Jonathan Roumie, Bishop Robert Barron to headline first annual ‘Sheen Awards’
The inaugural Sheen Awards gala will be held on Sept. 25 at Peoria Civic Center, the day after Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s beatification in St. Louis. Headliners include Bishop Robert Barron and actor Jonathan Roumie, who praised Sheen’s legacy and his own faith-driven portrayal of Jesus in “The Chosen.”. The event aims to honor media and evangelization figures who continue Sheen’s mission, with guests such as Apostolic Nuncio Gabriel Caccia, David Henrie, and others. Tickets are still available and the ceremony will air on EWTN on Oct. 3.
27 days ago
The inaugural Sheen Awards will take place Sept. 25 at the Peoria Civic Center, featuring Bishop Robert Barron, actor Jonathan Roumie, and other Catholic media and evangelization figures. The gala will be held one day after Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen’s scheduled beatification in St. Louis and is intended to continue his legacy of using media to promote the Catholic faith. 1 2
The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation and Peoria Bishop Lou Tylka announced the event’s speakers on Sept. 3. The awards are planned as an annual production recognizing people who use media, evangelization, mission, and liturgy to bring Christ to the world. 1 2
Peoria is Sheen’s home diocese, and the ceremony is being organized to coincide with the public attention surrounding his beatification on Sept. 24. The foundation said the awards will honor work carried out with “creativity, conviction, and joy.” 1 2
Bishop Robert Barron, leader of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester and founder of Word on Fire, will headline the event. He is also known for hosting the documentary series Catholicism and for his extensive use of digital and social media in Catholic evangelization. 1 2
Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in The Chosen, will also be a featured participant. Bishop Tylka praised Roumie’s Catholic faith and said it influences his portrayal of Christ in the series. 1 2
Roumie said Sheen’s television work resonated with him because of his own experience as an actor. He described Sheen’s ability to reach audiences through television as an inspiration and said he hoped to pursue a comparable cultural and evangelistic impact. 1 2
Archbishop Gabriel Caccia, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, is scheduled to attend. Bishop Tylka said the nuncio’s participation reflects the importance of Sheen’s beatification for the Catholic Church in the United States and internationally. 1 2
Other announced guests include actor, producer, and director David Henrie; Monsignor Roger Landry of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States; Hallow CEO Alex Jones; and Catholic author and media personality Katie Prejean McGrady. Henrie also hosts EWTN’s Seeking Beauty. 1 2
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was widely recognized for using radio and television to explain and promote Catholic teaching. Organizers present Barron and Roumie as contemporary figures whose work in Catholic media reflects aspects of that legacy. 1 2
The Peoria Diocese’s chief operating officer, Royce Hood, said the awards would celebrate Sheen’s legacy while recognizing people who use their public platforms to promote the faith. 1 2
Tickets remain available through the Sheen Awards website, although organizers said space is limited. The ceremony is scheduled to air on EWTN on Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. 1 2
Evaluate the impact of media evangelization on Catholic identity
Media evangelization has a substantial but ambivalent impact on Catholic identity. It can strengthen Catholics’ sense of belonging, make the faith accessible beyond parish boundaries, and present Catholic teaching within contemporary culture. Yet it can also weaken identity if faith is reduced to attractive content, personal opinion, or online affiliation without sacramental and ecclesial participation.
Media connect Catholics who are geographically isolated or unable to participate regularly in parish life. Social networks can reinforce awareness of belonging to a worldwide community, facilitate shared prayer, and distribute liturgical and spiritual resources.
This is particularly important for non-practising Catholics and those distant from the Church, for whom media may be the only point of contact with Catholicism. Catholic identity therefore becomes more visibly universal: Catholics encounter not only their local parish but also the diversity and unity of the global Church.
Media evangelization helps the Church speak within the languages, images, and habits of contemporary society. Competent use of media can lead to a genuine “inculturation” of the Gospel—that is, expressing the unchanging faith intelligibly within a particular culture. Catholic publications and media can also demonstrate that Christian faith contributes meaningfully to public and cultural life.
This matters for identity because Catholics are not formed only by explicitly religious content. Media shape how people understand truth, morality, family, human dignity, and community. Since media influence people’s culture, moral thinking, and religious behavior, Catholic communication can help believers interpret contemporary life through the Gospel.
Effective evangelization cannot stop at information. Pope Paul VI emphasized that media should address each person personally, awakening individual adherence and commitment rather than merely reaching a large audience.
Likewise, the Dicastery for Communication stresses that stories and personal witness can attract people to discipleship, while also insisting that systematic explanations of the faith and doctrinal formation remain necessary. Media can therefore become a gateway to conversion, prayer, confession, parish life, liturgy, and service—but only when it leads beyond consumption toward participation.
Digital media can encourage Catholics to construct a private version of Catholicism by selecting preferred personalities, teachings, or devotional styles. The resulting identity may be based more on online preference than on communion with the Church’s liturgy, doctrine, pastors, and concrete communities.
The Catholic sources do not describe this danger in precisely those terms, but they warn that media culture changes not only the content communicated but also the language, psychology, and way people perceive reality. Thus, Catholic identity may become fragmented when faith is treated as one opinion among many or as a customizable lifestyle.
Media favor brevity, emotional impact, novelty, and visual appeal. These can communicate the Gospel effectively, but they may also reduce Catholicism to inspirational statements, controversy, political commentary, or devotional images detached from the fullness of Christian doctrine.
The Church’s communication teaching explicitly places personal stories alongside, not instead of, creeds and systematic teaching. Catholic identity requires both relationship with Christ and the objective content of the faith: Scripture, Tradition, doctrine, moral teaching, and sacramental life.
Media can make truth widely accessible, but they can also blur truth and illusion. When what is important is determined by what is newsworthy or entertaining, Catholic teaching may be judged by popularity rather than truth. Repeated exposure can also weaken critical awareness and shape public opinion through selective presentation.
This creates a serious challenge: Catholic identity must not be defined by the most visible Catholic voices online. A prominent media figure, viral argument, or emotionally powerful testimony does not necessarily represent the Church’s authoritative teaching.
Media also transmit consumerism, relativism, violence, and distorted views of the human person. Catholic teaching warns that advertising can reduce people to what they possess and promote an ideology contrary to the Catholic vision of human life. Consequently, media evangelization occurs within an environment that may simultaneously evangelize people in an anti-Christian direction.
Catholics therefore need media literacy: the ability to evaluate sources, recognize manipulation, distinguish fact from opinion, and assess cultural messages in light of Christian truth. The Church specifically calls families, young people, and educational institutions to develop this critical appreciation.
Media evangelization strengthens Catholic identity when it is:
The Church therefore calls for trained pastoral workers, coordinated communication strategies, high-quality production, and formation in responsible media use.
Media evangelization has expanded the reach of Catholic identity and given many people access to prayer, teaching, testimony, and a sense of belonging. Its greatest success is not merely increasing Catholic content online, but helping people encounter Christ and enter more deeply into the sacramental and communal life of the Church.
Its greatest danger is creating a mediated Catholicism without discipleship: familiarity with Catholic images and opinions without conversion, doctrine, worship, or charity. Media are therefore powerful instruments of evangelization, but they cannot replace the Church’s embodied life. Authentic Catholic identity is formed when digital witness leads to personal conversion, ecclesial communion, sacramental participation, and holy living.