Inaugural edition of Sheen Awards honors Mother Angelica
The inaugural Sheen Awards were held in Peoria, Illinois, on Sept. 25, the day after Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification. Mother Angelica, EWTN’s foundress, posthumously received the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Lifetime Achievement Award for her service to the Church and pioneering use of television to proclaim the Gospel. EWTN Studios President Peter Gagnon accepted the award, highlighting Mother Angelica’s connection to Sheen and their shared commitment to evangelization through media. The event presented seven awards recognizing impact in areas including evangelization, humanitarian work, digital creation, and television and streaming.
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The inaugural Sheen Awards were held in Peoria, Illinois, on Sept. 25, 2026, the day after Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification. Mother Angelica, EWTN’s foundress, received the event’s Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously for her service to the Church and pioneering use of television to proclaim the Gospel.
The gathering brought together Church leaders and figures from media and entertainment, including Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka, Bishop Robert Barron, actor Jonathan Roumie, and EWTN program hosts David Henrie and Siobhan Fallon Hogan. EWTN Studios President Peter Gagnon accepted the award for Mother Angelica.
Gagnon recalled Mother Angelica’s enthusiasm and said she had carried forward Sheen’s example by using television to reach viewers directly. He also noted that EWTN was incorporated on Dec. 12, 1980, a little over a year after Sheen’s death, and said the network continues to air Sheen’s program Life Is Worth Living.
EWTN chairman and CEO Michael Warsaw said the award recognized the two evangelists’ use of media to proclaim the Gospel and defend human dignity. He described the honor as especially meaningful in the year marking the 10th anniversary of Mother Angelica’s death, and said he hoped she might one day be numbered among the Church’s saints while acknowledging the Church’s discernment process.
Seven awards were presented. Katie McGrady received the Radio and Podcast Impact Award; Jonathan Roumie, the Television and Streaming Impact Award; and Bishop Robert Barron, the Evangelization Impact Award.
The Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States received the Mission and Humanitarian Impact Award, Hallow won the Innovation Impact Award, and Paul J. Kim received the Digital Creator Impact Award.
The Church’s theology of evangelization through media
The Church’s theology of evangelization through media begins with a conviction: communication is not merely a tool for spreading religious information; it is a human arena and culture that the Gospel is called to enter, shape, and serve. The Church therefore has both a mission to proclaim Christ through media and a responsibility to form people who create and use media with truth, competence, and discernment.
Because the Church is commissioned to preach the Gospel, Vatican II teaches that she may—and, when useful, should—employ social communications to announce salvation and teach their responsible use. It also calls the laity in particular to bring a human and Christian spirit into media.
Paul VI draws out the urgency: media can carry the Word of God to vast audiences, and the Church would fail in her responsibility if she neglected such powerful means. Yet reach alone is not the goal. The message must also address each person personally, inviting an inward response and commitment to Christ.
This gives media evangelization a double horizon: the Gospel should be heard widely, and it should reach people deeply. A broadcast, article, film, or online post may introduce someone to Christian faith; it cannot, simply by being widely viewed, guarantee conversion or replace the personal, communal, and sacramental life of the Church. The Church’s teaching presents media as essential alongside witness, catechesis, personal contact, popular devotion, and liturgy—not as a substitute for them.
The Church’s approach is not limited to placing Christian messages into existing channels. Media shape culture: they influence what people attend to, how they understand themselves, and how they relate to others. For that reason, evangelization must understand the media’s languages and habits and communicate the Gospel in forms people can genuinely encounter.
John Paul II therefore describes two related tasks: using media to communicate Christ, and evangelizing the world of media itself. That means bringing Christian faith and ethical responsibility into the work and culture of communications, rather than treating media only as neutral delivery systems.
This is sometimes called inculturation: expressing the Gospel within a culture in ways that are intelligible there, while remaining faithful to the Gospel. The Church’s teaching emphasizes learning media’s language and characteristics, while recognizing that media culture also has values and counter-values that call for discernment.
It includes direct proclamation and sound catechesis, but it is broader than explicitly religious programming. Truthful reporting about the Church’s work—such as education, health care, relief for refugees, and service to people in poverty—can also make the Gospel visible. Catholic journalism and broadcasting can explain the Church’s teaching and support the continuing formation of the faithful; films and other programs can open people to transcendent questions by elevating the human spirit.
The quality of the work matters. The Church calls for professional competence, cultural understanding, training for pastoral workers, strong Catholic media, and critical formation of audiences. In other words, good intentions do not excuse careless communication: credibility and excellence are part of the service.
Media evangelization should be judged not only by audience size or engagement, but by whether it communicates the truth of Christ in a way that respects persons and invites genuine faith. Paul VI’s standard is especially demanding: the message must speak to the multitude without reducing individual people to a crowd.
So the Church’s theology holds together reach and personal encounter, effective communication and fidelity, participation in media culture and discernment of it. The aim is not merely that Christian content circulate, but that people encounter Christ, communities be formed, and Gospel values take root in culture and society.