John Henry Newman will be beatified by Pope Bendictus XVI within a week. In this article Jack Valero surveys the controversies surrounding this event and pays its own tribute to the great Englishman. The author is Press Officer for the Beatification of Cardinal Newman.

1. Jack Valero: On the Beatification of John Henry Newman London, 9-9-2010 1
NEWMAN IN
THE 21ST
CENTURY
A man of
endless
controversy

2. Jack Valero: On the Beatification of John Henry Newman London, 9-9-2010 2

3. Jack Valero: On the Beatification of John Henry Newman London, 9-9-2010 3
articles MercatorNet surveys the
controversies surrounding these
events and pays its own tribute to
the great Englishman.
It is now less than a week to Benedict XVI’s
visit to Britain, which will culminate with the
beatification of John Henry Newman, a 19th
century cardinal who died 120 years ago. The
beatification of the great Victorian will be a
moment to mark the congruity of so many
things which are often kept separate – among
them Englishness and Catholicism, obedience
and conscience, faith and reason, change and
commitment.
Newman is also, of course, a fascinating
figure. A cleric who lived in an all-male Oxford
Next Thursday Pope Benedict XVI college or a house of celibate clergy, he was
arrives in the United Kingdom for a also a major intellectual – a novelist, poet and
three day visit that will culminate, educationalist – and friend of the Prime
on the 19th September, in the Minister. A contemporary of Darwin and Marx,
beatification of Cardinal John Henry he was a polemicist, essayist, and apologist,
Newman. In this and two companion one who explored the depths of Christian

4. Jack Valero: On the Beatification of John Henry Newman London, 9-9-2010 4
orthodoxy while society around him was I have some experience of this. In 2006, while
secularising. He is, in many ways, the working at the press office of Opus Dei, we
Christian lynchpin of the contemporary era, suddenly found ourselves under the brightest
the frontline intellectual in a nation leading the of all spotlights due to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci
race into the modern world. Code. We were depicted in a hit book and film
– both of which claimed to be true – as
But engaging today’s secular media with murderous masochistic monks: how did we
Newman – my current task as Press Officer for respond? We decided to take advantage of the
his beatification – has not been not so controversy to tell our story, and received the
straightforward. He can seem remote and largest amount of (free) publicity in our
forbidding, distant from the lives of ordinary history.
modern folk. How to educate public opinion?
How to plug him into the news? How to ensure Unless Dan Brown does Cardinal Newman the
that when Pope Benedict beatifies Newman same favour, a Da Vinci Code-type searchlight
the people of England believe that the looks unlikely. Yet Newman is far from
successor of Peter is honouring one of our uncontroversial. He lived, after all, in the
own? intense heat of religious polemic and
misunderstanding. But even now, when the
Most British people have never heard of intensity of the theological disagreements that
Newman and have little interest anyway in swirled around Newman is hard to relate to,
religious matters. The media usually ignore there are controversies which have the
faith, especially when it involves historical potential for stories and comments. I have
figures. Unless, of course, they sense identified five.
controversy.

5. Jack Valero: On the Beatification of John Henry Newman London, 9-9-2010 5
The first springs to mind among many there have been many attempts to
non-religious people as a result of the conscript Newman. Some like to emphasize
activist Peter Tatchell’s claim last year his devotion to dogma, others his defence of
that Newman was gay – something he individual conscience. In his biglietto speech
claimed the Vatican was suppressing. We Newman said he had spent his life fighting
will never know what struggles went on inside liberalism in religion, or the idea that one
Newman’s heart; but we can be sure that he religion was as good as another. Newman
would have found the question very strange. believed profoundly in the primacy of
The idea of “being homosexual” would have conscience, but would he really have pitted
been to him an unfamiliar categorisation. conscience against authority? Pope Benedict,
What mattered was what people did; and in speaking this year to the bishops of England
that sense, there is no doubt that Newman and Wales, said it was “important to recognize
lived a life of chastity and never broke his vow dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for
of celibacy. But his many intense friendships, a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-
mostly with men in his priestly community of ranging debate”, citing Newman as someone
the Oratory, such as Ambrose St John, are who would have realised this. Author John
hard to make sense of in our age. In our Cornwell thinks Pope Benedict is “clearly bent
sexualised society, the idea of intense, loving on sanitising Newman’s progressive
and chaste friendships seems weird, and the Catholicism”. Others suspect Cornwell of
temptation to read back into Newman’s age trying to hijack Newman for his own purposes.
our own preconceptions will continue to be We can expect this one to resurface as
hard for many to resist. September approaches.
After the struggle over Newman’s Then there is the question of Newman’s
sexuality comes the battle over his soul: holiness. A prickly character who had trouble

6. Jack Valero: On the Beatification of John Henry Newman London, 9-9-2010 6
getting on with some people, Newman could adduced by Cornwell to study the cure of Jack
be shy, retiring and unfriendly. Yet tens of Sullivan, a Boston-based deacon, can explain
thousands of ordinary people, many of them how, on 15 August 2001, after saying a short
not Catholic, lined the streets of Birmingham prayer to Newman, Sullivan was relieved of his
to see his coffin pass: “whether Rome post-operative pain and immobility in a
canonises him or not he will be canonised in complete, instantaneous and permanent
the thoughts of pious people of many creeds manner. On the other hand, it is hard for
in England”, The Times wrote at the contemporary society, convinced that the
time. What does it mean to be holy, if it scientifically inexplicable can only be what has
doesn’t mean to be other-worldly, or not yet found an explanation, to believe that
inhumanly perfect? Is it a human construct, or God intervenes directly in human lives.
a mirror refracting something of God? And if
the latter, what does that look like? How can Finally, there is the ecumenical
we tell, looking at the tracks in the sand of a controversy. At the age of 44 Newman made
person’s life, that God has passed by? the searing decision to leave the Church of
England to become a Catholic. Does that make
The fourth controversy is over the miracle him a symbol of inter-ecclesial division, or a
that has paved the way for Newman’s symbol of ecumenical unity? Dr John Hall,
beatification. In January a journalist claimed Dean of Westminster Abbey, said in an
that a miracle that serves the Church’s interview earlier this year that Newman could
purpose of proving holiness is per se dubious; help the cause of unity and that Anglicans
and Cornwell argued more recently in the already celebrate Newman on the day of his
Sunday Times that the miracle itself was death, August 11. In the Anglican calendar,
bogus, citing medical experts to back up his the entry reads: “John Henry Newman, priest,
claims. Yet none of the expert witnesses tractarian, 1890”.

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When Newman was made a Cardinal in 1879
an Anglican friend wrote to him in emotional
terms. “I wonder if you know how much you
are loved by England”, Octavius Ogle said, and
then went on to add, “and I wonder whether
this extraordinary and unparalleled love might
not be – was not meant to be – utilized as one
means to draw together into one fold all
Englishmen who believe”.
These five controversies do not lead, easily, to
the bright sofas at GMTV. But they suggest
that plugging Newman into the national
conversation could be easier than at first it
seemed. The man the Pope will declare
“blessed” is still able to cut across our
society’s values – and to generate stories.
Jack Valero is the Press Officer for the
Beatification of Cardinal Newman.

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