Hundreds attend first-ever Sheen Awards, honoring prominent Catholic media figures

PEORIA, Illinois – The inaugural Sheen Awards Gala was held at the Peoria Civic Center on Sept. 25, the day after Fulton Sheen’s beatification. The first in what is projected to be an annual awards ceremony, the evening offered hundreds of guests a show focused on Catholic artists, entertainers, and media professionals, accompanied by a three-course dinner. Like the awards’ namesake, recipients were honored for their work in promoting the Gospel through their content and creativity.

Winners of the various awards included Jonathan Roumie, Bishop Robert Barron, Katie McGrady, Paul Kim, and the trio of co-founders for the Hallow app. Other notable names in the Catholic media space attended, including actress Siobhan Fallon Hogan, singer Ashley Nemeh, and Fr. Francis J. Hoffman (aka “Fr. Rocky”) and Drew Mariani of Relevant Radio. David Henrie, the actor and author emceed the event, speaking to the audience of a “renaissance” of creative evangelism.

The Sheen Awards took place just weeks after the 2026 Emmy Awards were announced earlier in September. (Fulton Sheen himself earned an Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality in 1953 and was nominated two other times.) This year’s Emmys honored the memory of the late actress June Lockhart, remembered for roles ranging from Lassie to Lost in Space, who happened to be a Catholic and who once met Pope St. John Paul II. Leading up to the ceremony, the Catholic film Broken Mary: The Kevin Matthews Story was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Achievement for Documentary category, but ultimately did not win the award.

Some of the honored guests at the Sheen Awards have had their own work recognized, in one way or another, through the Emmys. Robert Barron, Bishop of Winona–Rochester in Minnesota and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, created and hosted the movie series CATHOLICISM: The Pivotal Players, which was nominated for an Emmy. And David Henrie has won two Emmys, both for his acting in Wizards of Waverly Place.

“As someone who’s been on an Emmy stage myself and been handed an Emmy and had the experiences that [Fulton Sheen] talked about to a smaller degree, his zeal for holiness before his career is the thing that speaks to me the most,” Henrie told Catholic World Report. He said that he finds Sheen’s commitment to a daily holy hour inspiring.

That daily practice of a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament is a habit that Bishop Barron has cultivated as well. He makes it no secret that he has, in numerous ways, tried to imitate Blessed Fulton Sheen. The bishop explained to CWR what his own process for a holy hour looks like.

“I always do it first thing in the morning,” said Bishop Barron, who won a Sheen Award that evening for his effective use of the media. “I wake up early and [do it] before the day really begins. I leave my cell phone, of course, in the other room. I usually begin with the Rosary, at least a decade or two of the Rosary to calm and focus myself. Then I usually pray the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer. I also pray, maybe alternating with the Rosary, the Jesus Prayer. I spend a lot of time with that.”

The “Jesus Prayer,” as it is known, is a short rote prayer formula that has been favored by Christians, particularly those in the East, for centuries. It goes as follows: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” It clarifies both the identity of Jesus and the identity common to all human beings, except Jesus and Mary—namely, that we are all sinners in need of Christ’s loving mercy. The Jesus Prayer is often used to cultivate spiritual stillness and an attentive interior life aided by the rhythm of repeating the prayer.

“I usually find time for petitionary prayer,” Bishop Barron continued. “When you’re a priest or bishop, you’re being asked all the time to pray for people. I try as best I can to remember all those folks. And then, part of [the holy hour], I look at Him; He looks at me. I sit in silent meditation. And when you do all that, the hour goes by pretty fast.”

Actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the exceptionally well-received series The Chosen, shared the news that the cast wrapped its final filming session for the show the day before, on the same day as the beatification. Roumie took home a Sheen Award for his acting, particularly in bringing the historical Jesus to life on the screen. The audience also got a sample of his skills firsthand when Roumie re-enacted one of Sheen’s passionate monologues. Channeling the late bishop’s flair for delivery, Roumie shared what Sheen had to say about man’s search for fulfillment and how that desire is only satiated in the Absolute, in God.

When asked on the red carpet what inspired him most about Fulton Sheen, Roumie told CWR that it would have to be Sheen’s work in TV and radio. “I relate to the vocation on the media side obviously, not the priestly side. In our own ways, as followers and witnesses of Christ, [we are] priests, prophets, and kings by the nature of our baptisms. What I do is my own version of the priesthood, something I devote to God with all my heart, soul, and mind. I approach it very, very seriously when it comes, especially, to the impact it can have on people’s spiritual lives.”

At the end of his brief acceptance speech later that evening, Roumie asked the audience to pray for him and quipped that, since The Chosen has wrapped filming, he is in need of a job.

When the final accolade of the evening was posthumously awarded to Mother Angelica, founder of EWTN, the network’s president, Peter Gagnon, came up to receive the honor. He claimed that, if Mother Angelica had been there herself to accept the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Lifetime Achievement Award, she probably would have simply said, “This is awesome!” At this, an endearing “Awww” escaped the mouths of many attendees.

Desiring to clearly express what lies at the heart of the Sheen Awards, Bishop Louis Tylka of the Diocese of Peoria noted that these awards are not just a Catholic equivalent of the Emmys. Instead, they celebrate what God is doing in and through his Church. “The Gospel deserves to be proclaimed with excellence, beauty, intelligence, creativity, conviction, and joy,” Bishop Tylka said during dinner. “That is what we celebrate tonight.”

It is our desire to make Sheen known, said Bishop Tylka, “not because he was a remarkable communicator, not because he won an Emmy, not because millions listened to him on radio and watched him on television…We want people to discover Fulton Sheen because Fulton Sheen points people to Jesus Christ.” The audience applauded in agreement. The bishop went on to say that the beatification “was never meant to be the conclusion of the Fulton Sheen story; it’s the invitation to write the next chapter…Ultimately, our goal is not simply to make Fulton Sheen better known. Our goal is to make Jesus Christ better known and loved.” This was followed by additional applause.

In the aftermath of the beatification, Bishop Tylka is looking forward to improving the ways in which visitors encounter Sheen’s story when they visit Peoria. “The Sheen Experience that we’re developing is going to be a world-class opportunity to introduce Sheen to a whole new generation and inspire them to come to Christ,” Bishop Tylka told CWR. He said the diocese will continue to investigate miracles and pray for the future canonization of Blessed Fulton Sheen.

Msgr. Gray, who was also present at the ceremony, said he, too, is looking ahead to the canonization. “We’re going to keep examining the miracles that have been reported, and then we put our attention wholeheartedly into that so we can hopefully move him to canonization,” Msgr. Gray told CWR. He further stated that the diocese plans to transform the current Spalding Institute, which had served as the building where Sheen attended high school, into a “worthy museum to perpetuate his legacy.”

Organizers said they hope to see the Sheen Awards develop into a space that offers screenings and various workshops. The second awards ceremony is set for Sept. 24-25, 2027. Peoria’s annual Sheen Awards Gala promises to be an inspirational and potentially innovative hub for the Catholic creatives of today and tomorrow.