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Meet the Emmy Award-winning American priest who converted celebrities and communists

Carmel Communications
Meet the Emmy Award-winning American priest who converted celebrities and communists
RNS Press Release Distribution Service

New book on Archbishop Fulton Sheen reveals his gift for converting lost sheep

SAN FRANCISCO – While the life of Venerable Fulton Sheen could fill many volumes, it was the souls he won for God that fills the new book by Cheryl Hughes, ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN: CONVERT MAKER (Ignatius Press).

Hughes holds a Ph.D. in historical theology from Durham University in England. Her books include Katharine Drexel: The Riches-to-Rags Story of an American Catholic Saint (2014) and Crossing Boundaries and Confounding Identity: Chinese Women in Literature, Art, and Film (2023). She and her husband live in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


Through Sheen’s magnetic personality, wit and compassion, many thousands of people likely entered the Church from all walks of life. ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN: CONVERT MAKER reveals the conversion stories of jazz legend Ada “Bricktop” Smith, journalist Heywood Broun, Communist activist Louis Budenz, U.S. Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce, spy Elizabeth Bentley, composer Fritz Kreisler, Communist Bella Dodd and Hollywood starlet Virginia Mayo. 

But it’s amongst the pages of ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN: CONVERT MAKER that readers will learn that Sheen was the most sought-after expert on Communism in the United States and that it was through Sheen’s broadcasts that the young priest, Karol Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II), partly learned English. The two priests became friends during the Second Vatican Council.

“An insightful book. I am confident that your encounter with Archbishop Sheen in the pages of this book will open you to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit — to a deeper conversion of heart and soul,” said Most Reverend Louis Tylka, Bishop of Peoria, Illinois.

For more information, to request a media review copy, or to schedule an interview with Cheryl Hughes, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or [email protected]) of Carmel Communications.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.

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