BEATIFICATION OF VENERABLE CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Pope Benedict XVI presided at the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman on September 19 2010, in the culminating act of a 4-day visit to the United Kingdom. 

 In an outdoor liturgy attended by 70,000 people at Crofton Park in Birmingham, the Holy Father pronounced the beatification of the 19th-century British scholar and convert. 

The Pope focused on the figure of Cardinal Newman, whose many writings helped to illuminate “the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education.” In his remarks the Pope said that Cardinal Newman’s “fine Christian realism” was a reliable guide for today as well. He pointed out that 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.” That same struggle continues today, the Pope said, “when an intellectual and moral relativism threatens to sap the very foundations of our society.” 

Cardinal Newman’s life "also teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly,” the Pope said. Truth must be proclaimed, even sometimes at personal cost. Finally, the Pope observed, Cardinal Newman insisted that “there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives.” 

Cardinal John Newman

Beatification

The beatification of Cardinal John Newman is of particular significance for the Church. The following is the LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II ON THE OCCASION OF THE 2nd CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH WHICH WAS ADDRESSED To The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, WHO WAS Archbishop of Birmingham AT THE TIME.

Pope Benedict’s apostolic journey to the United Kingdom culminates on September 19 with the beatification of Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman, described by Venerable John Paul II as “one of the most distinguished and versatile champions of English spirituality” and as a thinker who came to “a remarkable synthesis of faith and reason.”Hailed by James Joyce as “the greatest of English prose writers,” Newman was at once a seminal theologian (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent), a poet (“The Pillar of the Cloud,” “Dream of Gerontius”), the leading defender of liberal education in his day (Idea of a University), the author of a classic spiritual autobiography (Apologia Pro Vita Sua), and a preacher with an eloquence perhaps unsurpassed in the English language, from his Anglican Parochial and Plain Sermons to his Catholic Sermons Preached on Various Occasions. 

Born in 1801, Newman became an Anglican cleric in 1825; seven years later, he helped launch the Oxford Movement, which sought to emphasize and restore the Catholic aspects of the Church of England while conceiving of Anglicanism as a via media between Rome and Protestantism. In 1845, he was received into the Church by Blessed Dominic Barberi. Ordained to the priesthood in Rome in 1847, Newman brought the Congregation of the Oratory to England the following year. 

Pope Leo XIII created Newman a cardinal in 1879. Upon his death in 1890, the Guardian hailed him as “one of the very greatest masters of English style,” “a man of singular purity and beauty of character,” and “an eminent example of personal sanctity.” Pope John Paul II declared Newman venerable in 1991, and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a decree last July that cleared the way for his beatification. 

St Joseph Cafasso

This year the feast day of St Joseph Cafasso happens to be the 150th anniversary of his death. That means he died just six months after the foundation of the Salesian Congregation. It was an undertaking which Don Bosco must surely have discussed at length with him, not only on the practicalities of the project, but more importantly on discerning God’s will in the foundation of a new Congregation.


It was Joseph Cafasso who was initially instrumental in directing Don Bosco in working with youth in difficulty, who continued to direct him in his weekly confession, who advised him to take up lodgings with Don Borel at the Refuge, who worked closely with him in the foundation of the Oratory, giving him financial support and convincing others to fund his charitable foundation and, when necessary, to defend him from critics even from the clergy.

Remembering Don Rua

Fr Pascual Chavez has written a wonderful letter to all the Salesians of Don Bosco who joyfully celebrate this centenary. The figure of Don Rua is a permanent reminder of the spirit of Don Bosco. The austerity of his life has set out for the Congregation a paradigm to follow in order to be faithful followers of Don Bosco.

Centenary of the Death of Bl Michael Rua

Rome, 24 June 2009

Birth of Saint John the Baptist

My dear Confreres,

…The reason for this letter of mine is to make the official announcement to you that we shall be dedicating the year 2010 to a special commemoration of Blessed Michael Rua. It is in fact the centenary year of his death, which occurred on 6 April 1910. The year 2010, centred on the figure of the first Successor of Don Bosco … will help us to bring to fuller maturity our consecrated Salesian vocation. It seems to me important that we are conscious of the historical situation, that from the death of Don Bosco until our own days, the Congregation has had a great and significant development, taking steps forward, having second thoughts, making fresh starts, reflecting deeply. The identity of the Congregation can be understood better, in fact, through its history, knowing the forms and expressions it has assumed at different times and in different places.

Bl. Michael Rua with Bl Philip Rinaldi

“Remembering Don Rua”, we shall spend this year 2010 on a spiritual and pastoral journey. It will begin on 31 January, the solemnity of Don Bosco, the day on which each year we recall the death of the Saint: it was on that 31 January in 1888 that Don Rua took the tiller, to continue the journey on which the Founder had embarked. The year of commemoration will conclude on 31 January 2011. …

I mention now some focal points, …

First of all, following the example of Don Rua, the faithful disciple of Jesus in the footsteps of Don Bosco, each confrere is being called to re-discover the ways in which to preserve fidelity to the vocation of consecration. Our vocation is a precious gift; however, it is “like a treasure in earthenware vessels.”

Returning to Don Bosco’s initial exposure to the youth reality…

AFW Salesian Brothers on Pilgrimage

to the tomb of St Joseph Cafasso.

This year 2010 is the 150th anniversary of St Joseph’s Cafasso’s death; he died at just 49 years of age on 23 June 1860. That means he passed away just six months after the foundation of the Salesian Congregation. It was an undertaking which Don Bosco must surely have discussed at length with him, not only on the practicalities of the project, but more importantly on discerning God’s will in the foundation of a new Congregation. It was Joseph Cafasso who was initially instrumental in directing Don Bosco in working with youth in difficulty, who continued to direct him in his weekly confession, who advised him to take up lodgings with Don Borel at the Refuge, who worked closely with him in the foundation of the Oratory, giving him financial support and convincing others to fund his charitable foundation and, when necessary, to defend him from critics even from the clergy. Here we see what a wise spiritual director Fr Cafasso was, and how his guidnace in the first few years of Don Bosco as a priest  proved to be crucial.

Fr Joseph Cafasso exposed the young priests who came to the Convitto under his care to the challenging pastoral realities of a city fast becoming industrialized. Don Bosco was no exception, and in reading the Memoirs one can see the impact that Don Bosco’s visit to the prisons left on him: “It was Fr Cafasso who first took me into the prisons, where I soon learned how great was the malice and misery of mankind.”