About Venerable John Henry Newman
by Father John McCloskey
The Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman is a towering intellectual and spiritual figure of the Catholic Church and indeed of world religion whose life spanned almost the entire nineteenth century and whose influence was crucial in the development of the documents of the Second Vatican Council in the twentieth century. He also was highly praised by and influenced the thought of the Pope John Paul II who promoted his cause for canonization and also Pope Benedict XVI who said "Newman's teaching on conscience became an important foundation for theological personalism which was drawing us all in its sway." Hardly a decade goes by without am major celebration of his life and endless articles and books about his prodigious writings in history, theology, belief, and ecumenism, etc.
He was born in the City of London, February 21st, 1801, the eldest of six children, three boys, and three girls; died at Edgbaston, Birmingham, on August 11, 1890. He was born of mixed English and French parentage that may account for the modified Calvinism of the religious beliefs of his early life that he received from his mother, Jemima Fourdriner. . His own account of the facts of his life can be found in his classic "Apologia pro Vita Sua." Recounting largely the story of his religious opinions and his monumental conversion, and "Autobiographical Writings" of his early life. There have been many biographies written with those written by Wilfred Ward, Meriol Trevor, and Ian Ker standing out for their completeness and objectivity
He attend a school in Ealing near London from the age of seven and matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1816 and graduated with a disappointing third class degree in 1821 after suffering to a nervous breakdown due to overwork. Nonetheless, he wise elected as fellow of the prestigious Oriel College at the age of 21 in 1822, counting this to be "the tuning point in his life, and of all days most memorable."
During the decade of the 1820's he largely dedicated himself to his pastoral work as an Anglican priests, and to his academic role as a the logical author and researcher, as tutor of Oriel College, he considered that he had a cure for souls; he was ordained on june 13, 1824 and at the suggestion of Nathan Pusey, his mentor, he became the Curate of St. Clement's Oxford where he spent two years in parochial activtity. During this time, due to the influence of Pusey and John Kebel and his own deep reading in the Church Fathers, he gradually dropped away from the Calvinist Evangelical principles that he had espoused earlier and became and advocated of the sacramental system of the ancient Church.
In 1828 he became vicar of the university Church of Oxford, St. Mary's and there began to preach his masterworks of sermons known as "parochial Sermons" that had a tremendous impact on both the students and dons of Oxford in their emphasis on holiness and their deep psychological insight. During these same years due in part to his close friendship with Hurrell Froude, he separated himself from his tutoring work given that he his Dean, Dr. Hawkins disagreed with his emphasis on the pastoral in his work with students. He made a life-changing long voyage to the Mediterranean where he was exposed both to classical site and to the reality of Catholicism during that year and returned to Oxford in time for the preaching of the sermon" National Apostasy" by John Keble on July 14 1833. That gave birth to the Oxford Movement and a new stage in his life. Newman then wrote and edited with other lesser figures of the Oxford movement, the "Tracts for the Times," These occasional pamphlets resuscitated the Fathers, brought into relief, the sacramerntal system, paved the way for an astonishing revival of long-forgotten ritual in the Anglican Church. Newman was striving to construct a "Via Media (the title of one of his books) based on a reading of the early Councils whereby the Anglican Church could be seen as a valid" Church" along with the magisterial "University Sermons" that presaged his future work on belief and faith in "The Grammar of Assent."
The Anglican period came to a crashing end with the publication of the final Tract (90), which was intended to keep stragglers from Rome by distinguishing the corruptions against which the Thirty-nine Articles were directed, from the doctrines of Trent, which they did not assail. . The resulting controversy including Episcopal condemnation resulted in Newman stopping the tracts, giving up St, Mary's, and the University Church and retiring into Littlemore into lay communion effectively ending his life as an Anglican.
The period between 1841-5 was spent in quite seclusion accompanied by a band of loyal disciples. I n1843, he retracted in a local newspaper his severe language towards Rome; in September he resigned his living. With immense labor he composed his magnum opus the, "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine" in which the apparent deviations of dogma, formerly objected by him against the Catholic Church, were explained as an unfolding in the understanding of the truths of Revelation as expressed doctrinally under the guidance of the Catholic Church. On Oct 9, 1845 at Littlemore Newman was received in to the Church by St. Dominic Barbieri, an Italian Passionist.
HisCatholic life began with short studies in Rome in 1846 followed by ordination. In 1847 the Pope approved his scheme for establishing the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and in 1847 he began mission work in Birmingham and began his public ministry as an Oratorian and Catholic priest that later bore fruit in a school and a large Church. He continued both writing and preaching. His "Lectures on Anglican Difficulties"" were heard in London by large audiences. He also wrote two novels "Loss and Gain," and Callista, the former a thinly veiled retelling of his own conversion; the latter, a story of early Christianity. At the synod Of Oscott, at the inception of the restoring of the hierarchy, Newman preached his most famous sermon entitled, The Secret Spring." It is said that both Macaulay and George Eliot knew it by heart.
During the decades of the ‘50's continued his writings and preaching including his "Lectures on the Position of Catholics." They reveal him as a master of humorous sketches, witty and scornful of the great protestant tradition. Newman also became involved, almost accidentally, in part due to mistakes made by his mentor Cardinal Wiseman, in a libel trial brought by a rogue apostolate priest Achilli. However this incident did provide for a how of appreciation by Catholics from all over the world who contributed to pay Newman's expense and unjust fine that was placed on him.
The years from 851 to 1870 brought disaster to a series of noble projects in which he aimed at serving religion and culture .In Ireland, the bishops had been compelled, after rejecting the "Godless" colleges in 1847, to undertake a university of their own. . An attempt would be made and Newman was appointed Rector in November 1851. Ultimately the project failed due to variety of factors including lack of full backing from the bishops as explained in Newman's book" Campaign in Ireland." However, more importantly, the seven years spent away from the oratory was more than justified by Newman's classic work on education that continues to bring responses to this day. The book is "The Idea of a University"; a compilation of Lectures to the University along with other writings on education and the book has not been out of print since its publication. They exhibit a range of thought, an urbanity of style, and a pregnant wit that were unmatched at the time. They are the best defense of Catholic education ever written and continue to have a deep influence particularly in the United States where there many academic programs and catholic chaplaincies were based on their teachings. Another large enterprise, suggested by Cardinal Wiseman, was likewise a failure –the revision of the English Catholic Bible. Even though one of his spiritual descendants, Msgr. Ronald Knox was to undertake a similar effort eighty some years later, a Bible translated by arguably the greatest English stylist of the nineteenth century would have been a lasting treasure.
Other controversies during this period included Newman's attempt at establishing an Oratory at Oxford, his opinions over the supposed need for the "temporal" power of the Church to remain over the Papal States against his fellow convert and erstwhile friend, Cardinal Manning, and, and his editorship of "The Rambler" that only lasted two months. In the journal he wrote an article entitled "On consulting the laity in Matters of Doctrine" that resulted in his being delated to Rome.
In 1864, he was accused by the protestant evangelical author Charles Kingsley, a noted novelist of being as a member of the Catholic clergy of being untruthful. This lead to his feverish writing his masterpiece of autobiography "Apologia Pro Vita Sua." His openness in recounting his journey to Catholic and his struggle with his own conscience was over the great majority of the English public and continues to play a role in giving validity to Roman Catholicism in the English nation and also as a help to many thousands of converts who have followed in his path.
Hi last active year were spent in controversies over the declaration of papal infallibility year that took place in the First Vatican Council. While assenting fully to the conciliar decree, Newman, nonetheless, had not considered it "opportune" in contrast to his ultramontane critics and former friends, Cardinal Manning, and W.G.Ward. In 1874 he defended the Church against Gladstone's charge that "Vaticanism" was equivalent to the latest fashions in religion (see his Letter to the Duke of Norfolk").
His second vindication now to the world and universal Church, totally unexpected, came in 1879 when he was named a Cardinal by the newly elected Pope Leo XIII, the first "modern" Pope. He lived out his days in the Birmingham Oratory and died in August 1890. His funeral was a great public event.
He is generally considered among the very greatest of the Victorians as a writer and controversialist. Perhaps Newman's greatest contribution to social thought was his insistence on the role of the laity in the Church: and as evangelizing agents in the world through their family life, professional work, and the "personal Influence" of their friendship on their friends. This view as in dramatic contrast with the view of a well-known English cleric who said, "What is the province of laity? To hunt, to shoot, to entertain? These matters they understand…' Newman, on the hand said, "If I may so express myself. I want the intellectual laymen to be religious and the devout ecclesiastic to be intellectual." He also presaged the centrality of ordinary work as a means of personal holiness that was later to be a key teaching of the Second Vatican Council, "He then, is perfect who does the work of the day perfectly, and we need not go beyond this to seek perfection." Newman saw the to social progress and justice would come about above all, through the commitment of men and women and their families to live out fully their Christian vocation in the middle of the world and freely exercise their role in civil society with the plurality of opinions and ways as how to achieve justice and peace.
