Today three of my sons and I are in St. Louis, in a crowd of an expected 50,000 pilgrims. If you're there too, I hope our paths cross.

Herod hears the reports about Jesus - some say John the Baptist raised, some say Elijah, some say an old prophet returned - and he's troubled, curious, even eager to see him: "Who then is this, about whom I hear such things?" Ecclesiastes sets the stakes underneath it - "vanity of vanities, all things are vanity," nothing new under the sun, every achievement eventually forgotten.

One hundred years after a boy was born in El Paso, Illinois, the Church declares today that Peter John ("Fulton") Sheen spent his entire life answering Herod's question for tens of millions of people. "Who then is this, about whom I hear such things?"

The deeper reflection on today's readings - and a daily prayer for your household - is waiting in the & Altar app and at andaltar.com. More after the news.

📰 Quick Hits

1. Today, Fulton Sheen Becomes Blessed

At 1:30 p.m. Central today, the Beatification Mass for Venerable Fulton J. Sheen begins at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis - the first beatification ever celebrated in that archdiocese, and only one step short of full canonization. An estimated 50,000 pilgrims from 48 states and 12 countries, more than 80 bishops, and roughly 850 priests are expected (plus some deacons - I know of at least one). Last night at Vespers in the Cathedral Basilica, Bishop Robert Barron - who has cited Sheen as a formative influence on his own vocation - called him the "saint par excellence" of the New Evangelization, urging the faithful gathered to imitate not just Sheen's brilliance on camera but his hour of daily Eucharistic adoration, kept without fail for 61 years, including the day he died. Cardinal Luis Tagle presides today on behalf of Pope Leo XIV, who was elected on Sheen's own birthday.

Faith Lens for the Home: Sheen reached 30 million people a week on live television in the 1950s, competing directly against Milton Berle - and won. Ask your family: "What was Sheen actually selling, when everyone else on television was selling something else?" He was answering Herod's question, on purpose, every single week, for people who might never have asked it otherwise.

2. The Supreme Court Closes the Book on Baby Gabriel's Custody Fight

The Supreme Court declined this week, without a written opinion, to intervene in the multistate custody battle over the infant boy his surrogate calls Gabriel and his legal parents call Rumi - the case we've followed since August, when surrogate McKenna West refused the intended parents' request to abort the child after doctors diagnosed a serious heart defect. Justice Elena Kagan's denial leaves in place a California ruling recognizing Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the baby's legal parents; the couple's attorney said simply, "We are truly grateful that Rumi can continue receiving the treatment he needs to survive." West's legal options are effectively exhausted. The child is alive, undergoing the surgeries his condition requires, in his parents' custody.

Faith Lens for the Home: Every court that heard this case, across three states, ultimately protected the same thing: this child's life and care. Ask your family: "What does it mean that even in the hardest, most painful outcome for one party, everyone involved still fought for the same baby to live?" Pray for Gabriel/Rumi's continued healing, and for peace for everyone this case has touched.

3. Xi Jinping Arrives in Washington - Days After Trump Named Christian Persecution at the UN

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the US yesterday for his first state visit to the United States since 2017. It follows a UN General Assembly address this week in which President Trump criticized the UN's Human Rights Council as "craven hypocrites" for having "little to say about the persecution of Christians" while condemning other nations' domestic policies. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom - which Bishop Robert Barron joined earlier this month - has specifically urged the administration to press Xi for the release of religious prisoners in China, including Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old Catholic publisher we've followed since spring, still held in a Hong Kong cell.

Faith Lens for the Home: Two heads of state meet tonight while a Catholic grandfather sits in solitary confinement for founding a newspaper. Ask your family: "What does it mean to pray for a specific outcome from a meeting we'll never see inside?" Pray tonight, specifically, that Jimmy Lai's name comes up in that room.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, Blessed as of Today

Born Peter John Sheen in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895, ordained in Peoria in 1919, he became one of the most recognized religious figures in American history - a radio host from 1930 to 1950, then an Emmy-winning television host from 1952 to 1957, reaching audiences in the tens of millions and once out-drawing Milton Berle in the ratings. He wrote more than 70 books. He raised millions for the missions. His beatification, originally scheduled for December 2019, was postponed for six years over a since-resolved concern involving a priest's assignment; Pope Leo XIV approved it to proceed this past February. He is entombed in the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, where he was ordained more than a century ago.

Ask at dinner tonight, wherever you are: "Sheen used the most modern technology of his time to answer one question, over and over, for millions of strangers: who is Jesus? If we had his platform for one week, what would we actually say?"

✋ One Simple Action

Watch today's beatification Mass if you can, even a few minutes of the livestream. Pray for Jimmy Lai by name tonight, and for whatever is said or left unsaid in tonight's meeting between two presidents. And ask yourself Herod's question honestly - not as curiosity, but as an invitation: who is this, really, about whom I've heard such things?

📚 Read More

• Fulton Sheen's beatification - what happened today: Yahoo News/AP (https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/50-000-pilgrims-expected-fulton-205957390.html) and NPR Illinois (https://www.nprillinois.org/illinois/2026-09-15/catholic-diocese-of-peoria-expects-50-000-people-to-attend-fulton-sheen-beatification) and Fox 2 St. Louis (https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/50000-pilgrims-expected-for-fulton-j-sheen-beatification/)
• Supreme Court declines to intervene in Baby Gabriel case: CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/22/politics/supreme-court-surrogate-texas-california) and NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-declines-intervene-custody-case-involving-newborn-heart-rcna597043) and Texas Tribune (https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/22/texas-us-supreme-court-surrogacy-dallas-rumi-gabriel-mckenna-west/)
• Trump at UN on Christian persecution; Xi's visit: Christian Post (https://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-threatens-to-annihilate-iran-at-un-highlights-christians.html) and CNBC (https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/23/iran-united-nations-trump-israel.html) and Christianity Daily (https://www.christianitydaily.com/news/trump-highlights-global-christian-persecution-at-un.html)

Herod heard the reports and asked his question, and never let the answer past the door. One hundred years after his birth in a small Illinois town, a man who spent his whole public life answering that same question for anyone willing to listen is called Blessed today. A baby fought for by three courts in three states is alive tonight because people refused to look away. Two presidents will sit across a table while a grandfather in a Hong Kong cell waits to hear if his name came up. Who then is this, about whom you've heard such things? Don't just ask. Let it in.