Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s new book on the demonic…

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio – articles – email ) | Jul 12, 2024

Five years before his death, Archbishop Fulton Sheen mentioned that he planned to write a separate book on the demonic, but at the time of his death in 1979, no such book had appeared. Fast forward to 2016, and the newly ordained Fr. Dave Tomaszycki (Archdiocese of Detroit) became very interested in this intention of Archbishop Sheen’s and, given his need for a thesis topic in his study for a Licentiate in Theology, he decided to search more deeply in the Sheen archives to see whether he might find a manuscript for such a book that Sheen had not had a chance to publish.

Unfortunately, no such manuscript existed, so Fr. Tomaszycki did the next best thing: He spent a total of four years identifying and tagging everything that Archbishop Sheen had written about the demonic and then organized all the material to create a set of chapters which would amount to something akin to the book which the famous bishop had intended to write. The result, entirely in Sheen’s own words and just published by Emmaus Road, is On the Demonic, some 200 pages of Archbishop Sheen at his best, advising us on a topic that had troubled him at least since 1952, when he could already clearly see that demonic activity was on the rise in the United States, the West generally, and around the world.

In my previous post I too took up the problem of the demonic (Diabolical assault and the absence of witnesses for God), but I am just a messenger here. Fr. Tomaszycki thoroughly explains in his Foreword how he organized the material for the chapters into which the book is conveniently divided, and how he edited the various texts only in a very minimal way, with a very few editor’s notes. He has the perfect temperament for such a task, not only because what he really wanted to do was publish Sheen’s book, but because he wisely dislikes editing what is already well written. To make this point, Fr. Tomaszycki mentions: “I’m a purist; I don’t even like the addition of the designated hitter in baseball”—a sentiment that will already endear him to the pure of heart everywhere.

Fr. Tomaszycki not only explains his own role in the Foreword, but he has managed to provide a Preface, an Introduction and fourteen rich chapters all written by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. In a very real sense, then, this is simply the book that Archbishop Sheen himself simply failed to shape into its final form. But it is important to recognize the thoroughness with which Fr. Tomaszycki tackled the job: The various chapters are not just reprints of single pieces Sheen had already written elsewhere; rather, in most cases, they are a smoothly-connected compilation of material from a variety of Sheen’s writings and speeches which, when so connected, provide a more thorough examination of each topic than each did separately.

The details are provided in the Foreword, and the result is a text that reads seamlessly, not like a jagged compilation, but just like a real book, and all in Sheen’s own words. Here I will simply list the sixteen chapters so that the reader can easily see the topics covered:

• Preface
• Introduction: The Essence of the Demonic
• 1. In the Beginning: The Anti-Creativity of Satan
• 2. In the Life of Christ: Short Cuts from the Cross
• 3. Since the Time of Christ: The Enemies of the Church
• 4. The Prince of This World
• 5. In the End
• 6. The Mystical Body of the Anti-Christ
• 7. First Sign of the Demonic: Love of Nudity
• 8. Second Sign of the Demonic: Violence
• 9. Third Sign of the Demonic: Schizophrenic Mentality
• 10. First Weapon against the Demonic: The Name of Jesus
• 11. Second Weapon against the Demonic: The Blood of Jesus
• 12. Third Weapon against the Demonic: Mary, the Mother of Jesus
• 13. The Cross
• 14. Fighting the Demonic with the Holy Hour

Of course, it is perfectly reasonable to suppose that, had Archbishop Sheen been able to realize his intention to write a separate book on the demonic, he would have had additional thoughts as he drew his material together and actually wrote his most fully developed ideas in this new form.. But it is also perfectly reasonable to suppose that the bulk of that book, for one who had already written so much in shorter forms, would have been created by making a well-organized use of his previous notes, lectures, articles and speeches. Therefore while it is true that Fulton Sheen did not write this “book”, it is also true that Fulton Sheen did “write” this book. Either way, highly recommended.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, On the Demonic. Complied and edited by Fr. Dave Tomaszycki. (Emmaus Road: 2024). 220pp. Paperback or eBook: $17.95.

Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

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