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Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman
by Dr. Mary Katherine Tillman, Professor Emerita, Program of Liberal Studies, University of Notre Dame
Born in London, raised with bible religion, Newman experienced conversion at
fifteen: luminous awareness of himself and God impressions of creed and dogma,
calling to single life. He studied classics and mathematics at Trinity College,
Oxford, there developing his evangelical beliefs along Calvinist lines. Ordained an
Anglican priest, he became vicar of the university church, St. Mary the Virgin. Fellow
and tutor of Oriel College, Oxford, he was influenced by rationalist scholars whose
methods included logic and evidences to prove religious matters. Patristic studies,
Joseph Butler's Analogy of Religion, friendships, illness, his sister's death, gradually
separated him from the liberal leanings of Oriel, centering him in high church or
Anglo-Catholic tradition. In 1832 he published his first book, The Arians of the
Fourth Century, and, on a Mediterranean voyage, wrote many religious poems
(Lyra Apostolica). Recovered from grave illness in Sicily, he returned to England
to become leader of the Oxford Movement.
From 1833 to 1841, Newman prolifically defended the Via Media of the Anglican church.
The far reaching "Tracts for the Times against Popery and Dissent" were complemented by
his legendary Parochial and Plain Sermons delivered at St. Mary's. He published Lectures
on the Prophetical Office viewed relatively to Romanism and Popular Protestantism,
and became editor of the Movement's journal, The British Critic. His and the Movement's
last Tract, number ninety, proposing a Catholic reading of the "Thirty-nine Articles,"
was denounced by church and university. The effect of this blow, other disappointments
and doubts, further study of the early church, resulted in resignation from his position
and clerical status. After years of intellectual and spiritual struggle, Newman became
a Catholic in 1845 while completing An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,
which showed continuity from the church of antiquity to the Catholic church of the
nineteenth century.
Newman went to Rome to study theology for Catholic priesthood, entered and brought
to England the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, published two novels of conversion, Loss and
Gain (1848) and Callista (1855), and two volumes on ecumenical relations in England,
Lectures on Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in submitting to the Catholic Church (1850),
Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851).
Prayer to obtain the canonization of John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1801-1890
God our Father, you granted to your servant Blessed John Henry Newman wonderful gifts of nature and of grace, that he should be a spiritual light in the darkness of this world, an eloquent herald of the Gospel, and a devoted servant of the one Church of Christ.
With confidence in his heavenly intercession, we make the following petition: [here make your petition]
For his insight into the mysteries of the kingdom, his zealous defence of the teachings of the Church, and his priestly love for each of your children, we pray that he may soon be numbered among the Saints.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Nihil Obstat: Fr Pat McKinney S.T.L.
Imprimatur: + Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham
From 1851 to 1858, Newman founded and presided over the Catholic University of Ireland, justifying
Catholic liberal education in the now classic Idea of a University. In 1859 he founded the Birmingham
Oratory School for boys, became editor of the Rambler, published a defense of the laity, "On
Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine" (1859), was reported to Rome for it and asked
to resign the editorship.
After four years of relative silence, Newman was aroused by Charles Kingsley's published
accusation that Newman and the Roman clergy were indifferent to truth and cultivated deception.
Newman responded with the Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864), disclosing the history of his religious
opinions from childhood, defending both reason and authority with rhetorical magnificence.
Enthusiastic response from Anglicans and Catholics reinstated Newman in the public mind. In
1865 he published "The Dream of Gerontius," a long poem about immediate life after death, and
"Letter to Pusey" on Marian devotion. His most philosophical work, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar
of Assent (1870), aimed at justifying religious faith by describing how ordinary minds think,
assent, and reach certitude.
Newman declined the invitation by bishops and Pope to serve as theological consultant
for the First Vatican Council. As Catholic, he had always believed in papal infallibility,
but opposed its conciliar definition saying the Church was not yet ready and episcopal
intrigue too dominant. Newman accepted the definition of 1870, pleased with its moderation. His
"Letter to the Duke of Norfolk" (1875) defended both the doctrine and Catholic conscience in
Anglican England. His last major contribution to ecclesiology was the 1877 Preface to The
Prophetical Office, now retitled The Via Media, in which he detailed the Church's three
offices and their interrelations: the prophetic, exercised by theologians; the priestly, by
laity; the governing, by pope and magisterium.
In 1878 Newman became first honorary fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. In 1879 Pope Leo XIII
made him cardinal and, in accepting, Newman singled out as his lifelong work the battle against
liberalism, the usurpations of reason in matters of religion. His cardinalate motto was "Cor
ad cor loquitur" (Heart speaks to heart). After physical decline, Newman died in 1890. The
inscription on his grave at Rednal reads: "Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem" (Out of
shadows and images into truth). Newman's Letters and Diaries (1961-84), when complete,
will comprise thirty-one of his nearly eighty published volumes.
Man of solitude, man of action, Newman possessed tremendous capacity for friendship and
human sympathy. A thinker of great assimilative power, originality and genius, he is one
of the foremost stylists of the English language, his writings rich in psychological subtlety,
illustration, and satire. He was interested in the personal character of all mental acts; the
influence of mind upon mind; the sacred duty of developing one's gifts; liberal education
as the cultivation of the healthy mind. His method of investigation included exploring extremes,
balancing antagonistic principles, reasoning concretely through the convergence of antecedent probabilities.
Newman's spirituality emphasized conscience as connecting principle between self and God,
the Holy Spirit's indwelling in individuals and church, the gospel "Image of Christ," God's
particular providence, devotion to Mary and the saints, and patience. He celebrated the reality
of the invisible world, the sacramentality of the visible world, the holiness of everyday life
in consistent fulfillment of one's duties,
through friendship and personal influence, not as much by words as by actions.
Newman's thought had significant influence at the Second Vatican Council, particularly
his ecclesiology, ecumenism, theory of doctrinal development, defense of conscience,
theology of the laity. Pope John Paul II declared him "venerable" in 1991.
Note: The above work is Copyright of the author. Muhlenberg College takes no credit for this biography.
Update:
In 1991, Cardinal Newman was proclaimed venerable by the Sacred Congregation for the
Causes of Saints. In 2009 the miraculous cure of Deacon Jack Sulllivan through the
intercession of Cardinal Newman was confirmed by the Congregation for the Causes
of Saints paving the way for his beatification. This happened on the 19 September
2010 when Pope Benedict XVI presided at the Beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman
at Crofton Park, Birmingham.
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