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Mass Today Promotes Sheen For Sainthood

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Published: January 24, 2009

Paul Cicarelli believed he would get his miracle.

In May 2000, I interviewed the 53-year-old St. Petersburg man from his bed. He was under hospice care during the last stages of lung cancer.

"Nothing is impossible for God," Cicarelli, a father of five, said. "A priest told me that I still have things to accomplish in this life. I feel that in my heart, too."

He had printed up a petition to God for a miraculous recovery through the intercessory prayers of the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a pioneer of religious radio and television broadcasting. Cicarelli, a big admirer of Sheen, also had spent his career in communications, working as a reporter, photographer and television producer before his illness.

The miracle Cicarelli asked for was not to be granted. He died three months later on July 4.

Dream Lives On

But his dream that Sheen would one day be declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church - a process that can take centuries and requires documentation, testimonies and investigations - is alive. Today at 4 p.m., a special Mass will be offered at the Cathedral of St. Jude, 5815 Fifth Ave. N., St. Petersburg, to memorialize Sheen and promote the national movement for his sainthood.

The movement is led by the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, formed in 1998 and under the sponsorship of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Ill.

Sheen died of heart disease on Dec. 9, 1979. He left a legacy that influences Catholics and non-Catholics alike: author of 73 books, scholar of philosophy and theology, a noted media personality, world traveler in the work of the church's missions and an influence in the historical Second Vatican Council. He also won an Emmy Award for his renowned "Life is Worth Living" TV program.

Cicarelli, and many others, believe Sheen should be the church's first American-born male saint. Elizabeth Ann Seton became the first female saint born in this country.

To achieve that honor, it takes two or more documented miracles that can be attributed directly to their intercessory prayers to God. Cicarelli had hoped his would be the first.

But there have been other alleged miracles. Last February, the documentation that supports the cause for Sheen's canonization was sent to Rome for Vatican review, said Jane Peverly, who works with the foundation.

"It could take five years or 500," she said in a phone interview. "The church works on its own timetable. But the important thing is that the process is underway."

Peverly said today's Mass at St. Jude Cathedral will be the second to memorialize Sheen and promote the movement. More are planned this year.

"There's a whole generation of young Catholics who don't know about the archbishop's contributions. This is our way of introducing him," she said.

And if he were alive today? "I'm sure he would have used the Internet and a BlackBerry to get his message out. He was always ahead of his time when it came to communications," she said.

Keeping A Promise

One of the people in attendance at the service will be Diane Cicarelli, a 28-year-old event planner from Orlando. Her late father made her promise that no matter what happened to him, she would not give up on the campaign for Sheen's sainthood.

She's kept that promise every night, offering a prayer specially written for this cause by her father.

"He didn't get his miracle. That was God's will," she says. "But I know how passionate he was about Archbishop Sheen, and how strong he felt about him becoming a saint. So in my dad's memory, we will keep on praying."

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