When Tim and Katie Blatchford got married in August 2025, they wanted to include a prayer on their wedding card that was slightly different from the usual selections.
They chose the prayer for the canonization of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
The Gen Z couple, who are in their 20s, had chosen Sheen as the patron of their marriage. During a trip to New York, they visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral and prayed Sheen’s canonization prayer at the site where he had been buried prior to being reinterred in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois.
“It’s just stuck with us ever since then,” Katie said. “And we’ve tried to pray it regularly since then.”
The choice might seem unusual for a young couple. Sheen died in 1979, nearly half a century before their wedding and long before Katie and Tim were born.
But among Gen Z Catholics, he is experiencing something of a second life. A generation with no firsthand memory of his television fame is seeking out his teachings on marriage, family and the spiritual life — and, like the Blatchfords, finding in Sheen a figure they can claim as their own.
Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen rose to prominence in
