Sir, – As a child in the USA in the 1950s I well remember the weekly programme by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Life is Worth Living. (“Grandson of Roscommon emigrants and famous Catholic TV host beatified in Missouri,” September 25th).
My mother would never miss it. He was a great communicator and had a wide audience but he also had a sense of humour and frequently reminded us that if we got bored with him we could switch to Milton Berle, a comedian on another channel.
That is what we children did whenever there was a break and my mother went for her cup of tea. But back to the bishop each time.
He also told a story of having a meal in a Manhattan restaurant with three priests in regular black clerical garb. He was dressed in his full colourful canonicals. When the server came to him, she stared at him for a while in puzzlement and then asked: “Well, cock robin, what will you have?” – Yours, etc,
RM Block
KATHLEEN FORDE,
Whitehall,
Dublin 9.
