VATICAN CITY (OSV News) -- Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, Illinois, presented Pope Leo XIV with a relic of the recently beatified Blessed Fulton Sheen during a private audience at the Vatican Oct. 5.
Bishop Tylka was one of four U.S. bishops who met the pope on Monday. The pope also received 75-year-old Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami for an individual private audience, as well as the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
For the bishop of Peoria, the opportunity to give the Chicago-born pope the relic was "a profound joy and privilege," especially because of Pope Leo's personal interest in Blessed Fulton Sheen, who was beatified in St. Louis on Sept. 24 with about 50,000 people in attendance.
"To place a relic of this son of the Diocese of Peoria into the hands of the first American pope, both of whom are from Illinois, was an especially moving moment," Bishop Tylka said in a statement following the papal audience.
"The Holy Father's own interest in Archbishop Sheen reminds us that his witness continues to speak to the Church today and challenges all of us to proclaim the Gospel with the same conviction and joy," the archbishop added.
Msgr. Jason Gray, the executive director of the Peoria-based Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, also took part in the papal audience.
"I felt that Archbishop Sheen was with us in spirit when greeting Pope Leo," Msgr. Gray said. "I am grateful that Pope Leo spoke so fondly of Archbishop Sheen, whom he remembered watching when he was young."
Pope Leo has previously praised Blessed Fulton Sheen as "a light of faith, hope and love that shone through the radio and television media for decades," as his broadcasts brought the Gospel to millions of Americans.
In comments to OSV News on the papal flight to Paris, France, the American pope recalled spending time with his family as a child watching Archbishop Sheen on television and remarked that he would have liked to attend the beatification.
The pope's first private audience of the day was with the U.S. bishops' conference president and vice president, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, respectively. The bishops were joined by Msgr. Michael J.K. Fuller, the USCCB general secretary, and Father Paul B.R. Hartmann, associate general secretary.
The papal audience is part of the annual visit made by the leadership of the U.S. bishops' conference to Rome to meet with offices in the Roman Curia.
Chieko Noguchi, USCCB spokesperson, told OSV News that the meeting was an opportunity to update Pope Leo on the Church in the United States.
"The USCCB is grateful for the opportunities that our bishops have to spend time with our Holy Father and assure him of our support and prayers," she said.
While in Rome, Archbishop Coakley will participate in the Oct. 7-14 meeting on marriage and family convened by Pope Leo, who called the heads of national bishops' conferences worldwide as well as the heads of Eastern Catholic Churches to the event, titled "Ten Years After 'Amoris Laetitia': Proclaiming the Gospel With Families Today."
Last week, Pope Leo had private audiences with two other U.S. bishops. The pope met one-on-one on Oct. 1 with Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle and with Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who presided over the diaconate ordination of 18 American seminarians from the Pontifical North American College during an evening Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
