Allan Smith, the director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Mission Society of Canada, heard just a single line of the famed American radio and television host’s writing in 2009 and was captivated.

While he was helping his daughter settle into her dormitory at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Barry’s Bay, Ont., his wife Isabel came back from visiting the school library with some free books in tow. One was Sheen’s major 1949 work, Piece of Soul.

“She read the first lines of that book, and it simply was, ‘unless souls are saved, nothing is saved,’ ” recollected Smith. “When I heard ‘souls are saved, nothing is saved,’ I thought, ‘who speaks in this language today?’ And so, I was hooked.”

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He would later come to learn that his father experienced a similar powerful phenomenon upon hearing Sheen for the first time.

“He was a convert to the Catholic faith because of Fulton Sheen,” said Smith. “My father is one of hundreds of thousands of souls who started to trust the Catholic Church because of listening to Fulton Sheen on the radio and watching him on television. He explained the faith. He dispelled the lies, the falsehoods. He was really good that way. And he showed his joy, his love for Jesus.”

It’s fitting that the Cambridge, Ont., resident was first entranced by the late Bishop of Rochester’s work at a postsecondary institute. Smith likes to say that while “some people have a Bachelor of Arts degree, I have a Bachelor of Sheen degree,” a “B. Sheen,” as it were.

“I'm just an ordinary person, a plumber by trade, and yet he spoke to me in simple terms,” said Smith. “He took those lofty spiritual ideals that St. Thomas Aquinas would write about, and he brought them down to our level, to a very simple level. I just read one book after another. I think I had read 24 Sheen books in my first year.”

After being deeply immersed in Sheen’s writing, cassette tapes and videos for a time, Smith was determined to share the American prelate’s wisdom with a wider audience.

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He approached a local community radio station and was granted permission to host a Fulton Sheen show on Monday evenings. Listeners responded with strong positive feedback about how delighted they were to hear the late host of The Catholic Hour and Life is Worth Living on the radio. 

Smith has now broadcast well over 1,000 programs through FM98.5 CKWR and the international Radio Maria network. His knowledge about Sheen also secured him lecture engagements at St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto, St. Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton and the Seminary of Christ the King in Mission, B.C. He also donated books about Sheen to seminaries across Canada.

Bishop Daniel Jenky, who served as the eighth bishop of Peoria in Illinois from 2002 to 2022, took notice of Smith’s abundant enthusiasm and wellspring of knowledge about Sheen. The retired invited the Canadian to join the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, a body of individuals spearheading the movement to have Sheen beatified as a saint. This honour is quite distinct, considering Smith is the only non-American invited to sit on the advisory board.

“I was invited to participate in this process that we are enjoying today, especially with these beautiful announcements of the beatification moving forward,” said Smith.

Since joining the foundation in 2013, Smith has never felt a desire to relocate southward to Peoria. He believes in the sentiment “to bloom where you are planted.” He remains determinedly committed to his vocation to propagating the evangelism of Sheen to Canadians from coast to coast.

In the wake of the Feb. 9 announcement that Sheen’s beatification will move forward after a six-year pause, Smith said there are ongoing considerations about the venue and date of the ceremony.

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Peoria is unlikely to be the host city, said Smith, as the Peoria Civic Center has a capacity of just over 11,000 people. There is a desire to fill a stadium with at least 80,000 people. The beatification of Fr. Solanus Casey at Ford Field in Detroit serves as a template for what the foundation hopes to achieve. The ceremony for the Capuchin friar on Nov. 18, 2017, drew a crowd of more than 60,000 people.

Regarding the date, discussions continue with the Vatican, as an envoy of the Holy See is required at the event where Sheen becomes Blessed. Smith floated Sept. 20 as a possible date, as Sheen was ordained on Sept. 20, 1919, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.