BOOK REVIEW

Bishop Sheen, the right Catholic for his time

By Diego Ribadeneira, Globe Staff, 11/13/1998

Buy it on  Amazon.com   (Boston.com receives a small percentage of each sale.)

he popular image of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is that of an institution in ferment, as liberal Catholics clash with official Vatican teachings on a host of issues. Indeed these are uneasy times for the church in America. There are fewer priests and nuns to tend to a growing flock. Many urban parishes and parochial schools are in poor financial health. And a significant chunk of young Catholics seem little interested in their faith.

But against this pessimistic background is another trend: a growing orthodox movement among American Catholics strongly supportive of Pope John Paul II's conservative ideology. These Catholics look back fondly to the era just prior to the Second Vatican Council, before the church tried to adjust to a more modern world and in so doing ushered in a time of tumult.

This is the period that forms the backdrop for Christopher Owen Lynch's fascinating analysis in "Selling Catholicism: Bishop Sheen and the Power of Television," which probes the influence of the enormously popular 1950s pastor Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Before the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, American Catholics were a much more united body of believers, with common views on how to live out their faith. Sheen, as Lynch details quite well, was as responsible as anyone for bringing Catholics together, from an enormously influential television pulpit. From 1952 to 1957, Sheen's 30-minute show, "Life is Worth Living," regularly drew 10 million viewers. He won an Emmy award over such stars as Lucille Ball and Jimmy Durante.

In an insightful, objective, if somewhat dry examination of Sheen's themes and his rhetoric, Lynch, an assistant professor in the communication and theater department at Kean University in New Jersey, provides a clear window into the work of a man who became a bigger hit than Milton Berle. Sheen's genius, as Lynch astutely observes, was to help Catholics feel more secure in American society at a time when some Christians still questioned whether Catholic allegiance was to the United States or to Rome.

"Sheen never compromises his Catholic theology, but through the use of metaphors he converts notions of traditional American ideology into Catholic ideas," Lynch writes. "One root metaphor gives America a Christic or salvific role. Sheen's jeremiad notes that America is a chosen nation whose guiding principles are inherently Catholic. These Catholic principles rest on a belief in individual freedom, but always within the boundaries of moral or natural law as interpreted by the church."

Rome couldn't have asked for a better promoter of the faith at a moment when Catholics were coming of age politically, economically, and socially. Essentially, Lynch's assessment of Sheen's message can be reduced to this -- obedience to authority is the hallmark of a faithful Catholic.

Though he obviously has invested a great deal of time researching his subject, Lynch at times loses the reader with dense writing. But his book is worth the effort. While generally achieving a dispassionate tone, he does at times take issue with some of Sheen's notions, particularly his belief that the "solution to any problem for women is noble suffering and submission."

"His ideology blessed the status quo and provided a place for the church in a secular society but at the same time compromised the values his ideology promoted," Lynch argues. "He never spoke about racism or institutional sin or economic or militaristic oppression in his telecasts because he was preoccupied with maintaining the order of his worldview."

By laying out Sheen's message for the reader to judge, Lynch wisely avoids clouding his book with personal biases, but it is apparent that he doesn't believe Sheen's brand of Catholicism could have survived for long.

The many better-educated Catholics taking to heart the Vatican Council's mandate that the laity take a stronger voice are no longer willing to listen to a Bishop Sheen or anyone else telling them how to be Catholics.

As Lynch notes, American Catholics are "skeptical of church authority and more willing to decide for themselves how they will express their Catholicity."

This story ran on page D8 of the Boston Globe on 11/13/1998.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.