With the exciting news of the Vatican’s green light to schedule the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the Travis and Bonnie Engstrom family — who live in the Peoria, Illinois, diocesan area from which Sheen hailed — is leading the cheering section. Son James Fulton was the miracle recipient for Sheen’s beatification to be given the go-ahead.

That miracle happened on Sept. 16, 2010, when James came back to life after being stillborn and not breathing for 61 minutes. 

What could be a more heartwarming, inspiring, triumphant story than one about a baby brought back to life from being dead for more than an hour? A baby healed of abnormalities in a way medical science could not explain, except for doctors and nurses to say, many times over, “He shouldn’t be like this. It’s amazing. … It’s astounding and really, really wonderful … I’d say a miracle”?

Today, James Fulton is a happy and healthy 15-year-old freshman in high school. James loves listening to music, says his mom, who added that he is very interested in the weather. “He loves talking about it with anyone who will listen.” Sports are on his schedule too. “His dad is a coach for the freshman football team and James worked with him as the team manager this past fall, which he really enjoyed.” James also appreciates God’s creation. He enjoys working outside, and he is employed by fellow parishioners to mow and do yard work, reports his mom, who added that he also volunteers with the rest of the family at the parish to do mowing and some groundskeeping.

How did he react when he heard the good news that Bishop Sheen will be officially declared “Blessed” very soon? 

“I feel pretty darn good about it,” he told the Register Feb. 11, two days after the big announcement that his intercessor’s beatification was forthcoming.

Pointing up and smiling, James added, “Jesus is responsible for it.” Then he admitted, “It feels like a lot sometimes, because of all the attention, but it’s really good.”

Mother Bonnie shared her response during those first moments after she was given the blessed news.

“My first reaction was that I laughed out loud!” she recounted to the Register. “I was just so happy, and I think maybe with a sense of relief. But when I got the phone call, I immediately laughed out loud and got up and ran to my husband [Travis] to tell him. And then [to] tell the whole family, all eight of our kids. We’re so excited.”

They have come a long way from that momentous September day almost 16 years ago.

Revisiting the Miracle

The miraculous story began around 1:48 a.m. As Bonnie had done before, she would give birth to their new son at home — but this time something was terribly wrong.

It was clear the baby was not breathing. He was not responding to continuous emergency treatment by the two medical professionals there to assist with the birth. At that moment, Travis performed an emergency baptism. As Bonnie wrote later, describing every detail in her book 61 Minutes to a Miracle, “Travis looked around the room for water. Taking the cup I had been sipping from throughout labor, he dipped in his fingers and thumb. The water sprinkled down on James’s forehead, and with his thumb Travis traced the Sign of the Cross above our son’s brow. His voice was soft and clear, even though it was suppressing a great deal of emotion. ‘James Fulton, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’”

“It was the first time that either of us had spoken James’s full name,” she continued. “There was power in it, because we had made an intentional decision that every time our children’s names are spoken, it will be an invocation of the saints for whom they are named.”

James Fulton, who had no signs of life, was rushed to OSF HealthCare St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, where medical professionals tried every possibility to revive and save him. But with no pulse or sign of life after 61 minutes, and doctors about to record his time of death, James came to life.

Every minute from the start of the problematic birth, the Engstroms and their family and friends, and even strangers, in Peoria and across the country and world, kept imploring Archbishop Sheen for his intercession for a miraculous restoration to life and health for his newborn namesake. 

“My little boy, James Fulton, 9lbs and 12oz, had been without a pulse for 61 minutes,” Bonnie would later write. “Everyone stopped working. And then his heart started.”

Even after James astounded the medical professionals by reviving, doctors told the Engstroms they believed their son had massive organ damage and would soon die. When he did not, doctors told them that James would be severely handicapped.

Tests proved an astounding reality.

An early MRI showed his brain had been injured from a severe lack of oxygen. But Engstrom described the MRI James had at 3 months old to check on the condition of his brain in her book. The results: “There was no inflammation … all regions and aspects of his brain appeared normal for his age.” Bonnie asked the nurse at their doctor’s office to repeat all the findings. She did: “That’s what the results say: no abnormalities.” Then the nurse went to check yet again with the doctor and came back with the answer: “James’s brain is fine. There are no longer signs of injury.”

During medical checkups during James’ first year, as recounted in her book, Bonnie shared the reaction of the doctors and therapists who had tended to him in the NICU. She wrote about how they unanimously said, “He shouldn’t be like this. It’s amazing. He’s amazing.” Every medical professional who checked him had the same reaction.

After all the tests, marked by the astonishment of all medical personnel, Bonnie wrote, “We finally had the medical support for what we had suspected for quite a while: God had indeed performed a miracle for our son.”

“If you saw my kids and me at the park today, you would never be able to guess which one should, by all accounts, be severely disabled,” Bonnie explained in her book. “If you stood behind us in the checkout line, you would never know that one of them had been dead for more than an hour. Unless you knew us and our story, you’d never suspect that my blue-eyed boy was another Lazarus. In fact, unless you saw the two scars on his should-have-been-amputated leg, or the g[astrostomy]-tube scar on his belly, you would never assume he had any kind of medical history at all.”

The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation in Peoria chronicled the miracle and contacted Rome.

The cause for beatification was officially opened in 2002 by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On June 29, 2012, James’ story for the official alleged miracle was submitted. In March 2014, the medical experts approved James Fulton’s miracle. That June, theologians also approved the miracle. Pope Francis approved Sheen’s beatification on July 6, 2019, with the ceremony initially set for Dec. 21, 2019, in Peoria — but that was postponed until this past week.

Shortly after the 2014 approvals, mother Bonnie told the Register with great joy, “Every step that affirms what I already believe in my heart is really exciting. We live with James and we know what he is like and what the doctors said he was supposed to be like. We know God did something amazing with our son.”

‘Incredible Honor and Joy’

In terms of her role now, in light of every previous step, Bonnie told the Register Feb. 11, “Honestly, it has been a huge privilege to be a part of the whole process.” 

“And to be so closely associated with Fulton Sheen has been just an incredible honor and joy for my family,” she explained, looking ever further ahead. “But I’m really excited for the next miracle, to find out what’s going to happen next. And I look forward to seeing Fulton Sheen as a saint. I’m excited for him to be ‘Blessed,’ but I’m looking forward to the day that we can call him ‘Saint’ officially. So I’m happy to step out of the way for the next person, for the next miracle to move in and get Fulton Sheen promoted again.”

The Engstroms’ devotion to Sheen has unfolded and grown these last 15 years, particularly for Bonnie.

“Over the years, definitely,” she said. “I’ve had plenty of time to read more of his books and listen to more of his preaching and just spend time with him, even in prayer, getting to know him. And I definitely lean on him and his intercession for my son James.”

Bonnie reiterated to the Register that all eight Engstrom children are named after a saint. “And I lean on all of their patrons for their prayers.” Naturally, with James, his mother said, she has “definitely” looked to Fulton Sheen as he has been growing up. “And there have been different times in his life where I relied on Fulton Sheen’s prayers even more and hoped for his guidance.”

“He just feels like an old family friend at this point. It’s beautiful to live with,” she added. 

The devotion is strong among the family.

“My husband definitely shares in the devotion. James definitely shares in the devotion,” Bonnie emphasized. “I think probably in a lot of ways, James is maybe the closest with Fulton Sheen. But all of my kids have found the patron that they have leaned into, their own namesake or found confirmation patron. But the whole family knows Fulton Sheen and celebrates Fulton Sheen, for sure.”

Sheen’s Eucharistic devotion has been quite important to the family as well.

“I think I can speak for my husband, too, in that his witness of the importance of the Eucharist has been very defining for both my husband and myself in what our spirituality looks like and how we have really tried to raise our kids — to know, love and honor Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,” Bonnie said. “And I know that comes from Fulton Sheen’s example.”

The Engstroms, of course, will attend the beatification once the date and all the arrangements are set. Following protocol from other beatification ceremonies, during the Mass, James will likely present the relic of Sheen. James’ hope for the beatification is that his friends and family can attend with him. 

That beatification Mass will be an “exciting!” — as Bonnie put it — highlight of all the Engstroms have experienced thanks to the miraculous intervention of Fulton Sheen, their dear intercessor.

“He helps me in my life,” James Fulton told the Register. “I pray to him and feel like he helps me.”

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