{"id":2880,"date":"2012-07-22T05:56:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-22T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=2880"},"modified":"2025-09-28T19:43:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T19:43:29","slug":"msgr-franco-of-st-augustnes-quoted-on-archbishop-fulton-sheen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=2880","title":{"rendered":"Msgr. Franco of St. Augustine’s, quoted on Archbishop Fulton Sheen"},"content":{"rendered":"

this came from my friend Nancy, who received it from our joint friend Antoinette.<\/p>\n

Msgr. Franco is the Pastor of St. Augustine's in Ossining, which is also the parochial school that Joe and Tim attended.<\/p>\n

Way back when Sheen had his successful TV program, Hilary Franco was the "angel" who mysteriously wiiped the chalkboard.<\/p>\n

The whole article – not very long – is interesting including touching on Sheen's weakness – vanity. i am just excerpting the comments by Msgr. Franco –<\/p>\n

First Things: "The True Stardom of Fulton Sheen"<\/a><\/p>\n

On June 28, Pope Benedict officially recognized Archbishop Sheen as someone who had lived a life of \u201cheroic virtue,\u201d and declared him \u201cVenerable.\u201d The devout priest from Peoria who became the first televangelist, commanded a weekly audience of 30 million, and appeared on the cover of Time<\/em>, is now just one step away from beatification, and a second from sainthood, pending two respective miracles. The Vatican is already studying the case of a stillborn child who\u2014having shown no vital signs for 60 minutes\u2014astonishingly came back to life, after his mother prayed for the Archbishop\u2019s intercession.<\/p>\n

The advance of Sheen\u2019s cause has elated his many supporters, especially three priests who\u2019ve had a special devotion to it. <\/p>\n

Monsignor Hilary Franco, who served as the Archbishop\u2019s assistant when he headed the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in America\u2014and is the only surviving member of his New York household\u2014told me how thankful he was for the announcement: \u201cI am a living witness to Archbishop Sheen\u2019s holiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite all the acclaim he received, Sheen strived to maintain \u201cthe simplicity of a dedicated parish priest,\u201d said Monsignor. For Sheen, the priesthood was a precious gift that needed to be nourished through continual prayer. Every day, no matter where he was, even if traveling abroad, he made it a point to spend one hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It kept his mind constantly on the divine, and fortified his work.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Sheen\u2019s generosity was legendary. Apart from donating his own earnings to the Church, he raised enormous sums of money for the poor, the missions, and additional works of mercy. He brought famous celebrities into the Church, but brought far more unknowns<\/em> into it, who were famous \u201cin the eyes of God.\u201d His private acts of charity were never publicized, but flowed from the heart of a servant. Monsignor Franco revealed how the Archbishop rescued a man named Victor from the streets:<\/p>\n

He had suffered from leprosy and was so  badly deformed he was afraid to show himself during the day. When Archbishop Sheen discovered Victor\u2019s desperate condition, he immediately saw to it that he was cared for, given proper medical attention, and invited him to dine with us every Friday night. He embraced Victor\u2019s full human dignity and treated him as a member of his own family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

this came from my friend Nancy, who received it from our joint friend Antoinette. Msgr. Franco is the Pastor of St. Augustine's in Ossining, which is also the parochial school that Joe and Tim attended. Way back when Sheen had his successful TV program, Hilary Franco was the "angel" who mysteriously wiiped the chalkboard. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11998,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2880\/revisions\/11998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}