VIEW FUTURE SAINT’S MITRE — A mitre (bishop’s hat) of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen (right side of photo) was given to Bishop Thomas John Paprocki (center) on loan after Bishop Paprocki was the recipient of the Fulton J. Sheen Award at the Sports Faith International and WSFI Catholic Radio Sports Faith Hall of Fame induction ceremony May 27 in Waukegan. You can view the mitre after the 10 a.m. Mass on June 18 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. Archbishop Sheen (shown in a photograph on the left), a former priest of the Diocese of Peoria who died in 1979, was a pioneer in radio and television. A former auxiliary bishop of the New York Archdiocese, he served as Bishop of Rochester from 1966 to 1969 and spent his final years preaching retreats and missions. In 2012, Archbishop Sheen was declared “Venerable” by Pope Benedict XVI, step two of four of becoming a saint. In 2019, Pope Francis approved a miracle attributable to the intercession of Archbishop Sheen, paving the way for his eventual beatification (step three of becoming a saint). Former Sacred Heart-Griffin High School (Springfield) football coach, Ken Leonard, was also inducted into the Sports Faith Hall of Fame May 27. A reminder that during the diocesan Year of the Eucharist, going on now through Dec. 8, you can receive an indulgence if you visit the Cathedral in Springfield or Ss. Peter and Paul in Alton, receive holy Communion, go to confession, and pray for the pope’s intentions.

Photo by Andrew Hansen