 Raya created a controversy when he invited Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the famous television Catholic personality, to celebrate the Pontifical Byzantine Divine Liturgy in English in 1958 at the Melkite National Convention.Bishop Sheen celebrated the Liturgy in English on television, inspiring some Catholics to renew calls for widespread use of the vernacular but raising the ire of traditionalists.The Roman Catholic archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, Thomas Toolen, banned Raya from celebrating the Divine Liturgy in English in December 1959.