Stories

* By Father Anthony D. Andreassi, C.O., Ph.D.

In this next installment of our series on the life and legacy of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, we turn to the closing years of his ministry as Bishop of Rochester, New York. His early time in the diocese had been marked by remarkable energy: new structures of consultation, bold reforms in seminary formation and sacramental life, a deep emphasis on prayer and Eucharistic renewal, and a sincere effort to translate the missionary spirit of the Second Vatican Council into concrete pastoral action. Yet as the upheaval of postconciliar Catholic faith and practice unfolded alongside the wider unrest and rapid cultural change reshaping American society in the late 1960s, that vision would be tested by growing tensions within diocesan life. It is within this increasingly complex setting that the final phase of Sheen’s Rochester ministry took shape. 

By the summer of 1967, the unrest that had been building across American society had become impossible to ignore. Protests against the Vietnam War were increasingly spilling into the streets of the nation’s cities, even as racial tensions erupted in repeated urban uprisings. More than 9,000 Americans died in Vietnam that year alone, deepening national anxiety and sharpening generational and political divisions. At the same time, dozens of cities were shaken by riots, most notably in Detroit, where violence lasted for several days, leaving forty-three people dead and more than 1,300 buildings damaged or destroyed. Federal troops were ultimately called into the city to restore order. Against this backdrop of war abroad and upheaval at home, Bishop Sheen’s efforts to guide Rochester through the changes of the late 1960s took on even greater complexity. 

In July of that same year, Bishop Sheen brought the question of war directly into the pulpit of Sacred Heart Cathedral, calling on President Lyndon Johnson to withdraw all American military personnel from Vietnam immediately. His appeal was very much in harmony with Pope Paul VI’s dramatic plea before the United Nations in October 1965: “No more war, war never again.” Sheen’s position also marked a striking contrast with that of Francis Cardinal Spellman, who was both Archbishop of New York and Military Vicar for the U.S. Armed Forces. During a visit to American troops in Vietnam in December 1966, Spellman had praised them as “holy crusaders” against communism and called for nothing less than “total victory.” The growing intensity of the debate was evident by January 1967, only eleven months before Spellman’s death, when antiwar protesters disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, underscoring how deeply the conflict had entered the life of the American Church itself. 

Sheen’s social engagement extended beyond questions of war and peace abroad to the pressing demands of justice at home. He showed particular concern for the plight of Rochester’s black community and for the future of the Catholic parishes located in neighborhoods undergoing rapid social and economic change. The backdrop to these concerns was the accelerating pattern of white flight and suburban expansion, which was hollowing out the city’s tax base and only deepening long-standing inequities in housing, education, employment, and public services. For Sheen, these were not merely civic issues but urgent pastoral realities, directly touching  the life of the Church and the credibility of her witness in the city. 

Against the backdrop of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs and the expanding federal commitment to urban renewal, Bishop Sheen conceived an extraordinary and highly symbolic initiative. He proposed offering an inner-city parish property to the federal government so that housing for the poor could be built on the site, hoping the gesture might become a model for bishops across the country in confronting urban poverty. In its earliest stages, Sheen even discussed the idea with officials in Rome, seeing it as a bold expression of the Church’s social mission. Yet significantly, he did not first consult city authorities, neighborhood leaders, or even key members of his own diocesan staff in any detailed way. After Sheen reached out directly to the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with this remarkably generous proposal, federal officials identified St. Bridget’s Church—an aging parish with relatively few active parishioners, many of them black and Hispanic—as the preferred site. 

Once the proposal had taken clearer shape, Sheen convened the diocesan Board of Consultors, whose approval for the transfer of the property to HUD was required by canon law, and they granted that approval. Yet Sheen did not meet with the parishioners of St. Bridget’s, fearing that consultation at this stage would slow the process, and the pastor himself voiced serious reservations. It was not long before rumors of the plan began to spread. Opposition quickly mounted, not only from parishioners deeply distressed at the prospect of losing their church and the community it sustained, but also from local civic leaders involved in urban renewal, many of whom believed the parish should remain as a stabilizing presence in an already fragile neighborhood. Despite the growing concern, Sheen remained resolute, and in late February 1968 he issued a public statement declaring that the plan would move forward. 

The reaction was immediate. Forces opposed to the plan quickly mobilized, including pickets outside diocesan headquarters and growing public criticism from both parishioners and civic leaders. While Sheen remained outwardly resolute in defending the decision, the intensity of the opposition deeply unsettled him. What he had envisioned as a bold act of Christian witness on behalf of the poor had become a source of division, pain, and public controversy. Privately, the conflict weighed heavily on him, leading him to wonder whether his usefulness in Rochester had come to an end. By this point he was seventy-three years old, and the mounting pressures of diocesan leadership in such a turbulent moment were beginning to exact a visible personal toll. 

Pressure against the decision soon intensified dramatically. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle editorialized against Sheen’s plan, and more than one hundred Rochester priests signed a petition opposing it as well. Faced with mounting resistance from the press, clergy, civic leaders, and parishioners, Sheen reversed himself less than five days after publicly declaring that the project would move forward. The episode proved deeply bruising. In retrospect, the pastor of St. Bridget’s would later observe that had Sheen first consulted with the parishioners, they very likely would have embraced the bishop’s vision for serving the poor, including giving up their church. Instead, what began as an ambitious effort to align the Church’s resources with the urgent needs of the urban poor exposed fractures in diocesan trust and highlighted the limits of unilateral leadership in a moment of rapid change. It was in the aftermath of this painful controversy that Sheen began to conclude that his time as Bishop of Rochester should come to an end. Remarkably, he had been in the diocese only fifteen months. 

Despite this enormous setback, Sheen remained firmly committed to supporting housing for the poor. Shortly after the St. Bridget’s debacle, he established what became the Bishop Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation, a more modest but ultimately enduring initiative. Within just a few years, the effort had already helped provide eighteen new homes for low-income families. What began as a local response to urban need would grow into one of the most lasting social ministries associated with Sheen’s Rochester years. Most Reverend Matthew Clark, who became Bishop of Rochester in 1979, later expanded the work in collaboration with the local Episcopal Diocese, strengthening its ecumenical dimension and broadening its reach. The foundation continues to this day, offering housing assistance and related support to low-income families in Rochester and the thirteen surrounding counties. 

In May of the following year, 1969, Sheen traveled to Rome and was granted a private audience with Pope Paul VI. During that meeting, the Holy Father agreed to Sheen’s request to step down, indicating that he would accept the resignation later that year. On September 20, Sheen marked the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood, though characteristically he asked that there be no public celebrations, though he did distribute to his family and friends a twenty-page booklet for the occasion. The following month, the Vatican formally announced that Pope Paul VI had accepted his resignation as Bishop of Rochester and had named him titular Archbishop of Newport, on the Isle of Wight.    

Although Sheen served in Rochester for less than three years, his time there revealed both the depth of his pastoral imagination and the burdens of episcopal leadership in an age of rapid change. He entered the diocese determined to embody the missionary spirit of Vatican II through prayer, reform, and a renewed commitment to the poor. Not every initiative succeeded, and some ended painfully, yet even his setbacks reflected a sincere desire to align the Church’s life more closely with the Gospel. His Rochester years thus stand as a testament to both the promise and the cost of courageous leadership.

**The author is the National Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.