ed at summer conferences of Westminster Cathedral in London and lectured at the Catholic Summer School at the University of Cambridge.

His first national prominence came with his long series of sermons preached on the Catholic Hour over the National Broadcasting Company, although his early books were on the market before that: Old Errors and New Labels; Philosophy of Science; War and Guilt and Freedom Under God. He was appointed Papal Chamberlain and made Domestic Prelate. Long before he became the Right Reverend Monsignor Sheen he had dropped his given name Peter to honor his mother, and the world perhaps does not know that she had christened him Peter J. rather than Fulton J. Sheen.

In 1951 Pope Pius XII elevated the gifted speaker and preacher to Titular Bishop of Cesariana and Auxiliary Bishop of New York. His facile pen had continued to turn out books one after the other, and no one could understand when the prelate had found the time to write them: Lift Up Your Heart, God and Intelligence, Three to Get Married, Philosophy of Religion, The World's First Love, Peace of Soul, and finally came a production masterpiece, Life is Worth Living.

As modern as a next year's automobile, the Bishop quickly thought television would be the medium with which he could reach the most people with the most effective messages. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, of which he is the Director, secured for him a half-hour period, and those who thought you couldn't successfully preach a sermon on TV were astounded to find the Sheen program topping all others on television ratings its first year. Today, the Bishop Sheen television program, Life is Worth Living, is generally recognized as the most inspirational half hour coming over the air waves, the rating showing that ten million people watch it weekly. Although of Roman Catholic sponsorship, Sheen carefully prepares his gifted sermons on a non- denominational basis, and keeps them on such spiritual level that men and women of all faiths eagerly look forward to his next week's program. They are never on a somber note. Sheen's listeners and viewers feel that he puts a certain joy into living, with his wit and sly humor, that enhances his theme: Life Is Worth Living.

The Bishop's uncle, Joseph Fulton, and a number of cousins are residents of El Paso, but the Bishop's visits to his birthplace in his busy life have been all too few. None the less, the town in which he was born is intensely proud of His Excellency, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, and the good that he is accomplishing throughout the United States in the spiritual uplift of millions.

James J. Sheppard was born January 1, 1868, in Panola, Illinois, a tiny place, yet he finally achieved great things in New York, America's greatest city. As a boy he worked on a farm, in a sawmill, and taught in country schools until he could earn enough money to attend Illinois State Normal University. From there he went to Harvard University,

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