Archbishop Fulton Sheen Moves Toward Sainthood

Pope Benedict put the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen on the road to sainthood on Thursday.

“He is the patron saint of media and evangelization,” the Rev. Robert Barron, told The New York Times, while the Rev. James Martin, told the publication: “Sainthood has come to the media age. In another couple of years we will have the first Twitter or Facebook saint.”

The pope signed a decree recognizing that Sheen lived a life of "heroic virtues," an early step in the path that can lead to sainthood.

Now a miracle must be attributed for him to be beatified, which is the last step before sainthood.

Sheen, who died in 1979 at the age of 84, was one of the most famous Catholic Church figures in the United States for nearly half a century.

Sheen used television as a tool for evangelization so successfully that he won an Emmy award in 1952. He also had a popular radio show in the 1930s called "The Catholic Hour." He moved to television in the 1950s, where he used his show, which drew audiences of tens of millions, to denounce communism during the Cold War.

Time magazine called Sheen the first televangelist and put him on its cover.