Father Ian Ker, RIP

Yesterday, Saturday, November 5, I attended the First Saturday Mass and devotions to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, meeting a couple of friends. We went to brunch after Mass and then I came home and checked my email for the first time that day. 

My inbox was full of notices of Father Ian Ker's death that morning in England. Father Juan Velez published this notice on his Saint John Henry Newman website:

Fr. Ian Ker (1942-2022) died in London, this morning November 5, 2022. A former Anglican, he became Roman Catholic and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Birmingham. He was a world authority on St. John Henry Newman on whom he published more than twenty books.

Fr. Ker taught theology at Oxford University and was a senior research fellow at Blackfriars, Oxford and a member of the faculty of theology.

We mourn the loss of Fr. Ker and pray that Our Lord reward him with “the vision of peace” of which St. John Henry Newman wrote. In the coming days, Fr. Peter J. Conley of the Archdiocese of Birmingham will write more about Fr. Ker’s contribution to Newman scholarship and his influence on his own (Fr. Conley’s) work.

Requiescat in pace!

Fr. Ker’s publications included:

John Henry Newman: A Biography (1988); The Catholic Revival in English Literature 1845-1961 (2003); G.K. Chesterton: A Biography (2011); and Newman on Vatican II (2014); Newman, Councils and Vatican II in Newman and Faith (2004); and Mere Catholicism (2006).

He was also co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Newman (2009), contributing the chapter ‘The Church as Communion’.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Father Ian Ker twice when he visited Wichita for presentations: He was the keynote speaker at a Newman School of Catholic Thought at St. Paul's Parish-Newman Center at Wichita State University in February, 1992 based on his book Newman and the Fullness of Christianity and he led a day of recollection at the Spiritual Life Center on Newman's spirituality based on his book Healing the Wound of Humanity in October, 1993.

And in 2013, he was scheduled to speak at Newman University on the "Genius of Newman" but had to cancel because of illness.

May he rest in the peace of Christ. As I continue my series on Newman's The Dream of Gerontius, I dedicate my efforts to his memory and I will pray for the repose of his soul throughout the month of November.

Memory Eternal!

UPDATE: I asked Warren Farha at Eighth Day Books to special order this for me, from Gracewing Publishers in the UK:

I look forward to purchasing it and reading it as soon as possible!