On 13 October 2019 Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman will be canonized in Rome. He will be the first English saint in modern times and the first non-martyr since the Reformation.
American Catholics are familiar with Cardinal Newman from the foundation that bears his name; Newman Chapels on many university campuses; and numerous Catholic high schools coast to coast. He was a priest, scholar, and supporter of education all his life; and of Catholic education in later life. But these are only the most well-known associations with Cardinal Newman. He was born in London on 21 February 1801. His maternal ancestors were Huguenot refugees from France. His earliest religious education was at his mother’s knee. In his youth the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed by the British Parliament, placing the Catholic Church on equal footing with the Church of England and other Protestant denominations.
Newman’s first conversion was to Calvinism at the age of 15; but study at Oxford University caused his conversion to the Church of England (C. of E.), and Ordination to the Anglican priesthood in 1825. Even as this ministry matured, he discovered the Anglican “High Church” liturgical tradition, and in 1833 joined a group of like-minded Anglican scholar priests in forming the “Oxford Movement”. This group published 90 tracts (pamphlets) distributed throughout the C. of E., encouraging a return to a pre-Reformation Catholic sensibility in theology, spirituality, and liturgy. While the movement did have a positive effect on the Anglican Church – inspiring the Hymns Ancient & Modern hymnal which included English translations of Catholic office hymns; and The Parson’s Handbook of detailed rubrics for celebrating Anglican liturgies – Newman and some of his closest friends in the movement decided that just looking and sounding like Catholics was an incomplete faith. Authentic worship required acknowledging the authority of the Vicar of Christ via the Petrine Office.
Newman was received into the Catholic Church in October of 1843. This caused Newman suffering from broken relationships with family and friends, and polarized his Oxford circle. In less than a year he was ordained priest in Rome, and awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Pope Pius IX. But what would his vocation within the Catholic Church be?
In 1849 Newman founded the first Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England – in the working-class Edgbaston area of Birmingham – eventually establishing there the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception. He found the fellowship and spirituality congenial, and the liturgical and musical tradition of the Oratorians was ideal to foster a pre-Reformation English spirituality which he had encouraged as an Anglican priest – but now in Latin.
 |
| Faber & Newman |
Newman’s conversion, especially under the new laws of the Kingdom, soon brought many other converts to the Church. His Oxford Movement colleagues Frederick Faber and Thomas Francis Knox followed him; Newman sent them to found an Oratory in London that same year. They subsequently moved to the Brompton area and established the Parish Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1854. Subsequent Oratories were established in Manchester, York, and Oxford. The rejuvenation of the Catholic Church in England began over 150 years ago with the Catholic Emancipation Act and conversions of intellectually influential Anglicans. But Newman’s influence on the Universal church had just begun.
Another Anglican priest, Edward Caswall, left the C. of E. in 1847 and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1852, also joining the Oratorians. These three Oratorian priests – Newman, Caswall, and Faber – authored almost 100 of our most beloved Catholic hymns; including both original texts and skillful translations of ancient Latin hymns into English.
Newman:
Praise to the Holiest in the Height
Help Lord the Souls which Thou Hast Made
Firmly I Believe and Truly
Lead, Kindly Light
Supernal Word, Proceeding Forth
Now that the Daylight Dies Away
Green Are the Leaves, and Sweet the Flowers
Draw Nigh, O Lord, and on Us Shine
Blest Maker of the Light, by Whom
Faber:
Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning
Daily, Daily Sing to Mary
Blest Jesus, Ever at My Side
My God, How Wonderful Thou Art
Jesus, Gentlest Savior, God of Might and Power
Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All
I Love Thee, Lord, and Know Not How
O Come, and Mourn with Me a While
Faith of Our Fathers (the quintessential Catholic hymn about centuries of persecution).
Caswall:
All Ye Who Seek a Comfort Sure
Alleluia! Alleluia! Let the Holy Anthem Rise
At the Cross Her Station Keeping
Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest
Creator of the Stars of Night
Down in Adoration Falling
Glory Be to Jesus, Who in Bitter Pains
O Saving Victim, Opening Wide
See Amid the Winter’s Snow.
Many other hymns sung are more often sung by British Catholic faithful; but this list gives some idea of the breadth and depth of these inspired Oratorian converts’ faith.
Nineteenth century conversions inspired by Cardinal J. H. Newman in England were the prophetic beginning in the 21st century of a “New Song” of the Holy Spirit among English speaking Catholics around the globe. In 1985, St. Pope John Paul II granted an indult to former Episcopalian priests and their congregations to unite with the Church through the “Pastoral Provision”, which became known as the “Anglican Use”. This indult was limited to the USA, since it was requested by Americans. In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI promulgated “Anglicanorum Cœtibus” which established a structure by which Personal Ordinariates could be formed in English-speaking countries. Though this was the obvious extension of US Indult, the first to be established was in Great Britain: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, under the Patronage of Bl. John Henry Newman. Ordinariates in North America and the Antipodes quickly followed.
Cardinal Newman considered his conversion an “up-rooting” of his life at Oxford. Today he is acknowledged as the “root stock” of an authentic ecumenical movement leading former Anglicans back to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving their rich cultural patrimony. While Britain rejoices in his canonization as the first modern Englishman to become a saint, Anglican Ordinariates around the world rejoice more; and the UK Ordinariate most of all.
I will join faithful Catholics from all anglophone countries for John Henry Cardinal Newman’s Canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square; and with them enjoy associated celebratory events honouring our new saint in the Eternal City. I will post more here as events transpire.
