A Saintly Supper: Fulton Sheen and the Turning of a Communist

http://www.1470wmbd.com ^ | Ken Zurski

[NKP_Vet]

The Hotel Commodore building sits at the corner of 42nd street and Lexington in the heart of Manhattan’s thriving business hub once known as Terminal City, a complex of hotels and offices conveniently connected to New York’s bustling Grand Central Station. Gloriously introduced in 1919, the hotel boasted a total of ten elevators and 2000 commodious rooms, each one elegantly designed and quite modern for its time. The ceilings were built low for a trendier look, and the largest and most expensive room came with its own working waterfall. The spacious reception area was touted as “The Most Beautiful Lobby in the World,” and outside the main entrance, patrons were greeted by a statue of the man the hotel was named after: Cornelius Vanderbilt, a former steamboat entrepreneur and railroad and shipping tycoon, known as “The Commodore.”

Today, after many renovations, the space is now occupied by the Grand Hyatt of New York, a swanky hotel owned by Donald Trump. The old building is hardly recognizable other than the statue nearby, which still stands. But in its heyday, the Hotel Commodore was an architectural stamp and idyllic retreat. From the moment its doors opened, rooms were almost always filled to capacity and the lobby packed. It was also the perfect place for a meeting, especially a clandestine one. Due to its proximity to the train station, overflow crowds moved feverishly about the hotel’s lobby. With such anxious and hurried activity inside, one could easily maneuver through the excited throng without being noticed or paid any mind. And so it was here at the Hotel Commodore in a quaint but quiet corner of the dining room, in a table for two, that an unlikely conclave took place.

[NKP_Vet]

“We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.” (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)

[oprahstheantichrist]

Fulton Sheen was wonderful. This is interesting, also:

http://catholicism.org/bella-dodd-from-communist-to-catholic

[Pajamajan]

Bookmark

[Pajamajan]

Bookmark

[Praxeologue]

The Catholic Church tried to diffuse some of Sheen’s comments by posting a lookout in the radio studio. The mandate was clear: cut the microphone if Sheen mentioned anything about the Russians and communism. Sheen had said all along that his battle was not with the Russian people but with the Soviet government’s polices. Still the Church wanted no backlash. Because of the scrutiny, Sheen nearly quit the radio show, but endured the pull of the church’s leash with grace. ... Shortly after the war, during a speech in Akron, Sheen was approached by a high-ranking official in the clergy and asked, “What are you talking about tonight?” Sheen replied matter-of-factly, “About Russia and Eastern Europe and how Russia will take over all of Eastern Europe.” The man was furious. “You’re crazy! Russia is a democracy,” he insisted. “It is no longer communist.” Sheen started down a flight of stairs. He wanted no part of a confrontation. But as his foot hit each step, Sheen remembers the man pointing his finger and yelling at him from above. “You’re wrong! You’re wrong! You’re wrong!” the man said. Sheen reached the bottom, turned and looked up. “Someday you will see,” he said, “Eastern Europe will belong to the communists.”

Seven decades ago, the American Catholic Church was trying to prevent Fulton Sheen from revealing atheist communism.

They were, and are, the political ideologues, not Sheen.

[Bigg Red]

Wow! Great story. I read the whole thing.

I can remember that my mother used to watch Bishop Sheen, but I was too young to comprehend what he was talking about.

[Bigg Red]

Great quote!

[Dick Vomer]

The catholic church was infiltrated by communists many years ago and is aided by the homosexuals in the clergy.

[onedoug]

Where was Sheen’s anti-communism during the Vietnam War? Seems to me when he had to put up or shut up he took he took the peacenik’s mantle and ran with it.

[ebb tide]

Great article and thanks for posting. But I don’t understand why Bishop Sheen rebaptized a man who was raised a Catholic and had even served as an altar boy.

[NKP_Vet]

The Vietnam war was not a just war. He had to oppose it.
I am a Vietnam vet and proud of my service but looking back on it now it was a civil war we should have never been a part of. LBJ didn’t go in to win and it dragged on for 15 years. All it did in the end was make some politicians rich (LBJ being the biggest benefactor and 60,000 American killed and hundreds of thousands messed up for life. If Washington had wanted to win the war we could have turned the North into a big parking lot as early as 65 and that would have been the end of it. But those SOBs never have to the fight the wars they start. Be a hell of a lot different if they did.

[Robwin]

The Vietnam war was not a just war. He had to oppose it. I am a Vietnam vet and proud of my service but looking back on it now it was a civil war we should have never been a part of.

Amen, brother

[Salvation]

What exactly causes you to say this?

[onedoug]

Once forces had been committed I would not have actively opposed the war. Of course, I was there too, and so would have made little difference then. But I guess that it wasn’t a ‘just war’ is the reason Jane Fonda wasn’t executed for Treason.

I’d rather have taken the chance with the Chaplaincy Corps who were out there with us.

[Dick Vomer]

“What exactly causes you to say this?”

communist infiltrated the Catholic Church? Of course.

Homosexuals aided by those communist to destroy the church? Of course.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0895554496?pc_redir=1396634987&robot_redir=1

http://www.whale.to/b/homosexual_colonization.html