To the editor:
I had the opportunity of meeting and speaking with Bishop Fulton Sheen three times when he was our bishop in the Diocese of Rochester in 1967 and later.
In February 1967 our parish church (St. Philip Neri) was destroyed in a tragic fire that claimed the lives of our pastor, Rev. George Weinmann, and Sister Lillian Marie McLaughlin, SSND. A few weeks after the fire, Bishop Sheen visited our school and said Mass for the parents and students in our school basement, and I was one of the altar boys for his Mass that day.
I have fond memories of meeting Bishop Sheen from the times I attended Mass with my father’s yearly Holy Name Society Fathers’ and Sons Post Office Communion Breakfasts at St. Joseph’s Church downtown and Midtown Plaza. In each conversation I remember him being a man of great faith who truly loved Jesus and his church.
I hope to come up to Rochester and venerate his relic soon, as I have many other fond memories of him.
James Thompson
405 147th St.
Queens, N.Y.
