The remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen are to be moved from St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to the Illinois city of Peoria after a two-year dispute between the two dioceses.
A New York judge ruled in favour of a lawsuit launched by the Diocese of Peoria to bring the remains back to where Archbishop Sheen first served as an altar boy and then was ordained a priest.
The dispute led to the suspension of Archbishop Sheen’s Cause two years ago.
Two years earlier the Vatican had declared the archbishop – an early televangelist who presented the television programme “Life Is Worth Living” in the 1950s – to have lived a life of “heroic virtue”, meaning he is described as Venerable.
A possible miracle is being investigated that would pave the way for his beatification.