FAITH
God won a television Emmy in 1952
God had good ratings. He was the Mr. Beast of his time.
American Bishop Fulton, J. Sheen was preaching a sermon.
In the front row of the church he noticed a mother and her little boy.
Bishop Sheen went on with his sermon for about 15 minutes when he noticed the little boy tugging at his mother’s sleeve.
Recalling this, Bishop Sheen said he understood for a little boy 15 minutes could seem like 15 hours.
The bishop overheard the little boy whisper his distress to his mother: “Mom. Is it this hard to get into into heaven?”
Bishop Sheen told that story on his weekly television show, Life If Worth Living, to his weekly audience of 30 million souls.
That’s not a misprint. Thirty million.
Sheen is the only Catholic Bishop to have won a television Emmy.
In his 1952 Emmy acceptance speech Bishop Sheen said, “I’d like to thank my writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
It was a stolen joke.
There weren’t many channels in the early 1950s. Bishop Sheen was on the Dupont Network, in an unenviable time slot, broadcasting at the same time as Texaco Star Theatre on NBC, starring the comedian Milton Berle, who had used the joke on his show. Berle was so popular he was later called, Mr. Television. His show decimated all competition- except the Catholic Bishop.
After Sheen won the ’52 television Emmy, Berle quipped, “The Bishop and I have the same boss. Sky Chief Supreme,” referring to the premium gasoline Texaco sold.
Bishop Sheen was a pioneer in broadcasting. He was first invited to give a sermon on radio in 1926. Sheen proved so popular on radio he was invited to speak to a weekly audience.
He was an American priest born in El Paso, Illinois, who had studied in Belgium. He taught at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His courses were called, “The Philosophy of Religion,” and “God and Modern Philosophy.” His lectures were popular among students.
He first appeared on television in 1940. By that time he had been addressing his weekly Catholic Hour radio audience for 10 years and was receiving over 70 letters a day.
He would address his audience for ten years more before he was invited to speak on television, a new medium gaining popularity as Americans purchased television sets for their homes.
His time slot was put directly across from the most popular comic in America, a sure sign the Catholic television show would wither and die. It didn’t. It thrived. From his televised puplit, Bishop Sheen raised millions for charity.
Bishop Fulton was not a fire-and-brimstone preacher. He used humour and pathos to get his televised message across.
In one address he kindly told those watching: “Sometimes the only way for God to get into hearts is to break them.”
