For All of Your Blessed Cardinal Newman Needs
Good news - I finally finished editing the St. Elizabeth documentary (last Wednesday)! Now it has gone to my brother, who is going to compose the score. Only a few more tweaks and it will be done (but far from paid for). More about this later.
Because of all that work, I haven’t had any time before now to write about Pope Benedict’s trip to England and Scotland, which starts tomorrow. A lot has been going on with this trip, for sure. The very prospect of the Pope coming to English soil is being met with a flood of hate, not just from the usual-suspect dissident Catholics, but by atheists (including the inevitable Dawkins) and secularists of all stripes, supporters of the sacred secular sacrament of abortion, and just plan vile people like Ian Paisley, all spewing the usual ignorant diatribes about the Pope’s early brush with the Hitler Youth, condoms in Africa, Cardinal Ratzinger’s supposed role in the priestly sexual abuse scandal, and on and on.
If you have the stomach for it, The Catholic League has compiled a greatest-hits list of the attacks. I haven’t the stomach or time, really to deal with it, but Bill Donohue of the League has provided a response.
No wonder the Holy Father asked people at his installation Mass to “pray for me that I may not flee for fear of the wolves”!
Just over two years ago, Benedict got such a warm welcome here in the U.S. (except for the most hardened cases in the MSM). But the well of secularism Britain has fallen into is just so much deeper than here in the States.
But my real purpose in writing this post is to provide some information about the centerpiece of the papal visit: On Sunday, September 19, the Pope will preside over the beatification Mass for the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman in Cofton Park near Birmingham, where Newman lived for many years, and will visit his rooms where Newman lived as a member of the priestly congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. During the Mass, the Pope will use a chalice that Newman himself used while celebrating in his private chapel.
Newman is a towering figure in the Church’s intellectual history. As a prominent Anglican clergyman and member of the Oxford movement that sought to renew the Anglican Church, he shocked the nation when he converted to Catholicism in 1845 — a move that alienated him from friends and family alike. He is the author not only of inspiring sermons but also of many books, including An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine — a seminal text that paved the way for Vatican II. He was named a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879. He died in 1890, at the age of 89.
I know a bit about Newman — I was deeply moved by reading his autobiography, Apologia Pro Vita Sua many years ago when I was an undergraduate.
I thought it would be useful to compile links to some of the fascinating information out there about Newman and the beatification.
Here’s the video from EWTN showing Raymond Arroyo on a tour of the new blessed’s rooms and the private chapel at the Oratory, as well as an interview by him with Deacon Jack Sullivan, the man whose miraculous healing made the beatification possible.
You can also hear the story of Newman’s conversion from the Passionist priest who received him into the Church, Bl. Dominic Barbieri (thanks to terrific Catholic actor Kevin O’Brien).
The Newman Reader site has e-texts of all of Newman’s important works as well as biographies and other books about him.
Perhaps the work of Newman’s that is most important for understanding him is Apologia Pro Vita Sua, which he wrote in 1864 in response to a particularly vicious attack by a Anglican clergyman, Charles Kingsley (acting, apparently, with all the intelligence and graciousness of a typical hit-and-run internet troll). The whole background and course of the controversy can be found here. Happily, this churlish and ignorant attack gave rise to a truly beautiful book.
In it, Newman describes his religious beliefs and spiritual feelings from his early youth on and details how he was converted to the Catholic faith. There are so many things to appreciate here, not least the satirical humor against the unfortunate Mr. Kingsley, truly worthy of a son of St. Philiip Neri!Read the e-text here. If you like, you can also download the original English edition here in facsimile here.
Here is the text of An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.
The invaluable American Papist has a great post detailing the “brazen defiance of fact” exerted by John Cornwell in his essay on Newman’s legacy. Was Newman really not the faithful Catholic he claimed to be — was he instead the ancestor of today’s dissenting “liberal” Catholics? This is from the author of Hitler’s Pope and A Thief in the Night — what do you think?
By the way, people have been betting for weeks that the MSM is going to try as hard as it can to ruin this joyous weekend for Catholics by launching some new trumped-up “scandal” against Pope Benedict. If it does, just remember that I predicted it here.
But on to happier thoughts.
The U. S.’s own Cardinal Newman society is very excited about their pilgrimage to England for the beatification. They will be supplying updates to their blog, and you can also follow them on Twitter.
Here is the full schedule of the Pope’s visit with the live TV broadcast times, from EWTN. They also have a page with links to biographical material on Newman, news items and much more.
I am going to try to study Newman a lot more during the coming days — if I have time. But above all, let’s remember to pray for the Pope on this trip — please, Holy Father, watch out for those wolves!
Update: September 16
I guess I needn’t have worried to much. On the plane today, in response to a reporter’s question about his possible hostile reception, Papa Benedetto replied: “Where there is anti-Catholicism I will go forward with great courage and joy.” LOVE IT!
Sometimes, because of his outgoing nature and great self-confidence, it wasn’t that obvious that Pope John Paul II’s courage was a supernatural virtue (though I’m quite certain that it was). But for Benedict, a much more meek, shy and retiring type, to look hate and evil in the eye and say with a smile - “I will go forward with great courage and joy” - it is obvious that these are the words of a saint.
Evil won’t stand a chance.
Update: September 22
I’ve watched as much of the coverage as I could online — and the visit was a tremendous success! And how did the secular news media in the U.S. handle this triumph of Benedict’s? Try to counter with news of another “scandal”? Nope. They basically ignored the historic trip.
It’s a good thing they aren’t the only game in town any more.
