America's Bishop

Description

The American Catholic Church’s most charismatic presence over several decades, Fulton Sheen was also its chief evangelist. Among his thousands of converts were celebrities such as Clare Booth Luce and Henry Ford II, and former communists Louis Budenz and Elizabeth Bentley. Reeves discusses these conversions and Sheen’s friendship with J. Edgar Hoover, and details for the first time the struggle between Sheen and his chief rival, Francis Cardinal Spellman, a battle that led all the way to the Pope and to Sheen’s final humiliation and exile. America’s Bishop is the first in-depth portrait of this flamboyant churchman and intellectual, and a social history of Catholicism in America during the twentieth century.

Description

"Fulton J. Sheen was the leading American Catholic of the twentieth century. He became familiar to a generation as the radiant figure in full bishop's robes who held the nation spellbound during the 1950s on his television show, Life Is Worth Living, which challenged Milton Berle's top-ranked show in the ratings. Sheen won an Emmy for Outstanding Television Personality. He was featured on the covers of Time, Look and Colliers, not to speak of TV Guide.". "In addition to being the American Church's most charismatic presence over several decades, Sheen was also its chief evangelist. Among his hundreds of converts were celebrities such as Clare Booth Luce and Henry Ford II, actress Loretta Young, and former Communists Louis Budenz and Elizabeth Bentley. Sheen's reputation has continued to grow since his death in 1979, and recently a movement has begun to build support for his canonization.". "Now, Thomas C. Reeves gives us the first in-depth portrait of this flamboyant churchman and intellectual, a figure who confronted the world, the flesh and the devil with piety and brilliance. The result of interviews with dozens of Sheen's converts and close personal friends, as well as family members and fellow priests, America's Bishop is a complex portrait of a complex man who never stopped striving to transcend his failings."--BOOK JACKET.

First Sentence

As the twentieth century wound to a close, there was speculation about who had been the greatest, the most popular, the most significant, and the most influential Catholics of the preceding hundred years.

Subjects

Other Editions

• America's Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. SheenHardcoverEncounter Books2001-06-01
• America's BishopPaperbackEncounter Books2002-11-25
• America's Bishop: The Life and Times of Fulton J. SheenElectronic resourceEncounter Books2005-01-01