Now this case will be reviewed by a team of theologians and Vatican advisors, who will decide whether to present it to the Pope. He will make the final decision about whether this is a full-fledged miracle.

Three other possible miracles tied to Sheen have been formally investigated by the local team in Peoria, Deptula said. "We had to select one of the three to move forward to the Vatican, and a canon lawyer helped us to discern that this was the best. It was so clear: The baby was dead, then the baby was alive." A campaign for Sheen's beatification and canonization was started in 2002, and Deptula sees James Engstrom's birth as "part of the way God manifests his will through the discernment of canonization." In other words, by reviving the baby, God was offering evidence that Sheen should be beatified, Deptula says.

Sheen was born outside of Peoria in 1895 and ordained in the town in 1919. He taught philosophy and religion at the Catholic University of America, hosted his own radio show, and later won an Emmy award for a television show he hosted in the 1950s, Life Is Worth Living. He served as the Bishop of Rochester from the mid 1960s until his retirement, and after he died, he was named an honorary Archbishop by Pope Paul VI. In the summer of 2012, Pope Benedict XVI declared that Sheen lived a life of "heroic virtue," earning him the title of "Venerable."

If this miracle is fully confirmed by the Vatican and the Pope, it would take one more miracle for Sheen to be considered for canonization, which would earn him the title of "Saint."

It doesn't have to happen in Peoria, Deptula said, but who knows—it might. "How appropriate that Fulton Sheen works a miracle so close to his birthplace, not far from his hometown," he said. "I like to think that there is a special connection between the miracle and Peoria."

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