Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, sainthood, and godless communism

 As one of those black sheep Catholics ( after all, despite my Marxist
inspired understanding of rotten capitalism, I never officially registered
with the Church of the Big Bang ) , I would like to weigh in on the solemn
question of sainthood for the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. He had the right
Hollywood image LOOK of the saint- those piercing eyes that could see right
into the wicked hearts of all those damned souls in his TV audience. He
could be a brilliant Catholic intellectual. When I was just an adolescent I
found wisdom and instruction in many of his published essays.

Bishop Sheen did finally come around to opposing the Vietnam
War -in contrast to that anti-communist pillar of the Cold War, Francis
Cardinal Spelman.  How could Sheen not be opposed to the truly " godless "
communism centered in Moscow ?  But for me the real purpose of the 1950s
anti-communist hysteria was to make the American people hostile even to
democratic socialism. To a degree the radicalization of the 60s youth
challenged  mindless political conformity in America.

But too many Americans still think that the collapse of "
godless communism " in the former Soviet Union in the early 90s was the
final verdict on the very ideal of socialism In a way, Vladimir Putin was
right about the collapse of the Soviet Union being an historical tragedy.
Today  unhappy, rebellious, third world youth have embraced irrational
,dogmatic religious orthodoxies, To be sure, Soviet communism had its
rational roots in Western Civilization and would never have supported any
uprising inspired by Islamic fanaticism. Is not BEHEADING the most telling
form of execution for a brainless social philosophy ?

What would the good Bishop Sheen have said about this new
barbarism ?  But I do not recommend him for sainthood- often too unctuous
and Jesuit brained for that heavenly honor. How about a posthumous Academy
Award  for best evangelical TV theatrics ?