Cherry Red Catalytic Conerter

I have a 1995 Dodge Ram 1500 conversion van 140000 miles. We have been noticing lately that once we get down to 3/4 of a tank of gas that it acts like it is empty, it hiccups and chugs and finally dies. Well, last night at the car wash it died mid wash. When we tried to start it back up again all it did was turn the starter but it wouldn't catch. We noticed that we had exast coming out when we tried to start it that smell like sulfur. When we finally got a push out of the car wash we looked underneath and saw that the catalytic converter was cherry red. We know the fuel pump is going out, but would that cause sudden problems with the exaust?