Radio Show

Bonnie Engstrom Shares How Fulton Sheen’s Intercession Saved Her Son’s Life

 

Bonnie Engstrom, popular Catholic speaker and blogger, discusses her new book, “61 Minutes to a Miracle: Fulton Sheen and the True Story of The Impossible,” which chronicles how the intercession of Archbishop Fulton Sheen saved her newborn son’s life.

Bonnie’s devotion to Fulton Sheen begin before the birth of her son. “I live in central Illinois close to where Fulton Sheen was born and raised,” she says. I always knew who he was, but when I was pregnant with James, I started watching his TV show on YouTube with my husband … We were so taken by him and we decided then and there in our living room that we would name our baby after Fulton Sheen. That was really the beginning.”

“Putting my unborn child under Fulton Sheen’s patronage every day, I started asking for his prayers. And not just in the pregnancy, but for the labor and delivery and for the rest of my child’s life.” Despite a healthy pregnancy, Bonnie delivered a stillborn baby boy, but after 61 minutes, just as the doctors were going to call a time of death, baby James Fulton’s heart began to beat again.

In those 61 minutes when James didn’t have a pulse, Bonnie’s husband performed an emergency Baptism on James and invoked Fulton Sheen’s name.  “I was going into a state of shock, but the only thing I could do was say Fulton Sheen’s name over and over again.” Bonnie says. ”When they stopped working on him to call time of death his heart started to beat again” Following the traumatic event, doctors expected James to have massive organ failure and potentially die. Miraculously, James not only survived, but thrived, and is a healthy 9-year-old today.” Original Air 9-19-19