New Career for Sheen

In his long career, the Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen was best known as a maker of famous converts and a magnetic television preacher. He never had to bother with pastoral duties. Inevitably, after Pope Paul VI named him Bishop of Rochester, N.Y., last November, the question arose: How would the celebrated Catholic evangelist perform as head of a modest diocese? "Spectacularly well" seems to be the answer.

Before he moved to Rochester, Sheen, 71, had something of a reputation as a churchly conservative, but he has turned out to be a highly imaginative innovator. "Introducing democracy into administration," as he puts it, Sheen permitted the 583 priests in the diocese to elect his vicar-general, or chief aide, who before had always been appointed by the bishop. He is forming a new clerical advisory council of twelve priests--also elected by the clergy--and has already named a lay administrative committee to handle financial affairs of the diocese.

Hope for All. Sheen has already visited one-fourth of the 170 churches in his jurisdiction, delivered 60 talks to civic and religious groups--including a sermon at a synagogue that drew one of the largest audiences in its history. "I spoke to them of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," Sheen said. "Abraham was a great man, Isaac was a mediocre man and Jacob was a deceiver. But God loved them all--so there is hope for all of us."

In Rochester, Sheen demonstrated his concern for local poverty by naming the Rev. David Finks, 36, as his "vicar for the urban ministry" in charge of slum problems. Finks has been closely allied with a local Negro protest organization set up by that professional agitator, Saul Alinsky. The group has been demanding that the Eastman Kodak Co. hire 600 Negroes from poverty areas. Despite his appointment of Finks, Sheen has refused to take sides in the quarrel--but he has pointedly urged city business leaders to provide more jobs for the city's Negro ghetto.

Sheen, whose current television series was taped before he went to Rochester, has lost none of his flair for phrase making. Describing the church's problems in one pastoral letter, he wrote: "God is telling us something in the new situation in which we find ourselves. The rending of the veil of the Temple in an earthquake opened up the Holy of Holies to the world, and the earthquake of secularism has shaken us out of hiddenness and complacency."

No complacent man himself, Sheen works an 18-hour day, and has given up his twice-weekly tennis game. The way he is going, he may be remembered as the best bishop Rochester ever had --instead of the man who rivaled Milton Berle in the Nielsen ratings.

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