PEORIA, Ill. — On the evening of June 8, the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, announced that earlier in the day the Supreme Court of New York had ruled for the second time in favor of Joan Sheen Cunningham and her petition to move Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s body from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.
Bishop Daniel Jenky, bishop of Peoria and promoter of the cause for canonization of Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, made the announcement “with great joy,” according to an official statement.
The new ruling and order, to move Sheen’s body from New York to Peoria, comes after the Appellate Court of New York remanded the case, following the first decision in Cunningham’s favor back to the Supreme Court for an evidentiary hearing and a new ruling.
The evidentiary hearing was required to examine differing testimony between key witnesses. The first ruling by Supreme Court Judge Arlene Bluth was also in favor of 90-year-old Cunningham, who had petitioned the court to allow her to transfer the remains of her uncle Fulton Sheen to Peoria so that his canonization cause could proceed.
In today’s decision, Judge Bluth found that “everyone at the hearing testified that Archbishop Sheen, a devout Catholic, would definitely want to be named a saint because it would help him continue to serve man and God and Catholics all around the globe for generations and generations.”
Weighing testimony from both sides, Judge Bluth determined, “It follows that Archbishop Sheen would care much less about the location of his earthly remains than his ability, as a saint, to continue to serve man and God on a grand scale after his earthly demise.”
“Mrs. Cunningham has offered a sound reason and a laudable purpose for her petition,” she said.
The judge communicated the disinterest of the court regarding whether Sheen should be a saint, or whether he actually becomes a saint: “Those are issues for the Roman Catholic Church to consider,” she stated.