New York in court to bar move of Sheen remains to Peoria

May 21, 2019

|Associated Press

New York in court to bar move of Sheen remains to Peoria — With evidence of her son’s alleged miraculous healing boxed and sealed in front of a portrait of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Bonnie Engstrom gives a reading at a 2011 Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria, Ill. (Credit: Tom Dermody/The Catholic Post via CNS.)

PEORIA, Illinois — Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria say their counterparts in the Archdiocese of New York are trying to halt the transfer of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s remains to Illinois.

Earlier this month, New York’s Court of Appeals rejected the archdiocese’s argument that lower courts erred in giving permission to a Sheen relative to transfer his remains to Peoria, where he was ordained 100 years ago.

The Journal Star in Peoria reports Monday the archdiocese has filed a petition arguing that Sheen is the “prime and paramount” determiner of his final resting place. Five days before his death in 1979, Sheen signed a will seeking burial in the archdiocese’s graveyard, Calvary Cemetery. He is interred at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Peoria diocese wants to inter Sheen’s remains this year in St. Mary’s Cathedral, where he was ordained in 1919. The diocese also wants sainthood for Sheen, known for his revolutionary radio and TV preaching in the 1950s and ’60s.

The New York archdiocese did not respond to a request for comment.

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