Reflections on Newman and Friendship

EWTN recently added this excellent article to its on-line library. It provides a concise overview of Newman's life.

The author, Father Thomas Rosica, CSB highlights Newman's capacity for friendship. He refers to the depth and breadth of Newman's friendships and relationships, noting that Newman was not a lighthearted extrovert. Some of those friendships were broken off when he became a Catholic, but some were restored after Newman's Apologia pro vita sua explained things that had been misunderstood and never addressed.

As William Oddie comments in the Catholic Herald these very deep friendships and Newman's availability to people in correspondence, discourse, and contact really puts the lie to the idea that Newman was aloof and unreachable.