilgrimages include — many joys and sufferings.
Sarinana encouraged others to make similar pilgrimages when the opportunity arises: “I would just want to encourage people to know, especially in terms of school, to be devoted to your schoolwork, for sure, but also to seize the opportunities that come to you. Because had I been too afraid to do this, I would not have been able to experience something with 50,000 other Catholics — this historic moment. So just be courageous and seize the moment.”