Bishop Fulton Sheen was quite a presence in American Catholic life for many years, and particularly in the early 1950s, when the record above was made. A mesmerizing speaker with a penetrating gaze, he actually had a prime time television program opposite Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra at that time. A cover story from Time magazine gives a good sense of his influence. There are quite a few examples of his television show on YouTube. This clip condemning Communism shows the power of his delivery.
The record above is actually a 10-inch 78 made for children, with two prayers and two religious poems. Bishop Sheen's intensity in the poems is a little frightening. I remember him well from my own childhood - and indeed I instantly remembered this record from many years ago when I acquired it recently. Like many young people of that era, I had a record player of my own and my own little record collection. This has led to a lifelong hobby and now this blog, but that's another story - and quite a dull one, too.
I've added a bonus item of sorts to the record above, and it really is esoteric. It is an excerpt from a sermon that then-Msgr. Sheen delivered to a gathering of 110,000 faithful in the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1940. The sermon was issued by the Catholic Digest via a three-record set of 12-inch 78s pressed on unusual dark-blue shellac. I only have one of the records - the excerpt is from the second side. In this item, Msgr. Sheen gets transcendental and likens all of California to an altar, with Mexico the sacristy. I think that's what he is saying - the sound's a little dim.
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