A Review of the Bishop Fulton Sheen Compilation, ‘On the Demonic’
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, compiled and edited by Fr. Dave Tomaszycki, On the Demonic, Emmaus Road Publishing, 2024.
In his book Those Mysterious Priests published in 1974, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen desired to write an entire book on the Demonic. It was a theme he frequently dealt with, though often not in great detail in one sitting. Fr. Dave Tomaszycki set out to find this long lost manuscript only to discover that the Archbishop did not have one. Sheen died before such a book was published. In order to fulfill his desire then, Fr. Tomaszycki decided to compile a book that would coherently present Sheen’s teachings about the demonic as well as ways in which to fight the demonic.
Those familiar with Sheen’s corpus of writings will note that a number of chapters are from some of his published books like Life of Christ and The World Missions Crisis. Other chapters are articles written for the Courier-Journal as well as transcripts from Sheen’s audio recordings. Fr. Tomaszycki has done a splendid job at splicing many different tidbits of valuable information into a coherent and readable format.
Sheen’s main thesis about the demonic is that it has three characteristics. The first is love of nudity, which Sheen describes as “Sex without love.” (81) The second is violence. The third is schizophrenic mentality or split personalities. He likens the split among personalities particularly with splits and divisions within the Church. He notes that not only does psychology attribute these three aspects to the demonic but Scripture does as well. His overarching model is the Gerasene demoniac. In his Gospel, St. Luke tells us three things about the possessed man: 1) he is naked (8:27), 2) he was violent and was put into chains which he was able to break (8:29), and 3) there were many demons in him because he identified himself as Legion (8:30). It does not take one long to simply look around in the world and clearly see all these signs of the demonic at play.
The good Archbishop, however, does not leave his readers and listeners in despair. In order to combat these signs of the demonic in our world, he gives three primary resources as well as two other secondary but powerful weapons. The first is the Holy Name of Jesus. Sheen quotes from St. Paul noting that “This is the name that Satan cannot stand, because “at the Name of Jesus, every knee will bow in the heavens on the earth and under the earth.” (118) The second is the Precious Blood of Jesus. He recommends invoking the Precious Blood of Christ, especially in times of great temptation to sin, because it is by the Blood of Christ that were are saved.
The third and final primary weapon is Mary, the Mother of God. Sheen says that devotion to Mary is key to fighting the demonic. Mary is the one who was chosen to crush the head of the Serpent. Sheen also recommends the Rosary as a specific devotion to ask Mary’s intercession in fighting the demonic.
Alongside these three weapons Sheen adds an affection for the Cross as well as the Holy Hour. A major thesis of Sheen’s spirituality is a love of the Cross; any hatred of the Cross, therefore, he believes to be demonic. Sheen relates that Satan tried to tempt Christ away from the Cross as did St. Peter when He mentioned it. He even coined a specific term for fear of the Cross which he saw as rotting the Church from the inside out: “The disease of starophobia, a name I have coined. Staros in Greek is cross, and phobia fear.” (5)
Sheen also recommended the Holy Hour as a particular aid for priests and religious, as well as the laity, in combating the demonic in the world. Since Christ came into this world to fight evil, when He entered into the great combat, He only asked one thing from us: “Could you not watch one hour with me?” (Matthew 26:40) Sheen sees the Holy Hour as being requested by Jesus Himself in order to do battle with evil in the world.
This collection of Sheen’s writings on the demonic are prophetic. Every manifestation of the demonic that he saw during his life has only increased in our time. We must combat it then, with the Holy Name of Jesus and His Precious Blood; with our Blessed Mother’s help and the Cross. As St. Paul says “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6:12)
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