BY SIMON MARTELL!
THE CAUSE for the canonisation of an American archbishop opened yesterday — partly because of the growth of his cult in the United Kingdom.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen of Newport is on the road to sainthood thanks in part to the fforts of London-based Martin Shaw.
Appointed in February as director of promoting Fulton's cause in the UK and Ireland, Mr Shaw has lobbied the Church's hierarchy tirelessly with no financial support.
Passionately devoted to Our Lady, Archbishop Sheen was declared a Servant of God on the Feast of the Assumption.
Every time he came to Europe he would make a trip to Landes and his motto as bishop was "that I may come to you through your mother".
Mr Shaw describes the late archbishop, who died on 9 December, 1979, as "the more or less accepted voice of the American Church in his day".
"This man was not just another buckshee bishop. He was a world class act at using the media to proclaim gospel values."