Living The Worthy Life: Sheen's Predictions On Russian Leaders

Bishop Sheen died in 1979 and that was ten years before the fall of the Berlin Wall and twelve years before the fall of the USSR.  He did not live to see any of that but he did predict two rather famous things about Stalin.  One was about what would happen to Stalin’s political rivals and the other is what would happen to Stalin. 

These predictions were printed in 1936 and recorded in 1953 

First,  THE DEATH FOR STALIN RIVALS PREDICTED BY FULTON SHEEN Prelate Foresaw Results of Passion For Power (N. C. W. C. News Service.)  1937 

Washington, Feb. 25.—In his statement sent to The Daily Worker, New York Communist newspaper, which, under date of December 26, 1936, had directed a series of questions at him in an article, the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen predicted: "lt is not at all unlikely that if Stalin continues in power another five years, either Dimitrov, Litvlnoff, or Radek and possibly all three will be executed by Stalin, in the manner of Kamenev, and Zinoviev, both of whom stood in the way of Stalin's passion for power.” Monsignor Sheen's statement was written in the first week of January and has been published in six weekly installments in the Catholic Press. On Trial For Life Before the month was out, one of the three, Karl Radek, once all-powerful Communist propaganda chief, was on trial for his life in Moscow. With 16 others, Radek was convicted. Thirteen were executed. Four, among them Radek and Gregory Sokolnikoff, former Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain, were sent to prison. On the morning following their conviction, January 31, the New York Times, under the heading "Radek Saved To Convict Others," published a story from its Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty. In it, he said: “It also is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Radek and Sokolnikoff will be useful in subsequent trials of disloyal elements.  

The Bolsheviki pride themselves on realism and may well say; "Why kill persons whose evidence might help us? It is believed Radek and Sokolnikoff will be called to another trial later, and eventually face the firing squad. A somewhat similar procedure was followed in the case of Gregory Zlnovieff and Leon Kamineff, who was sent to prison for two years, then brought back to trial and executed with 14 others in August 1936.  

 "Relatives are never notified in advance of the executions. The bodies are cremated immediately. Some days or weeks later discarded clothes may be returned to the nearest of kin.” Violence Predicted. In his remarkable prediction of further violence on the part of Stalin to maintain his dictatorship over the Russian people, Monsignor Sheen had written: “And if it is written that the dictatorship of the proletariat endures only until the Paradise of Communism is established, it might be interesting to know how long that will be? Russia still has Its dictatorship over the proletariat under Stalin, even after 19 years, and there is no indication that he is ready to surrender his dictatorship. Rather, through the execution of his rivals, he seems to be bearing out the truth of Lenin's warning: 'Stalin is bent on concentrating power in his hands and I am not sure that he always knows how to use it...Stalin is too rude and becomes insupportable...Therefore I propose to the comrades to find a way to remove Stalin.’ (Lenin's Will of January 4, 1923.") 

Second, The Death of Stalin Predicted 

Perhaps the best example of Sheen’s mystical foresight took place on February 21, 1953. In front of a large live television audience which, at that time, rivaled the top-rated Milton Berle Show, Sheen presented an episode of his show, Life is Worth Living, entitled “The Death of Stalin.”  In this program, Sheen wove an elaborate comparison using the words of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to condemn the leaders of the Soviet Union. Delivering Marc Antony's famous speech, Sheen replaced the names of the Roman characters with those of Soviet high officials. In place of Caesar, Sheen named Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin: 

“And now Malenkov speaks: ‘Friends, Soviets, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Stalin, not to praise him.’”  

At the climax of his soliloquy, Sheen fulminated: 

“Stalin must one day meet his judgment!” 

On March 1, about a week later, Stalin suffered a stroke. By March 5, he was dead. If you doubt these facts please read about what was said. 
 
Considering how many millions of eyes had seen Bishop Sheen all but call down God's wrath upon Stalin but a few days before, the news of the Soviet dictator's death created a buzz. In his autobiography, Sheen gives an idea of the sensation stirred up among the press, most of whom assumed that the Bishop had an earthly source of covert intelligence: 

“I received telephone calls from newspapers in almost every state of the Union asking me what inside information I had. I told them that I only knew that he was mortal and would have to pay the last penalty of sin, which was death. And it was just pure luck that the telecast and his demise coincided.” [Sheen, Treasure in Clay, p. 77]   

So the Archbishop, in his humility, ascribed the prediction to mere coincidence—and perhaps it was. But considering Sheen viewed fruits of his preaching as “more of the Spirit and less of Sheen,” there remains a strong possibility that something more than mere happenstance was at work here. 

Bishop Sheen was accurate on his predictions about Stalin, maybe we should begin to take seriously his predictions about other things.  Look out America, we are about to begin a new age, stay alert, you will need it.