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ROME — <\/span>The Vatican has given the green light, again, to beatify Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the popular U.S. radio and TV preacher whose path to sainthood was derailed<\/a> first by a lengthy court battle over his remains and then by concerns about how he handled clergy sexual misconduct cases.<\/p>\n After a rare six-year delay to investigate the concerns, Sheen’s beatification can now take place in Peoria, Ill., as originally planned, the Peoria diocese announced Monday.<\/p>\n No new date for the ceremony was immediately announced. But the Vatican’s approval now sets the stage for the Illinois-born Sheen to be beatified during the pontificate of the Illinois-born Pope Leo XIV<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Holy See has informed me that the cause for the Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen can proceed to beatification,” Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka said in a written and video statement on the websites of the diocese and the Sheen foundation. \u201cWe are working with the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints at the Vatican to determine the details for the upcoming beatification.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheen was an enormously effective evangelizer in the 20th century U.S. church, who in some ways pioneered televangelism with his 1950s television series, \u201cLife is Worth Living.\u201d According to Catholic University of America, where he studied and taught before he was made a bishop, Sheen won an Emmy Award, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine “and became one of the most influential Catholics of the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n Pope Francis had confirmed a miracle<\/a> attributed to Sheen\u2019s intercession on July 6, 2019 and had set his beatification for Dec. 21 that year in Peoria. But with less than three weeks\u2019 notice, the Vatican postponed the ceremony indefinitely.<\/p>\n It acted after the diocese of Rochester, N.Y., where Sheen served as bishop from 1966-1969, asked for further investigation<\/a> into Sheen\u2019s tenure and \u201chis role in priests\u2019 assignments.\u201d<\/p>\n The concerns focused on Sheen\u2019s handling of two cases of priests accused of sexual misconduct. Sheen was never accused of abuse himself. A top canonical affairs official from Peoria, Monsignor James Kruse, said in 2019 that an investigation had cleared Sheen of any wrongdoing. Kruse later complained that the Rochester diocese was \u201csabotaging\u201d the cause, writing a lengthy essay that had been posted on the official Sheen beatification site but later taken down.<\/p>\n Peoria Bishop Tylka’s statement made no reference to the concerns that prompted the delay in 2019. <\/p>\n The 2019 investigation was the latest obstacle to bedevil Sheen\u2019s cause, coming after an expensive, years-long legal battle between Sheen\u2019s relatives in Peoria and the New York City archdiocese over his final resting place.<\/p>\n Sheen, who died in 1979, was interred under the altar of St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in New York. His remains were returned to Peoria in 2019 after a court ruled Sheen\u2019s niece could bury him there.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n