John Henry Cardinal Newman

Newman CenterBlessed 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).

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.

A Prayer by St. John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Mission of My Life
God has created me to do Him some definite service.
He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission.

I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good; I shall do His work.
I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him.
If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

He does nothing in vain.
He knows what He is about.
He may take away my friends.

He may throw me among strangers.
He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me.
Still, He knows what He is about.

 

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. On 12 February 2019, Pope Francis approved Cardinal Newman's second miracle, the miraculous healing of Melissa Villalobos and her then unborn daughter, Gemma, paving the way for his canonization. St. John Henry Newman was solemnly canonized by His Holiness Pope Francis at a ceremony held in St. Peter's Square in Rome on 13 October 2019.

 

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