WATCH: Fulton Sheen was a fierce defender of Catholic tradition

(LifeSiteNews) — Joining me on this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show is Terry Barber, author, speaker, and founder of Virgin Most Powerful Radio. We discussed Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification, his fierce defense of Catholic tradition, including his demand that the tabernacle be placed at the center of churches where he gave talks, and more.

During our interview, Barber told me about Sheen’s strong defense of Catholic traditions such as keeping the tabernacle at the center of the church. He recalled how Sheen had lamented the “de-Eucharization” occurring in the Church during a talk at the 1976 National Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia.

“(Archbishop Sheen) gave a talk called ‘Mary and the Eucharist.’ I give it out to everybody; it’s a powerful talk. He says this, ‘The problem in the Church is that we have a ‘de-Eucharization’ going on. We’re taking the sacrament and moving Him to the side, and we’re replacing it with a ‘tin-god,”” he said.

READ: Vatican sets date for Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification

“I didn’t make that up. … The ‘tin-god’ is the priest, and he said, ‘We need to bring Jesus Christ back to our church in a rightful place,” he added.

Barber noted that after his retirement in the 1970s, Archbishop Sheen even delayed several talks at churches that had the Blessed Sacrament off to the side until Our Lord was returned to the center.

“I’ll give you one example at a … Benedictine monastery. He’s giving this talk, and he said, ‘Brothers, I’m sorry, we’re not going to start. You bring my Lord back to the center of this church where he belongs,’” he said.

To hear much more from Terry Barber about Archbishop Fulton Sheen, watch my full interview above or by clicking here.

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John-Henry is the co-founder and CEO of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.

John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.