It was truly a “Sheen Week” for Catholics in the United States.

The beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen in St. Louis before about 50,000 people created a massive outpouring of “Sheen-abilia” in the Catholic press and digital sphere.

The beatification, and the events in both Peoria, Illinois, and St. Louis leading up to it, were a testament to Blessed Fulton Sheen’s everlasting influence and the enduring liveliness of the nation’s Catholic faith.

Here in the Diocese of Brooklyn, we too can lay claim to several contacts with Blessed Sheen during his 60 years of priesthood, many of which were spent in New York. For example, Blessed Sheen dedicated the outdoor grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in New Hyde Park on Aug. 5, 1945, when that parish was still in the Diocese of Brooklyn (it is now a part of the Diocese of Rockville Centre).

Blessed Sheen preached a series of Friday night Lenten sermons at Our Lady of Angels in Bay Ridge in the early 1960s.

At Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills, he preached a Lenten Mission in 1964, and led the Good Friday Three Hours Agony for several years.

However, Blessed Sheen’s most frequent and productive contact with the Diocese of Brooklyn was in the service of the worldwide missions of the Catholic Church.

From 1946 to 1976, he served as a board director of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, and from 1950 to 1966 he was the national director for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which still notes that he raised more money for the Church’s missions than any other American Catholic.

In this latter role, he collaborated closely with the Diocese of Brooklyn’s own Auxiliary Bishop John Boardman, who helped Blessed Fulton Sheen as the treasurer of the national Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Bishop Boardman was the fourth auxiliary bishop in the history of the diocese, from 1952 until his retirement in 1977, and during that time served not only as Brooklyn Diocesan Director of the “Prop” office, but also as pastor of the parishes of Holy Name and Our Lady of Angels, both in Brooklyn.

Both Blessed Sheen and Bishop Boardman attended Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) sessions, but their work at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith cemented their friendship.

Therefore, Blessed Sheen delivered the homily at Bishop Boardman’s funeral Mass in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica on Friday, July 21, 1978. That day, Blessed Sheen rose from a hospital bed to preach and noted in his homily that his episcopal ring had been lost in the hospital but was found just before he was discharged for the funeral.

Blessed Sheen quipped, “It was Bishop Boardman’s first miracle.”

It seems fitting that these two champions of Catholic missionary work and evangelization were based in New York City, where so many of the world’s Catholics have come and continue to live the faith they learned in their own countries, largely because of these mission-driven bishops. We ask you to follow their splendid example in supporting the second collection on the annual World Mission Sunday, Oct. 18.

Let their work continue to shine before us as a beacon, sustaining our efforts for worldwide Catholic evangelization, as they did with such zeal.