POPE BENEDICT XVI PRESS PACK the Beatification of John Henry Newman
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
POPE BENEDICT XVI PRESS PACK The Beatification of John Henry Newman Contents 1. What is a beatification? 2. Newman’s process of beatification 3. The miracle that made Cardinal Newman’s beatification possible 4. The significance of Newman’s beatification 5. A short biography of Cardinal Newman 6. Quotes about Newman 7. Background to Cofton Park 8. Background to the Birmingham Oratory 9. The Newman shrines 10. Press contacts 1 1. What is a beatification? The making of a saint is a multi-stage process: Stage 1 - local interest – All processes start from the bottom, by a grassroots movement of many people who are convinced that someone lived a very holy life. For the process to start at least 5 years must have passed since the death of the candidate, to allow greater balance and objectivity in evaluating the case. However, in some few cases, this requirement has been waived as in the cases of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (died 1997) and Pope John Paul II (died 2005) whose causes started earlier than 5 years by popular demand. Stage 2 – information gathering - The Congregation for the Causes of Saints (in the Holy See) instructs the bishop of the diocese in which the person died to begin collecting the evidence for their claim of holiness. Witnesses are called before the tribunal and all documents regarding the candidate must be gathered. At the end of the stage, the candidate might be declared to be a ‘Servant of God’. Stage 3 – study of the life and writings – A full scrutiny is carried out of the life and writings of the candidate. If they show that the candidate lived a holy life and their writings are in accord with the teachings of the Church, the candidate is declared ‘Venerable’. Stage 4 – a miracle and beatification – The Congregation for the Causes of Saints want evidence that people are being drawn to prayer and holiness through the candidate. As a sign of a special relationship between the candidate and God, a miracle is required which, if accepted, enables the person to be declared ‘Blessed’. The ceremony is called beatification and usually takes place in the country where the candidate lived and worked. It is usually performed by a representative of the Pope or the local bishop. In the case of Newman, in recognition of his importance, the Pope himself will carry out the ceremony of beatification. Stage 5 - another miracle and canonisation – For canonization another miracle is needed, attributed to the intercession of the Blessed and having occurred after his beatification. If the second claim of a miracle is accepted, the candidate will be accepted as a Saint in a canonisation ceremony, performed by the Pope, usually in Rome. Canonisation is a declaration that someone can be venerated by the universal Church as ‘an example of holiness that we can follow with confidence’. 2. Newman’s process of beatification Early Years John Henry Newman was born into an English Protestant world that was, at best, wary of the concept of sainthood. Within the Church of England reverence was paid to the Apostles, Martyrs and other saints of the early centuries, but scant regard was given to the saints of later centuries, for fear of approximating to dreaded ‘Popery’. In a sermon of 1831, Newman reminded his congregation that ‘our Church teaches us to put away from ourselves the title of “saint”.’ A Saint in the Making Deeply grateful for Newman’s help at a time of crisis, Edward Pusey wrote to him: ‘I pray that He may make you what, as you say, there are so few of, a “great saint”.’ It may be coincidence but it is around the same time, at the end of the 1830s, that we begin to find the first of what were to be countless statements by Newman’s contemporaries of their conviction, that, indeed, they had a saint in their midst. One of those who for a while lived with Newman at Littlemore reflected, after becoming a Catholic, of his surprise at having been with one ‘outside the visible [Catholic] Church’ yet bearing ‘the most evident marks of Christian sanctity’. A confessed lover of peace, Newman recognised that he was destined to be ‘a man of strife’. Controversy dogged his Catholic years as it had his time as an Anglican, yet a latent recognition of his sanctity continued. Reputation for holiness 2 When he died in 1890, the streets in Birmingham were lined by tens of thousands of people who wanted to see his coffin pass by on the way to the cemetery. For them, Newman was the holy priest who had looked after the poor and sick of the parish for over 30 years. The Times Obituary the next day remarked “Of one thing we may be sure, that the memory of this pure and noble life, untouched by worldliness, will endure and that whether Rome canonizes him or not he will be canonized in the thoughts of pious people of many creeds in England. The saint in him will survive.” Other testimonies appeared – even the staunchly Protestant Evangelical Magazine proclaimed that ‘of the multitude of saints in the Roman calendar there are very few that can be considered better entitled to that designation than Cardinal Newman.’ Calls for Newman’s canonisation The possibility of formal canonisation was mooted several times at Newman’s death, and, in 1907, the future Archbishop of Birmingham, John McIntyre, wrote of his own ‘hope that our Cardinal will be the first canonised saint of the Second Spring.’ Nevertheless, there were complications such as the Modernist crisis, when some of those who stood condemned sought to invoke support from Newman’s work for their heterodox ideas. Above all, there was Saint Philip Neri and the Oratorian ideal of ‘ama nesciri’, loving to be unknown, and his surviving community knew how insistent Newman would have been on this point, even posthumously. It was an American Dominican, Fr Charles Callan, who brought the question of Newman’s sanctity out into the open in an article in America magazine in 1941. The response was overwhelming and positive. In 1942, the Archbishop of Toronto gave his imprimatur to the first prayer for Newman’s beatification. A fervent admirer of Newman, Pope Pius XII’s insistence on the importance of the 1945 Centenary of Newman’s Conversion gave added impetus. English reticence began to give way, with a 1952 article on ‘Newman’s Cause’ by the future Vice-Postulator, H. F. Davis. The Cause itself In 1958 Archbishop Grimshaw of Birmingham constituted the Court needed for an Ordinary Process for Canonisation. It was not realised that the paucity of living witnesses made such a Process impossible. A year later the Cause was reintroduced as an Historical Cause, and a Commission of experts assembled to gather the necessary documentary proof. But there were delays. It was the cherished hope of Pope Paul VI that he would be able to mark the Holy Year of 1975 with the Beatification of John Henry Newman, but it was not in fact until 1980 that a newly reconstituted Historical Commission began the task of gathering all the necessary proofs to complete the Diocesan Process. In May 1986, this task was completed and in the next month the findings were forwarded to the Holy See for examination by Apostolic Process. Father Vincent Blehl, S.J., who had hitherto served as Chairman of the Diocesan Commission, took on the role of Postulator and oversaw the composition of the official case (or ‘Positio’) by which the expert Consultors of the Holy See could judge the completeness and worthiness of the Cause. This Process was completed with unusual speed and unanimous endorsement. In January 1991 Pope John Paul II declared that John Henry Newman had exercised all of the Christian virtues in an heroic degree, and was henceforth to be known as ‘Venerable’. Recent developments On 3 July 2009 Pope Benedict XVI recognised the healing of Deacon Jack Sullivan in 2001 as a miraculous intervention by God through the intercession of John Henry Newman. This decision meant that Newman’s beatification could take place, and eventually the date for his beatification was fixed for 19 September 2010. 3 3. The miracle that made Cardinal Newman’s beatification possible For a miracle to be accepted, it must be scrutinised by a panel of independent experts in the field and must be scientifically verifiable as ‘beyond human capability and inexplicable other than in terms of the miraculous’. Generally, medical cures are the easiest to verify according to scientific, measurable criteria. Jack Sullivan, a 69-year old Permanent Deacon from Marshfield near Boston, Massachusetts, was suffering from an extremely serious spinal disorder when he first prayed through the intercession of Cardinal Newman. Deacon Sullivan, who was healed of his spinal disorder on 15 August 2001, the Feast of the Assumption, made a special visit to England with his wife Carol in November 2009. Reflecting on the importance of Cardinal Newman’s teaching as an inspiration to him, Deacon Sullivan said: “Our holy and enduring Church lives and is constantly renewed in a very special way by those called by Christ as His servants to inspire and revitalise her. One such person, called for this purpose was the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman. Although he died 120 years ago, Newman’s thoughts and insights have enjoyed lasting acceptance, because they reflect the enduring truth about mankind’s condition and his instinctive quest for his Creator.” He went on to talk about his own experiences in 2001: “I was tragically afflicted with a serious spinal condition causing intolerable pain with utterly no prospect of relief.