The Life and Times of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (review)

The Life and Times of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. By Myles P. Murphy. (New York: Alba House/Society of St. Paul. 2000. Pp. xvi, 182. $14.95.)

This book, ostensibly written by the Reverend Myles Murphy as a paean to the priestly life and example of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, refers liberally to Sheen's two major works on their common vocation: The Priest Is Not His Own (1963) and Those Mysterious Priests (1974). Unfortunately, these books serve as an ironic commentary on Murphy's writing efforts, for this book is definitely "not his own", and why it was ever allowed to be published is both a "mystery" and a travesty.

In fact, a more honest and accurate title for this slight volume would be "An Unauthorized, Thinly Disguised and Abbreviated Version of the Dissertation of Kathleen Riley Fields" (University of Notre Dame, 1988). Both the book, and the thesis written by Murphy at the Marian Research Institute-University of Dayton, violate the rules of academia and ethics in publication, as Murphy has attempted to pass off my research and writing as his own: most of the quotations from Sheen were taken--verbatim and without attribution--from my dissertation, giving the reader the false impression that he had read widely and had carefully chosen those quotations; more than half of the footnotes were likewise lifted from my dissertation, quoting secondary sources (i.e., monographs on American and Catholic history written by William Halsey, Alan Brinkley, and Donald Crosby, S.J.) which never appear in the bibliography! Such slipshod research methods cannot be excused by Father Murphy's sentimental devotion to Bishop Sheen and his memory, and the author's feeble attempts to cover his tracks by occasionally footnoting my work (eleven times in all) are painfully transparent.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect surrounding this publication is to be found in the "Reviews" inserts at the beginning of the book. Glowing accolades from major public figures of American Catholicism--such as Francis Cardinal George, the Reverend Richard John Neuhaus, and even the late John Cardinal O'Connor--praise Murphy for finally telling Sheen's story, with "honesty" and "well chosen quotations." These constitute a mockery of both legitimate scholarship and Bishop Sheen's life, and for the author or publisher to have secured them under false pretenses is unconscionable.

Surely, Sheen's life story deserves to be told--my dissertation analyzed Sheen as a representative figure in terms of "An American Catholic Response to the Twentieth Century." But Father Murphy deserves no credit for having done so. He should have taken notice of Bishop Sheen's image of the priest as "mountain climber" in The Priest Is Not His Own, and the warning to be wary of the "abysses below" as the Holy Spirit bids him to reach higher. Instead, Murphy has ended up on the dangerous precipice of plagiarism.

Kathleen L. Riley
Ohio Dominican College

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