FIRST ON FOX: As tens of thousands are expected to gather in St. Louis on Thursday for Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification, one church leader is sounding the alarm on the rise of communism in America and urging Catholics to embrace the late archbishop’s fierce opposition to the ideology.
In an exclusive video obtained by Fox News Digital, Bishop Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of Word on Fire Ministries, hails Sheen as “one of the great voices against communism in mid-20th century America,” a message he says remains relevant today.
“Now, you don’t need me to tell you that communism is making a comeback right now in our country,” Barron said in front of the Gateway Arch on Tuesday.
“And I think especially churchmen need, like Sheen, to raise their voices against it and, furthermore, as American churchmen, to speak out strongly on both American and Catholic principles against the re-emergence of this still very dangerous ideology.”
Sheen, an author and television personality who became one of the Catholic Church’s most prominent voices in the 20th century, will be beatified at The Dome at America’s Center. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will preside on behalf of Pope Leo XIV, when Sheen will officially receive the title of “Blessed,” a major step toward sainthood.
The Vatican approved Sheen’s beatification in 2019 after recognizing a miracle involving the unexplained recovery of James Fulton Engstrom, a baby born without a pulse in 2010, according to The Associated Press. In February, Pope Leo XIV approved moving forward with Sheen’s beatification after years of delays.
Barron’s comments come ahead of the November midterms, with communism and democratic socialism emerging as flashpoints in American politics. Republicans have pointed to recent Democratic primary victories by progressive and democratic socialist candidates as evidence the party is shifting further to the left.
According to Barron, Sheen believed communism could never coexist with religion, saying Sheen viewed it as “this hostility to religion.”
“Fulton Sheen knew that atheism was not incidental to communism, it was essential to it,” Barron said. “So on those grounds he opposed it.”
In his 1948 book, Communism and the Conscience of the West, Sheen described communism as a “complete philosophy of life” that attempts “to control man’s inner life as well.”
“Communism has a theory and a practice; it wishes to be not only a state but a church, judging the consciences of men; it is a doctrine of salvation and as such claims the whole man, body and soul, and in this sense is totalitarian,” Sheen wrote.
In addition to serving as a Catholic bishop, Barron said Sheen was also “a very proud American.”
“Those two identities came together in a very powerful way, I’d say, and especially in the ’40s and ’50s, in Sheen’s fierce anti-communism,” he said.
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Turning to the Declaration of Independence, Barron said Sheen argued communism, rooted in Karl Marx’s teachings, also threatened the foundations of equality, freedom and individual rights.
“Sheen knew if you take God out of the picture, you take equality, rights, freedom out of the picture,” he said. “Our integrity as a democratic society is dependent ultimately on our belief in God.”
Barron urged church leaders to follow Sheen’s lead and speak out against communism.
“So another way we can claim Fulton Sheen is Fulton Sheen, anti-communist,” he said. “We need that voice again today.”
