Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

By Jove! Sky watching alert!

Posted on 20 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Spaceweather.com

JUPITER AT ITS BEST: Tonight, Sept. 20-21, Earth and Jupiter converge for their closest encounter in decades. The giant planet will soar across the sky at midnight, outshining everything except the Moon itself. Although big, bright Jupiter will remain close to Earth for weeks to come, tonight is the closest of all. Check http://spaceweather.com for images and more information.

Posted in Just Too Cool |
2 Comments

Filipino liturgists react against Summorum Pontificum

Posted on 20 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Archdiocese of Manila has posted on their website a statement made after a meeting of liturgists from the Philippines under the aegis of the bishops conference of the Philippines.

Included in this short statement is the following:

Liturgical Inculturation. The interest in recent times to revive the Tridentine Liturgy should not draw the attention, especially of the Church leaders, from the unfinished agenda of liturgical inculturation. We are of the persuasion that liturgical renewal, as envisioned by the Constitution on Liturgy of Vatican II, entails liturgical inculturation and that our rich cultural heritage has much to offer to make the Roman liturgy truly Filipino.

You can sense the paw print of Ansgar Chupungco here.

I wonder what the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" thinks of this.

Posted in SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM | Tagged Manila
18 Comments

The Mail: Every Englishman should be proud of John Henry Newman’s beatification

Posted on 20 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From The Mail comes this piece about the Bl. John Henry Newman by Conrad Black.

Why today’s beatification of John Henry Newman is something every Englishman should be proud of, by CONRAD BLACK

By Conrad Black

Pope Benedict XVI’S beatification today of Cardinal John Henry Newman on English soil should underline in the minds of us all that Newman must rank among the very greatest Englishmen of any time or faith.

This process, which is rigorous and laborious, [As someone who has been through the Studium of the Cong. for Causes of Saints, I can attest to that.] and far from the hocus-pocus pop-chart rise the Church’s detractors might imply, would make him the first Englishman born since the 17th century recognised by the Roman Catholic Church as a saint; pretty thin canonical gruel for a country whose Roman Catholics still whisper about it as ‘the Dowry of Mary’, just as France describes itself (with scarcely greater plausibility) as the ‘eldest daughter of the Church’.

Newman’s beatification today rests not just on his accepted possession of saintly and miraculous powers. It rests also on his moral and intellectual courage, his worldwide influence as a writer, educator and theological philosopher, and his personification of many of the most universally admired characteristics of the English people, as perceived by the English themselves and by foreigners, not least of which was stoicism. [As in the "stiff upper lip"? No… his beatification does not rest on those things. If someone is not a martyr, he or she is declared blessed because they possessed heroic virtues. They were holy. They also, after their deaths, had the fama sanctitatis, they had a strong reputation of holiness. This needs to be determined before a person is called venerable. Yes, the miracle moves the Venerable to the next stage, as it were. But the foundation for beatification is not intelligence, or worldly fame, or "intellectual courage", but holiness.]

He was always seen as an outsider. During the early years he spent as a clergyman in the Church Of England, Newman did his best to justify the Church’s theological claim to be part of the ‘One, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’. He understood the Church Of England to be a half-way house between Rome and popular Protestantism, between what Protestants traditionally regard as Rome’s exaggerated claim to authority, and the non-conformist view of spontaneous religiosity.

This Orthodox Anglican view of the Church’s doctrine found little favour in the corridors of power and he was attacked by the Anglican bishops for what was perceived as the Popish tendencies [Sound like many chanceries and seminaries in years past…] in his theological pamphlet, Tract 90 where he challenged the 39 articles, the overriding principles, of the Church Of England. It was an intellectual position that changed his life and, aged 40, he was effectively cast out and violently attacked throughout Protestant Britain as a papist agent.

Four years later, in 1845 at the age of 44, he became a Roman Catholic. But it was a hard conversion and at first he was mistrusted in much of the Roman world. He was seen as an exotic and tempestuous itinerant, from a country that was apostate, and whose Roman Catholic community had endured 300 years of fluctuating but almost unbroken discrimination.

He had gone from the Anglican pulpit at St Mary’s, Oxford, and the high table at Oriel College, to the Spartan obscurity of the church at Littlemore, in Oxford and then, after a sojourn in Rome at the Oratory of St Philip Neri, he moved into relative seclusion in Edgbaston in Birmingham where he established the first order of Oratorians in England.

It was from this base in Birmingham that he sent a detachment of his community to build a house in London, in what was eventually to become the Brompton Oratory, in Knightsbridge. The Brompton Oratory was Newman’s greatest physical monument, though he rarely visited it, died before it was completed, and did not like it. He personally chose, in Italy, the statues of the saints that adorn it, but found Birmingham, and the comparative ordinariness of the Midlands, oddly congenial.

Newman made Catholicism respected in Britain by his refusal to join the ranks of reactionary Catholics or to be less conspicuously English in his attitudes. He [NB] believed in a version of papal infallibility himself (as it is generally defined now, of applying to what has been universally and durably accepted within the Church), but not the version accorded to Pius IX, a dogmatic carte blanche consolation prize for the loss of the papal states to the Italian Risorgimento unification movement.

More than Acton or Ripon (the leading lay Catholics of England at the time), Newman de-fanged the widely believed English caricature of the grasping, insidious, alien papist monster. He changed the widespread impression in England of Catholics from a rag-tag of drunken, priest-ridden, proliferating Irish labourers and a few respectable ancient recusant families, to an intellectually distinguished and patriotic pillar of the nation.

They were no longer seen as aliens by the majority nor as outcasts by themselves. He fought the battle of faith on behalf of all Christians and provided the greatest, most rigorous Christian argument for the existence of God since Thomas Aquinas, and is frequently called ‘the English Aquinas’. Thus our conscience, God speaking to us, he believed, was ‘powerful, peremptory, unargumentative, irrational, minatory and definitive’.

Newman’s version of faith was accessible to everyone.

‘Lead kindly light… lead thou me on… One step enough for me,’ he wrote while still an Anglican in 1833, and becalmed in the Straits Of Bonifacio in the Mediterranean.

I believe that he was, with Abraham Lincoln, the most elegant writer of English non-fiction prose of the 19th century. [!] He wrote not only with burning expressions of faith, surer of God’s existence ‘than that I have hands and feet’.

But also with sudden lurches into the secular, as in the closing pages of Grammar Of Assent when he quoted ‘the great man who so swayed the destiny of the nations of Europe in the early years of this century’ – Napoleon, the defeat of whose navy at Trafalgar Newman well remembered as a boy of four in 1805. (Napoleon effectively was claimed to have held that Christ had to be divine because although he was a mere travelling provocateur and died the death of a ‘miscreant’, he was vastly more renowned than Alexander The Great, Julius Caesar, or Napoleon himself.)

His Idea Of A University and Apologia Pro Vita Sua (A Defence Of One’s Life) were particularly, but not uncharacteristically, brilliant. Though often ill-tempered, Newman was not vain, and his writing, a colossal volume of work spanning 70 years, never sought to dazzle the reader.

Like the greatest 20th-century writers, such as Joseph Conrad or George Orwell, his prose was spare and simple, stirred to adjectival or polysyllabic climaxes only by the gravity or intensity of his thought. His effort to found a Catholic university in Dublin was hampered by the very parties who had most to gain from it, the narrow-minded custodians of insular Irish victim-Catholicism, which are not extinct, even today. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]

Yet it produced Newman’s educational concepts, luminously written and a beacon for all subsequent educators in every land. His effort to establish an Oratory at Oxford was sabotaged by his fellow Catholics, whose every declared purpose should have motivated them to support such an initiative.

Cardinal Manning, his talented but devious rival, who tried to prevent his elevation to the College Of Cardinals, obstructed almost everything he did for 30 years, and then eulogised him in the Brompton Oratory as ‘my friend and mentor of 50 years’. (On Newman’s death, Manning privately called him ‘a great hater’, an exaggeration, perhaps motivated by the fact that Newman had prevailed against all Manning’s obstructions.)

For almost an entire century he was the unflagging champion of intellectual and intuitive Christian faith, who revealed the inconsistencies of the Established Church, yet was a force for Christian reconciliation, and always dissented from what was trendy and opportunistic. He was a bridge to the universal and premier church, but always an Englishman. He was as representative of the highest form of the English character as Samuel Johnson or the Duke Of Wellington.

The same man who opposed the Crimean War, as besmirching British integrity by propping up the Ottomans, who rendered unto the Pope what was his, once said he ‘could not imagine being or wanting to be anything but English‘.

When he died in his 90th year, the whole Christian world mourned him. Today, there is a Cardinal Newman school in almost every community in the once-Christian world. [Not far off the mark! At least in the anglophone world.]

Pope Benedict XVI is one of the greatest intellects who has held that office in several centuries, a man of great philosophical scholarship, rigour and originality, as well as an accomplished writer, linguist, practical administrator and musician.

His visit to Britain today is to render homage to a man endowed with a character of comparably exceptional quality, which he believes, on the evidence of ecclesiastical scrutiny, has been recognised and amplified by divine blessings. [Benedict XVI did not beatify John Henry Newman because he had "a character of comparably quality". It was determined that Newman had live a life of holiness, which no doubt shaped that exceptional character. But this article was written less for Catholics and more for the average English reader. The writer appeals to those aspects with which they will quickly resonate.]

Those who share his faith are uplifted by Newman’s intelligence and character. Those British who do not should at least be aware that in his lifetime and in the 120 years since his death, Newman has carried the colours of this country in his spheres of endeavour with a brilliance, panache and durability that has put him in, or close to, the company of history’s most distinguished Englishmen.

John Henry Newman is being elevated for a rare fusion of genius and virtue [There it is.] that does great honour to the whole nation.

A good article! I hope this helps to dispel something of the bilious cant of the blinkered secularists who in recent time have shown their colours.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols, The Drill | Tagged Conrad Black, John Henry Newman
13 Comments

Doctor of the Church…. Newman?

Posted on 19 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Lombardi suggests that John Henry Newman could be made "Doctor of the Church".

Doctors of the Church must be saints and they must embody in their lives, in a significant way, something about who the Church is as teacher.

This should spark some discussion.

CNA has this.

Vatican ‘confident’ about future canonization of Newman

Birmingham, England, Sep 19, 2010 / 08:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Speaking to journalists less than an hour after Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman’s beatification, Vatican spokesman Fr. Lombardi expressed confidence in his being canonized. There is a "concrete possibility," also, that he will be made a "doctor of the Church."

The Vatican spokesman was asked if Pope Benedict had it in mind to canonize Blessed John Henry Newman considering his enthusiasm to have him beatified.

Responding frankly, he said that official procedure calls for further measures before that can happen and the Pope is "very respectful" of the rules. A papal decree verifying a second miracle has to be made for the Blessed to become a fully-fledged saint.

"But," he said, "we are confident that there will also be the canonization."

Fr. Lombardi commented that after the beatification, especially because it was presided over by the Pope himself, there will be a lot of attention and devotion to the Blessed. He thought that there would be many people who would pray for graces through Cardinal Newman’s intercession and said he was "optimistic" about the process for his canonization advancing to fulfillment.

As far as the possibility Blessed Newman being declared a "doctor of the Church," he said that on the plane on the way over to the U.K. from Rome the Pope himself used that very qualification. The Pope had made the reference on the base of the weight of Newman’s thought.

In this context, he said that the possibility would be "spontaneous" after his canonization. And, with the diffusion of the understanding of the importance of the Blessed and his work, Fr. Lombardi thought that there was "a concrete possibility that the Pope will proceed in this sense."

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols |
20 Comments

“I can’t waste that gift”

Posted on 19 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Some people like to pit big stage life, such as papal visits to the UK, against "real" life, such as average people who need to pay bills.

Both are real life.

But, in the wake of the real life experience of the papal visit to Scotland and England, I found this story on CNS:

Facing crash, Vancouver man sacrifices self to save pregnant wife

Vancouver, Canada, Sep 19, 2010 / 05:06 pm (CNA).- Brian Wood, a 33-year-old resident of Vancouver, B.C., was killed in an auto collision on September 3, when the driver of an oncoming SUV lost control of the vehicle and crossed the road into his lane. His wife, Erin Wood, said that Brian acted just in time to save her, and their unborn child expected to be born in November, by sacrificing himself.

Evidence from the crash, which also killed two passengers in the other vehicle’s back seat, supported Ms. Wood’s description of her late husband’s final act: unable to avoid the errant SUV, Brian Wood slammed the brakes and swerved his side of the car toward the oncoming vehicle, ensuring his certain death but protecting his wife, pregnant with their first child.

[…]

Erin Wood told the Today Show that the final sacrifice made by her husband of five years was in keeping with the way he had lived, “It’s not a surprise at all. He was very excited for this baby, and always … incredibly loving towards me, and putting me first.”

His final act of love, she said “breaks my heart, and it also fills me with gratefulness.” Ms. Wood received only a black eye and a relatively minor blow to her head. The unborn child, a boy, was not harmed.

[…]

“I’m just trying to draw a lot of strength right now from knowing that he made that choice to save me and the baby, and so I can’t waste that gift,” she explained. “I’m just trying to focus on what I need to do right now … and just do my job as a mom.” She said that in spite of the tragedy, she is anticipating “the joy that we’ll have once this baby is born.”

A fund, the Brian Woof Memorial Trust, has been established to assist Erin Wood and her child, at www.brianwoodmemorialtrust.com.

Life is being lived. Big scale. Small scale. Big scale within our small scale is still big.

Don’t waste it.

Posted in Just Too Cool |
24 Comments

Benedict XVI addresses the Bishops of the UK

Posted on 19 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Oscott College the Holy Father’s address to Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales:

Note the repetition of the word "prophetic".

Note especially the Successor of Peter’s comments about Anglicanorum coetibus.

My dear Brother Bishops,

This has been a day of great joy for the Catholic community in these islands. Blessed John Henry Newman, as we may now call him, has been raised to the altars as an example of heroic faithfulness to the Gospel and an intercessor for the Church in this land that he loved and served so well. Here in this very chapel in 1852, he gave voice to the new confidence and vitality of the Catholic community in England and Wales after the restoration of the hierarchy, and his words could be applied equally to Scotland a quarter of a century later. His beatification today is a reminder of the Holy Spirit’s continuing action in calling forth gifts of holiness from among the people of Great Britain, so that from east to west and from north to south, a perfect offering of praise and thanksgiving may be made to the glory of God’s name.

I thank Cardinal O’Brien and Archbishop Nichols for their words, and in so doing, I am reminded how recently I was able to welcome all of you to Rome for the Ad Limina visits of your respective Episcopal Conferences. [Let’s us not forget to go back and reread them! The address to the conference of England and Wales is here. Scotland here.] We spoke then about some of the challenges you face as you lead your people in faith, particularly regarding the urgent need to proclaim the Gospel afresh in a highly secularized environment. [Benedict’s constant theme of not letting our Catholic voice be driven from the public square.] In the course of my visit it has become clear to me how deep a thirst there is among the British people for the Good News of Jesus Christ. [And, if they would admit it, even among the British Humanist Association.] You have been chosen by God to offer them the living water of the Gospel, encouraging them to place their hopes, not in the vain enticements of this world, but in the firm assurances of the next. As you proclaim the coming of the Kingdom, with its promise of hope for the poor and the needy, the sick and the elderly, the unborn and the neglected, be sure to present in its fulness the life-giving message of the Gospel, including those elements which call into question the widespread assumptions of today’s culture. [Don’t water it down.] As you know, a Pontifical Council has recently been established for the New Evangelization of countries of long-standing Christian tradition, [I was wondering if he would get around to this. But this is with the bishops, so he will mention curial offices they have to deal with.] and I would encourage you to avail yourselves of its services in addressing the task before you. Moreover, many of the new ecclesial movements have a particular charism for evangelization, and I know that you will continue to explore appropriate and effective ways of involving them in the mission of the Church.

Since your visit to Rome, political changes in the United Kingdom have focused attention on the consequences of the financial crisis, which has caused so much hardship to countless individuals and families. The spectre of unemployment is casting its shadow over many people’s lives, and the long-term cost of the ill-advised investment practices of recent times is becoming all too evident. In these circumstances, there will be additional calls on the characteristic generosity of British Catholics, and I know that you will take a lead in calling for solidarity with those in need. The prophetic voice of Christians has an important role in highlighting the needs of the poor and disadvantaged, who can so easily be overlooked in the allocation of limited resources. In their teaching document Choosing the Common Good, the Bishops of England and Wales underlined the importance of the practice of virtue in public life. Today’s circumstances provide a good opportunity to reinforce that message, and indeed to encourage people to aspire to higher moral values in every area of their lives, against a background of growing cynicism regarding even the possibility of virtuous living. [As economic times get harder, people will need spiritual support and also concrete works of charity.]

Another matter which has received much attention in recent months, and which seriously undermines the moral credibility of Church leaders, is the shameful abuse of children and young people by priests and religious. [He has been pounding this, necessarily.] I have spoken on many occasions of the deep wounds that such behaviour causes, in the victims first and foremost, but also in the relationships of trust that should exist between priests and people, between priests and their bishops, and between the Church authorities and the public. I know that you have taken serious steps to remedy this situation, to ensure that children are effectively protected from harm and to deal properly and transparently with allegations as they arise. You have publicly acknowledged your deep regret over what has happened, and the often inadequate ways it was addressed in the past. Your growing awareness of the extent of child abuse in society, its devastating effects, and the need to provide proper victim support should serve as an incentive to share the lessons you have learned with the wider community. [NB] Indeed, what better way could there be of making reparation for these sins than by reaching out, in a humble spirit of compassion, towards children who continue to suffer abuse elsewhere? Our duty of care towards the young demands nothing less.

As we reflect on the human frailty [I hope that eventually it will be possible to point out that this is really not a Catholic problem or issue. It is a human problem, a result of sin.] that these tragic events so starkly reveal, we are reminded that, if we are to be effective Christian leaders, we must live lives of the utmost integrity, humility and holiness. As Blessed John Henry Newman once wrote, "O that God would grant the clergy to feel their weakness as sinful men, and the people to sympathize with them and love them and pray for their increase in all good gifts of grace" (Sermon, 22 March 1829). I pray that among the graces of this visit will be a renewed dedication on the part of Christian leaders to the prophetic vocation they have received, and a new appreciation on the part of the people for the great gift of the ordained ministry. Prayer for vocations will then arise spontaneously, and we may be confident that the Lord will respond by sending labourers to bring in the plentiful harvest that he has prepared throughout the United Kingdom (cf. Mt 9:37-38). In this regard, I am glad that I will shortly have the opportunity to meet the seminarians of England, Scotland and Wales, and to assure them of my prayers as they prepare to play their part in bringing in that harvest.

Finally, I should like to speak to you about two specific matters that affect your episcopal ministry at this time. One is the imminent publication of the new translation of the Roman Missal. [Of great interest to WDTPRSers.] I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the contribution you have made, with such painstaking care, to the collegial exercise of reviewing and approving the texts. This has provided an immense service to Catholics throughout the English-speaking world. I encourage you now to seize the opportunity that the new translation offers for in-depth catechesis on the Eucharist and renewed devotion in the manner of its celebration. "The more lively the eucharistic faith of the people of God, the deeper is its sharing in ecclesial life in steadfast commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to his disciples" (Sacramentum Caritatis, 6). The other matter I touched upon in February with the Bishops of England and Wales, when I asked you to be generous in implementing the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. [Which when dealing with the Anglicans was left very much in the background. However, in my comments at the beginning of this Visit, I mentioned that this document made up part of the backdrop. It will loom larger in the wake of the Pope’s Visit.] This should be seen as a prophetic gesture [there’s that "prophetic" again.] that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all. Let us continue to pray and work unceasingly in order to hasten the joyful day when that goal can be accomplished.

With these sentiments, I thank you warmly for your hospitality over the past four days. Commending all of you and the people you serve to the intercession of Saint Andrew, Saint David and Saint George, I am pleased to impart my Apostolic Blessing to you and to all the clergy, religious and lay faithful of England, Scotland and Wales.

Posted in Pope of Christian Unity | Tagged Oscott College
27 Comments

Sunday Supper: beatification day edition

Posted on 19 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What will your Sunday Supper be?

I noticed on Twitter that people attending the Beatification Mass in England said that, after the Mass, people were producing food and sharing it around. Nice. People should eat together on Sundays.

In honor of this great day for the Catholic Church in England, I will make a small beef roast, Yorkshire puddings, and some squishy cake or other upon with I will drizzle treacle.

I will finish with, of course, Mystic Monk Coffee!

What about you?

UPDATE:

The day began long before I saw this.

Then after Mass and Sunday activities and some office I put together my Sunday Supper. A few quick photos.

We start with the flour and some ground ginger. This will eventually become a sponge cake made with Lyle’s Golden Syrrrrrrrrrup.

Lemon zest for the same.

I will spare you the gory details.

But I must say that this dessert thing has been a harrowing experience for me.

I am a terrible baker, and I didn’t have the right sort of pudding basin.

Then there was the ordeal of sealing up something without a hard exterior. I eventually struck on parchment paper and aluminum foil and lots of string.

Here is a shot sometime along the timeline when I was heating the ramikins with drippings from the roast for the Yorkshire puddings.

You can see my improvised pudding basin in a pyrex baking dish with water.

I opted to use a squishy sided silicon bowl, thinking that a) whatever I screw up will detach and b) nothing can harm it.

When it came out, this is what it looked like.

And it did, in fact, come right out with no problem at all.

I have various roast photos, but you have all seen that sort of thing before, along with vegetables.

Seeing that Pope Benedict had dealings with the Crown, for my repast I enjoyed a bottle of ale made on the estate of HRH The Prince of Wales. I first had this on tap at a pub at Seven Dials where I stop on afternoons when I am in London because you can pick up a public wifi access point from the hotel across the way.

Here are a few of the small Yorkshire puddings. I made two batches. The first batch didn’t rise very well. I think my oven temp is off. Also, I didn’t have time to let the batter rest for a while. Next time.

The second batch were small, because I had little batter left. But they were good! Crunchy on the outside, and moist on the inside.

As I said, you know what beef and vegetables look like. But, I did make a thick red wine reduction and mushroom gravy.

Before I cut it, this was my foray into spongy cake.

The aftermath, with Mystic Monk Coffee.

[CUE MUSIC]

When you have had a long day live blogging papal visits to England with the Pope named after a 6th c. monk, have a nice WDTPRS mug full of hot freshly brewed coffee!

It’s the coffee sent directly to your house!

Mystic Monk!

It’s swell!

^{[Many coffee beans were destroyed in the production of this coffee. Supplies are abundant while they last. Be sure to refresh your supply through this link!]}

And another angle.

This was very economical, except for the specialty item of the Lyle’s Golden Syrrrrrrrup, which was one of a couple cans sent to me by a brother priest via the wish list some time ago. The roast was a very cheap cut and most of the veg, with the exception of a couple celery stalks were from the garden. Eggs and milk and flour for the puddings. Pretty much the same for the cake, though that had ginger and lemon zest. The ale I had stored away some time ago.

This cost me more in anxiety over the results of the harrowing work with the oven baking. Not my strong point. But the cake was good.

It is good to try new things!

And so I had my Sunday Supper in honor of my friends in Ol’ Blighty, whom I hope to see in person before too long.

Congratulations on the last few days. Well done.

Posted in Fr. Z's Kitchen | Tagged Dies Domini, Sunday Supper
50 Comments

Benedict XVI’s Sermon for the Beatification of John Henry Card. Newman

Posted on 19 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Benedict XVI has beatified John Henry Card. Newman.

Here is the workmanlike sermon he delivered at the Mass.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This day that has brought us together here in Birmingham is a most auspicious one. In the first place, it is the Lord’s day, Sunday, the day when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and changed the course of human history for ever, offering new life and hope to all who live in darkness and in the shadow of death. That is why Christians all over the world come together on this day to give praise and thanks to God for the great marvels he has worked for us. This particular Sunday also marks a significant moment in the life of the British nation, as it is the day chosen to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain. For me as one who lived and suffered through the dark days of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is deeply moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to recall how many of your fellow citizens sacrificed their lives, courageously resisting the forces of that evil ideology. My thoughts go in particular to nearby Coventry, which suffered such heavy bombardment and massive loss of life in November 1940. Seventy years later, we recall with shame and horror the dreadful toll of death and destruction that war brings in its wake, and we renew our resolve to work for peace and reconciliation wherever the threat of conflict looms. Yet there is another, more joyful reason why this is an auspicious day for Great Britain, for the Midlands, for Birmingham. It is the day that sees Cardinal John Henry Newman formally raised to the altars and declared Blessed.

I thank Archbishop Bernard Longley for his gracious welcome at the start of Mass this morning. I pay tribute to all who have worked so hard over many years to promote the cause of Cardinal Newman, including the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory and the members of the Spiritual Family Das Werk. And I greet everyone here from Great Britain, Ireland, and further afield; I thank you for your presence at this celebration, in which we give glory and praise to God for the heroic virtue of a saintly Englishman.

England has a long tradition of martyr saints, whose courageous witness has sustained and inspired the Catholic community here for centuries. Yet it is right and fitting that we should recognize today the holiness of a confessor, a son of this nation who, while not called to shed his blood for the Lord, nevertheless bore eloquent witness to him in the course of a long life devoted to the priestly ministry, and especially to preaching, teaching, and writing. He is worthy to take his place in a long line of saints and scholars from these islands, Saint Bede, Saint Hilda, Saint Aelred, Blessed Duns Scotus, to name but a few. In Blessed John Henry, that tradition of gentle scholarship, deep human wisdom and profound love for the Lord has borne rich fruit, as a sign of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit deep within the heart of God’s people, bringing forth abundant gifts of holiness.

Cardinal Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or "Heart speaks unto heart", gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, "a habit of prayer, the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place, in every emergency – prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually … he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, iv, 230-231). Today’s Gospel tells us that no one can be the servant of two masters (cf. Lk 16:13), and Blessed John Henry’s teaching on prayer explains how the faithful Christian is definitively taken into the service of the one true Master, who alone has a claim to our unconditional devotion (cf. Mt 23:10). Newman helps us to understand what this means for our daily lives: he tells us that our divine Master has assigned a specific task to each one of us, a "definite service", committed uniquely to every single person: "I have my mission", he wrote, "I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion 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 … if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling" (Meditations and Devotions, 301-2).

The definite service to which Blessed John Henry was called involved applying his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the most pressing "subjects of the day". His insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only of profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and enlighten many all over the world. I would like to pay particular tribute to his vision for education, which has done so much to shape the ethos that is the driving force behind Catholic schools and colleges today. Firmly opposed to any reductive or utilitarian approach, he sought to achieve an educational environment in which intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together. The project to found a Catholic University in Ireland provided him with an opportunity to develop his ideas on the subject, and the collection of discourses that he published as The Idea of a University holds up an ideal from which all those engaged in academic formation can continue to learn. And indeed, what better goal could teachers of religion set themselves than Blessed John Henry’s famous appeal for an intelligent, well-instructed laity: "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it" (The Present Position of Catholics in England, ix, 390). On this day when the author of those words is raised to the altars, I pray that, through his intercession and example, all who are engaged in the task of teaching and catechesis will be inspired to greater effort by the vision he so clearly sets before us.

While it is John Henry Newman’s intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous sermons: "Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who come from the midst of you" ("Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel", Discourses to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to rejoice in the Church’s solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven:

Praise to the Holiest in the height
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways!
(The Dream of Gerontius).

Posted in Pope of Christian Unity, Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Bl. John Henry Newman
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Benedict XVI at Hyde Park

Posted on 18 September 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Benedict XVI used Hyde Park for his soap box tonight, and gave this address.

It will not be a surprise to find a stress on the heart on the evening before the Beatification of John Henry Newman.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This is an evening of joy, of immense spiritual joy, for all of us. We are gathered here in prayerful vigil to prepare for tomorrow’s Mass, during which a great son of this nation, Cardinal John Henry Newman, will be declared Blessed. How many people, in England and throughout the world, have longed for this moment! It is also a great joy for me, personally, to share this experience with you. As you know, Newman has long been an important influence in my own life and thought, as he has been for so many people beyond these isles. The drama of Newman’s life invites us to examine our lives, to see them against the vast horizon of God’s plan, and to grow in communion with the Church of every time and place: the Church of the apostles, the Church of the martyrs, the Church of the saints, the Church which Newman loved and to whose mission he devoted his entire life.

I thank Archbishop Peter Smith for his kind words of welcome in your name, and I am especially pleased to see the many young people who are present for this vigil. This evening, in the context of our common prayer, I would like to reflect with you about a few aspects of Newman’s life which I consider very relevant to our lives as believers and to the life of the Church today.

Let me begin by recalling that Newman, by his own account, traced the course of his whole life back to a powerful experience of conversion which he had as a young man. It was an immediate experience of the truth of God’s word, of the objective reality of Christian revelation as handed down in the Church. This experience, at once religious and intellectual, would inspire his vocation to be a minister of the Gospel, his discernment of the source of authoritative teaching in the Church of God, and his zeal for the renewal of ecclesial life in fidelity to the apostolic tradition. At the end of his life, Newman would describe his life’s work as a struggle against the growing tendency to view religion as a purely private and subjective matter, a question of personal opinion. [We return to a major theme of this Pope’s pontificate and this Visit. There are many people who would forcibly eject any Christian voice from the public sphere. This is especially true in the case of a Catholic voice. Even many Catholics who are not entirely faithful to the Church’s teachings are complicit in this.] Here is the first lesson we can learn from his life: [1] in our day, when an intellectual and moral relativism threatens to sap the very foundations of our society, Newman reminds us that, as men and women made in the image and likeness of God, we were created to know the truth, to find in that truth our ultimate freedom and the fulfilment of our deepest human aspirations. In a word, we are meant to know Christ, who is himself "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6). [The British Humanist Association needs to get this part straight.]

Newman’s life also [2] teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly. [Bearing witness – martyrdom] The truth that sets us free cannot be kept to ourselves; it calls for testimony, [Martyrdom.] it begs to be heard, and in the end its convincing power comes from itself and not from the human eloquence or arguments in which it may be couched. Not far from here, at Tyburn, great numbers of our brothers and sisters died for the faith; the witness of their fidelity to the end was ever more powerful than the inspired words that so many of them spoke before surrendering everything to the Lord. [NB] In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet, the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society.

Finally, Newman teaches us that [3] if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. [There it is again.] Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom. Newman understood this, and was the great champion of the prophetic office of the Christian laity. He saw clearly that we do not so much accept the truth in a purely intellectual act as embrace it in a spiritual dynamic that penetrates to the core of our being. [In true conversion there is also the dynamic interplay of the affective and the intellective.] Truth is passed on not merely by formal teaching, important as that is, but also by the witness of lives lived in integrity, fidelity and holiness; those who live in and by the truth instinctively recognize what is false and, precisely as false, inimical to the beauty and goodness which accompany the splendour of truth, veritatis splendor. [And in liturgy.]

Tonight’s first reading is the magnificent prayer in which Saint Paul asks that we be granted to know "the love of Christ which surpasses all understanding" (Eph 3:14-21). The Apostle prays that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith (cf. Eph 3:17) and that we may come to "grasp, with all the saints, the breadth and the length, the height and the depth" of that love. Through faith we come to see God’s word as a lamp for our steps and light for our path (cf. Ps 119:105). Newman, like the countless saints who preceded him along the path of Christian discipleship, taught that the "kindly light" of faith leads us to realize the truth about ourselves, our dignity as God’s children, and the sublime destiny which awaits us in heaven. By letting the light of faith shine in our hearts, and by abiding in that light through our daily union with the Lord in prayer and participation in the life-giving sacraments of the Church, we ourselves become light to those around us; we exercise our "prophetic office"; often, without even knowing it, we draw people one step closer to the Lord and his truth. Without the life of prayer, without the interior transformation which takes place through the grace of the sacraments, we cannot, in Newman’s words, "radiate Christ"; we become just another "clashing cymbal" (1 Cor 13:1) in a world filled with growing noise and confusion, filled with false paths leading only to heartbreak and illusion.

One of the Cardinal’s best-loved meditations includes the words, "God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another" (Meditations on Christian Doctrine). Here we see Newman’s fine Christian realism, the point at which faith and life inevitably intersect. Faith is meant to bear fruit in the transformation of our world through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives and activity of believers. [Here is some realism for you:…] No one who looks realistically at our world today could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith which has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that the patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society. We know that in times of crisis and upheaval God has raised up great saints and prophets for the renewal of the Church and Christian society; we trust in his providence and we pray for his continued guidance. But each of us, in accordance with his or her state of life, is called to work for the advancement of God’s Kingdom by imbuing temporal life with the values of the Gospel. Each of us has a mission, each of us is called to change the world, to work for a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the dignity of each human person. As our Lord tells us in the Gospel we have just heard, our light must shine in the sight of all, so that, seeing our good works, they may give praise to our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:16).

Here I wish to say a special word to the many young people present. Dear young friends: only Jesus knows what "definite service" he has in mind for you. Be open to his voice resounding in the depths of your heart: even now his heart is speaking to your heart. Christ has need of families to remind the world of the dignity of human love and the beauty of family life. He needs men and women who devote their lives to the noble task of education, tending the young and forming them in the ways of the Gospel. He needs those who will consecrate their lives to the pursuit of perfect charity, following him in chastity, poverty and obedience, and serving him in the least of our brothers and sisters. He needs the powerful love of contemplative religious, who sustain the Church’s witness and activity through their constant prayer. And he needs priests, good and holy priests, men who are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep. Ask our Lord what he has in mind for you! Ask him for the generosity to say "yes!" Do not be afraid to give yourself totally to Jesus. He will give you the grace you need to fulfill your vocation. Let me finish these few words by warmly inviting you to join me next year in Madrid for World Youth Day. It is always a wonderful occasion to grow in love for Christ and to be encouraged in a joyful life of faith along with thousands of other young people. I hope to see many of you there!

And now, dear friends, let us continue our vigil of prayer by preparing to encounter Christ, present among us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Together, in the silence of our common adoration, let us open our minds and hearts to his presence, his love, and the convincing power of his truth. In a special way, let us thank him for the enduring witness to that truth offered by Cardinal John Henry Newman. Trusting in his prayers, let us ask the Lord to illumine our path, and the path of all British society, with the kindly light of his truth, his love and his peace. Amen.