Top photo caption: Pope Leo XIV talks to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Paris Sept. 25, 2026, during his apostolic journey to France. OSV News photo/Gregorio Borgia, Reuters
By Courtney Mares, OSV News
ABOARD PAPAL PLANE OSV News — On the papal flight to Paris Sept. 25, Pope Leo XIV recalled spending time with his family as a child watching Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, who was beatified the day before in St. Louis, sharing the truths of the faith on television.
“We watched him as a family,” the Pope said in response to a question from OSV News. “It was a way of … spending some time together as a family with the truths, with the teachings that he shared in such an enthusiastic, lively way.”
“The message that he had was something that really came home to people and I think helped us as a family,” he added.
The 71-year-old Pope also joked, “I’m that old.”
Pope Leo acknowledged that he would have liked to attend the beatification of Blessed Sheen, whom he noted was also originally from Illinois.
“I received messages during the beatification ceremony yesterday writing and saying, ‘Why weren’t you here?’ That would’ve been so great,” he said of the beatification of Archbishop Sheen, which took place in St. Louis Sept. 24 with an estimated 50,000 people in attendance.
Speaking with journalists aboard the papal plane, a chartered ITA Airways jet, en route from Rome to Paris, the Pope also spoke about the challenge of artificial intelligence and the record number of adult baptisms in France this year, calling it evidence of the “spiritual thirst” present in the country and the “authentic searching for something that is deeper, more meaningful in young people’s lives.”
“I, above all, am traveling to France, as to anywhere else in the world, as a follower of Jesus Christ wanting to proclaim peace, the peace of Christ throughout the world. It is a message which at this time, as we all know, is particularly important,” the Pope told the more 80 journalists on board from 10 different countries.
Asked by a CNN reporter about his fellow colleagues who had issues accessing the White House in recent weeks, the Pope responded that he was “very happy that here you are all welcome and good coverage, I think, is very important and that we have it … for everyone.”
In response to questions about his fluency in French, the Pope answered he has been practicing a little bit, but specified he is not using the language-learning app Duolingo anymore.
Pope Leo XIV has previously spoken about watching Blessed Fulton J. Sheen’s television program as a child, and has praised Blessed Sheen for bringing the Gospel to millions of Americans through his radio and television broadcasts.
“Archbishop Sheen was a light of faith, hope, and love that shone through the radio and television media for decades,” Pope Leo said during an audience with members of the Pontifical Mission Societies on June 1.
“I myself am a witness of his evangelization when I was growing up,” the Pope added. “His broadcasts touched millions with the hope of the Gospel and his initiatives and efforts resulted in enormous spiritual and material aid to the Churches in areas of first evangelization.”
Pope Leo has said that he watched Archbishop Sheen’s television program as a child. The American Pope was elected last year on Archbishop Sheen’s birthday.
Born in El Paso, Illinois, on May 8, 1895, Blessed Sheen was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria on Sept. 20, 1919. He went on to become one of the most recognized Catholic voices in American history, rising to national prominence during the 1930s and 1940s as host of “The Catholic Hour” on NBC radio.
Beginning in 1952, then-Bishop Sheen reached tens of millions of viewers each Tuesday evening through his television program “Life Is Worth Living.” Armed with little more than his intellect, charisma, a cape and a chalkboard, he won an Emmy Award for best television personality after his first season, famously thanking his writers: “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.”
Throughout his 60-year priesthood, Bishop Sheen sought to conform himself more closely to Christ by observing a daily Eucharistic Holy Hour, what he called “the hour that makes my day.”
He also was intensely devoted to the Mother of God.
For 16 years, Archbishop Sheen served as the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, during which he sought to form American Catholics in missionary spirituality and identity and help raise funds to spread the faith and build the Church across the globe.
Archbishop Sheen died Dec. 9, 1979, in New York City, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, after nearly two years of declining health following open-heart surgery.
“May the example and intercession of this holy bishop, known for his evangelizing work through the media, inspire many others likewise to find new ways of spreading the Gospel message with joyful enthusiasm,” Pope Leo said in his greeting to English-speaking pilgrims at the end of his Sept. 23 audience.
Pope Leo is visiting three cities in France from Sept. 25 to 28 in an apostolic journey that will bring him from the French capital to the Marian shrine of Lourdes and the northeastern city of Metz near the German border.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
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