This page is dedicated to and will share develpments regarding the wonderful news of the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, of the Birmingham Oratory. Cardinal Newman is a great figure for the Universal Church cited by many authors, Popes and at the Vatican Council II.
About Canonization
Local Interview About Blessed John Henry Newman
September 19, 2010
Relics of Blessed John Henry Newman, C.O., at the Oratory Church.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
BEATIFICATION OF JOHN HENRY, CARDINAL NEWMAN OF THE ORATORY
It was formally announced today that our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI will beatify our brother, John Henry Cardinal Newman, on Sunday, 19th September at a ceremony in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, England. The exact location and time for the ceremony are yet to be announced.
As promoters of the Cause, the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory would like to extend an invitation to the family of St. Philip throughout the world to join us in this joyful celebration. Apart from the Mass of Beatification itself, there will be Masses on subsequent days in the three English Oratories of Birmingham, Oxford and London. There will also be opportunities for visits to the places associated with our beloved Cardinal in Birmingham and Oxford.
We give thanks to God and to St. Philip for this joyful news and very much look forward to welcoming our Philippine family to England.
Fr. Richard Duffield
Provost of the Birmingham Oratory
See The Cause for the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman
On Friday, July 3, The Holy Father approved a miracle for the cause of beatification of Cardinal Newman. Please see the following AP news article:
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinal John Henry Newman, an influential 19th-century Anglican theologian who converted to Roman Catholicism, moved a step closer to possible sainthood Friday after the pope approved a miracle attributed to his intercession.
Pope Benedict XVI ruled that the recovery of a Boston-area resident who for years suffered from a spinal disorder was miraculous, meaning Newman can now be beatified. A second miracle is necessary for him to be declared a saint — an event which, if it happens, would make Newman the first English-born saint since the Reformation.
Newman, a hero to many Anglicans and Catholics alike, was one of the founders of the so-called Oxford Movement of the 1830s, which sought to revive certain Roman Catholic doctrines in the Church of England by looking back to the traditions of the earliest Christian church. Anglicans split from Rome in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment.
"He was extraordinarily important in helping the Anglican church in finding its identity," said Cynthia McFarland, managing editor of the Anglicans Online Web site.
In 1841, Newman published a paper demonstrating that the Thirty-Nine Articles, the doctrinal statements of the Church of England, were consistent with Catholicism. Amid outcry from Anglicans, Newman retired an d in 1845 joined the Roman Catholic Church. A year later he was ordained a Catholic priest.
Monsignor Mark Langham, the Vatican official in charge of relations with Anglicans, said Newman was also a "key figure" for Catholics. For Catholics, Newman anticipated by some 100 years the ideas about the church's place in the world that were articulated during the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that brought many liberalizing reforms to the church.
"Because so many of his ideas anticipate Vatican II, he is seen as something of a trailblazer in opening up the Roman Catholic Church to the world and the wider sense of its obligations to other Christians," Langham told The Associated Press.
Many theologians, Benedict chief among them, "hold him in very high esteem as one of the great minds," he added.
The miracle approved Friday by the pope concerns the medically inexplicable cure of John "Jack" Sullivan, who suffered from debilitating back pain for years but was cured after praying to Newman.
In a statement, Sullivan said he was filled "with an intense sense of gratitude and thanksgiving" over learning that Newman would now be beatified.
"I have dedicated my vocation in praise of Cardinal Newman, who even now directs all my efforts," Sullivan said in the statement, which was issued by Newman's community, the Birmingham Oratory in Britain.
The Archdiocese of Boston, which investigated the cure and sent its findings onto the Vatican, said: "We are honored to have played some small part in this blessed announcement," spokesman Terry Donilon said.
The Archbishop of Westminster, His Grace Vincent Nichols, who was instrumental in pushing the beatification cause forward, said Newman's beatification would "help us greatly in the task of protecting the faith amidst the difficulties he foresaw so clearly."
McFarland said Newman's conversion was "the logical end to his exploration" into the origins of the church.
At the time, there was a sense of great loss within the Church of England, if not betrayal, that such a charismatic and brilliant figure had left for Rome. But as Anglican-Catholic relations improved over time "there has been a joint claim to his extraordinary life as being important to both of our churches," she said.
No date has been set for the beatification ceremony.
PRAYER
Eternal Father, You led John Henry Newman to follow the kindly light of Truth, and he obediently responded to your heavenly calls at any cost. As writer, preacher, counsellor and educator, as pastor, Oratorian, and servant of the poor he laboured to build up your Kingdom.
Grant that through your Vicar on Earth we may hear the words. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the company of the canonized saints."
May you manifest your Servant's power of intercession by even extraordinary answers to the prayers of the faithful throughout the world. We pray particularly for our intentions in his name and in the name of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. AMEN
Read about Cardinal Newman.
