Newmania: A Gallery of Newman Related Items
On the eve of the canonization of Cardinal John Henry Newman
By Deborah Gyapong
The day started with Divine Worship Mass at a chapel in the North American College with Bishop Steven Lopes.
With him was a group of pilgrims and clergy from Our Lady of Walsingham, our cathedral parish in Houston. Nigel McBain, a seminarian from Australia, was the cantor and what a beautiful voice he has! It was great to meet all these folks.
Msgr. Carl Reid had just arrived after a long flight from Australia. So, Nigel and Msgr. Carl and I went to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith so they could get instructions and tickets, etc., for tomorrow’s canonization, then we went out to lunch.
Read More: HERE
John Henry Newman, a saint of the Anglican family
by Christopher Mahon
John Henry Newman, the world-renowned convert from Anglicanism and founder of the Oxford Movement, was declared a saint today by Pope Francis in Rome. He is now the first non-martyr Englishman to be canonized since the Reformation. Not only is he a confessor, he may well one day even be declared a Doctor of the Church.
John Henry Newman, a saint of the Anglican family
by Christopher Mahon
John Henry Newman, the world-renowned convert from Anglicanism and founder of the Oxford Movement, was declared a saint today by Pope Francis in Rome. He is now the first non-martyr Englishman to be canonized since the Reformation. Not only is he a confessor, he may well one day even be declared a Doctor of the Church.
John Henry Newman: The harmony of difference
In an editorial published in the l’Osservatore Romano newspaper the day before Cardinal Newman’s canonization, Britain’s Prince Charles writes about Newman’s “fearless honesty, unsparing rigour, and originality of thought”.
By His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales
When Pope Francis canonises Cardinal John Henry Newman tomorrow, the first Briton to be declared a saint in over forty years, it will be a cause of celebration not merely in the United Kingdom, and not merely for Catholics, but for all who cherish the values by which he was inspired.
In the age when he lived, Newman stood for the life of the spirit against the forces that would debase human dignity and human destiny. In the age in which he attains sainthood, his example is needed more than ever - for the manner in which, at his best, he could advocate without accusation, could disagree without disrespect and, perhaps most of all, could see differences as places of encounter rather than exclusion.
At a time when faith was being questioned as never before, Newman, one of the greatest theologians of the nineteenth century, applied his intellect to one of the most pressing questions of our era: what should be the relationship of faith to a sceptical, secular age? His engagement first with Anglican theology, and then, after his conversion, Catholic theology, impressed even his opponents with its fearless honesty, its unsparing rigour and its originality of thought.
Whatever our own beliefs, and no matter what our own tradition may be, we can only be grateful to Newman for the gifts, rooted in his Catholic faith, which he shared with wider society: his intense and moving spiritual autobiography and his deeply-felt poetry in ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ which, set to music by Sir Edward Elgar – another Catholic of whom all Britons can be proud – gave the musical world one of its most enduring choral masterpieces.
At the climax of ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ the soul, approaching heaven, perceives something of the divine vision:
a grand mysterious harmony:
It floods me, like the deep and solemn sound
Of many waters.
Harmony requires difference. The concept rests at the very heart of Christian theology in the concept of the Trinity. In the same poem, Gerontius says:
Firmly I believe and truly
God is three, and God is One;
As such, difference is not to be feared. Newman not only proved this in his theology and illustrated it in his poetry, but he also demonstrated it in his life. Under his leadership, Catholics became fully part of the wider society, which itself thereby became all the richer as a community of communities.
Newman engaged not merely with the church, but with the world. While wholeheartedly committed to the Church to which he came through so many intellectual and spiritual trials, he nonetheless initiated open debate between Catholics and other Christians, paving the way for later ecumenical dialogues. On his elevation to the Cardinalate in 1879, he took as his motto Cor ad cor loquitor ('heart speaks to heart'), and his conversations across confessional, cultural, social and economic divides, were rooted in that intimate friendship with God.
His faith was truly catholic in that it embraced all aspects of life. It is in that same spirit that we, whether we are Catholics or not, can, in the tradition of the Christian Church throughout the ages, embrace the unique perspective, the particular wisdom and insight, brought to our universal experience by this one individual soul. We can draw inspiration from his writings and his life even as we recognise that, like all human lives, it was inevitably flawed. Newman himself was aware of his failings, such as pride and defensiveness which fell short of his own ideals, but which, ultimately, left him only more grateful for the mercy of God.
His influence was immense. As a theologian, his work on the development of doctrine showed that our understanding of God can grow over time, and had a profound impact on later thinkers. Individual Christians have found their personal devotion challenged and strengthened by the importance he attached to the voice of conscience. Those of all traditions who seek to define and defend Christianity have found themselves grateful for the way he reconciled faith and reason. Those who seek the divine in what can seem like an increasingly hostile intellectual environment find in him a powerful ally who championed the individual conscience against an overwhelming relativism.
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/george-weigel-discusses-st.-john-newmans-rich-legacy
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Newman’s rich, complex theory of doctrinal development and his similarly nuanced description of conscience and its vital role in the Christian life are being misinterpreted and misunderstood because they are being “read” through the filter of religious liberalism: the notion that religious truth is but a matter of personal opinion. This is more than a little ironic, in that Newman flatly rejected what he termed the “spirit of liberalism in religion” throughout his entire life: a point he underscored in Rome in 1879 on being formally notified of his enrollment in the College of Cardinals.
St. Peter’s square is prepared for a very special weekend during which, for many of us, the Canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman will be the highlight. It is an auspicious day for the English church especially as one of our own countrymen is made a Saint. How good to see his image displayed.
This day was marked by a truly international celebration of the life, witness and intercession of Newman, with pilgrims drawn, in particular, from across the English-speaking world, notably Ireland and the United States, as well as the U.K., and from elsewhere in the universal Church, particularly Austria, France and Belgium. All had come to celebrate Newman and express their joy on the occasion of Newman being declared the newest English saint.
This day was marked by a truly international celebration of the life, witness and intercession of Newman, with pilgrims drawn, in particular, from across the English-speaking world, notably Ireland and the United States, as well as the U.K., and from elsewhere in the universal Church, particularly Austria, France and Belgium. All had come to celebrate Newman and express their joy on the occasion of Newman being declared the newest English saint.
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