Not so fast: New York Archdiocese will appeal ruling to move Archbishop Sheen

You may remember this big story from a few days ago. Wait, there’s more.

From Catholic New York:

The Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral will appeal a Nov. 17 ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of New York in favor of the family of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen regarding their request to allow the transfer of the sainthood candidate’s remains to Peoria, Ill., where he was raised and ordained a priest.

“The Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, who oversee both Calvary Cemetery and the crypt beneath the high altar of the cathedral, have decided to appeal the judge’s decision, and will be seeking a stay of the order allowing the transfer of Archbishop Sheen’s earthly remains until the appeal is decided,” said a statement issued Nov. 22 by John M. Callagy of Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP in Manhattan, an outside counsel representing the archdiocese for the Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“We are confident that we will present substantial reasons for the Appeals Court to overturn the initial decision.”

On Nov. 1, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Bluth heard arguments in favor of the transfer from lawyers for Archbishop Sheen’s niece, Joan Sheen Cunningham, as well as those from the Archdiocese of New York, which sought to keep the remains of the famed orator and media pioneer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where he was entombed following his death on Dec. 9, 1979.

In June, the Archdiocese of New York repeated its hope that the Diocese of Peoria would reopen the sainthood cause of Archbishop Sheen, which has been indefinitely suspended by the Diocese of Peoria for two years.

That followed the Sheen family’s petition, also in June, to the Supreme Court of the State of New York to allow the transfer of the sainthood candidate’s remains to Peoria.

Ms. Sheen Cunningham, Archbishop Sheen’s oldest living relative, filed a petition June 13 asking that the Trustees of St. Patrick’s Cathedral—where Archbishop Sheen has been entombed in a crypt, in keeping with the archbishop’s request that he be buried in New York—and the Archdiocese of New York allow his remains to be disinterred and transferred to Peoria for interment in a crypt at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Read more.