The letter was short – just two paragraphs – but the news had Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka over the moon: Fulton Sheen was cleared for beatification.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has been lobbying Rome to make Sheen (1895-1979) a saint. Monday, Tylka announced the Sheen cause had reached its second-to-last hurdle: The Vatican has approved the beatification of Sheen, who’ll be known as Blessed Fulton Sheen unless and until he’s canonized and becomes St. Fulton Sheen.

Sheen, who was born in El Paso, Illinois, was a world-renowned author and theologian featured in radio and TV programs, including “Life is Worth Living,” which aired in the 1950s.

Tylka discussed his reaction to Monday’s news from Cardinal Prefect for the Dicastery of Saints.

How excited were you to get the news?

I’m tremendously excited. We’ve been praying for the advancement of the cause for Archbishop Fulton Sheen and we’ve been working for that. The conversations, especially the conversations taking place over the last year, were pointing us in this direction, so I wasn’t completely surprised that I got the news. I was certainly excited to be able to share the news with everybody.

I’d like to hear more about the fact that it didn’t come as a total surprise. In that context, take me back to May when Pope Leo XIV became our new pontiff. Did you wonder if maybe having an American-born pope might spur the Sheen cause?

No. Honestly, I didn’t. Obviously, we rejoice that Pope Leo was elected and, as a fellow Chicagoan, there’s a great pride in that. I think it’s a blessing that we have Pope Leo and I’m very grateful for his leadership. But in all honesty, I think we would still be in this same position if Pope Francis were still around. I think it was a matter of trusting in God’s time that this would come to fruition. It seems providential that we have a pope from the United States, from Chicago, who is the one who gets to sign off and moving the cause of another native Illinoisan who’s left a significant mark on the church.

There is no set date for beatification, but is there an emerging timetable? I mean, you couldn’t do it tomorrow. Realistically, what’s our window for seeing Sheen beatified?

Sure. We now have to work with the Dicastery of Saints to settle upon a date. We will put forward some suggested dates. Ultimately, Rome will decide and send a cardinal to be the official representative of the holy father for the celebration of the beatification Mass. There are a number of moving parts to that. As you say, we’re not going to get told that we do this next week. It’s going to take some time to actually plan, settle a date and then to plan the celebration itself. So, I would anticipate probably sometime in the second half of this year.

How stressful will this be for you and your staff? Will this command a lot of attention, require a lot of organization?

Yes. This is an event for not just the diocese of Peoria, but an event for the church. When you look at the life and legacy of Archbishop Sheen –a native son of Peoria and a priest of Peoria –he spent a lot of his ministry in other parts of our country and, literally, other parts of the world. I’m sure there’s going to be great interest by many people who would like to participate in the beatification. So it will be a very significant task for us to plan the beatification in a way that maximizes the availability of people to participate. I anticipate, for myself and my team, that we’re going to have many sleepless nights as we move forward, making all the arrangements and preparations.

To what extent did the late Monsignor Richard Soseman play a role in this?

Especially in, if I can use the term “modern-day process” of canonizing saints, there’s a lot of effort that goes into investigating an individual’s life and their heroic witness of faith. We’ve been blessed in the Diocese of Peoria to have a number of people, including the late Monsignor Richard Soseman, who were actively involved in the process of putting together the papers that ultimately were sent to Rome to advance the cause. I’m so grateful for all those who have been, over the last 20 years, really working to put the cause together and to keep shepherding it forward in so many different ways. All of them, I’m sure, are smiling down upon us, whether they’re with us now or already with the Lord, knowing that their efforts are bearing fruit. Monsignor Soseman was a good, good man, a great priest, and certainly a devoted follower of Sheen, and so I’m grateful for all he did to help us in advancing the cause.