Blessed John Henry Newman's First Feast in Oxford

On his blog, Once I Was a Clever Boy, John Whitehead provides this detail about the celebration of Blessed John Henry Newman's first feast day in Oxford:

Friday October 8th
~7.45 pm, starting at The Oxford Oratory, the annual Night Walk to Littlemore, stopping at places associated with Newman and following Bl. Dominic Barberi's route to Littlemore in 1845.
~9.30 pm Candlelit procession from Rose Hill to Littlemore Church.
~10 pm Holy Hour and Benediction in the church of Bl. Dominic Barberi.
~10.45 pm Procession to the College for thanksgiving prayers.

Saturday October 9th
~12 noon Mass at Littlemore - Celebrant and Preacher Very Rev Fr Robert Byrne CO, Provost of the Oxford Oratory.
~The College at Littlemore, Newman's church of SS Mary and Nicholas there, St Mary the Virgin in The High, Trinity and Oriel will all be open in the afternoon.
~5 pm A Newman Sermon read from the pulpit of St Mary the Virgin by RSC actor Nigel Cooke.

Sunday October 10th
~Feast observed at The Oratory, veneration of the relic of Bl. John Henry Newman after all Masses.

Wish I could be there!

He also has a post about a brochure Oriel College has produced about Newman.

"Am I the Queen of England, or am I not?!"

So said Queen Victoria when news of the Restoration of the English Catholic hierarchy was announced in 1850. Pope Pius IX issued the Papal Bull "Universalis Ecclesiae" on September 29th that year. The first Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Nicholas Wiseman issued a pastoral letter to English Catholics, "Out of the Flaminian Gate," on October 7, 1850. His tone of exultation offended the Queen and her government, especially in its praise of the Pope:

And in nothing will it be fairer or brighter than in this, that the glow of more fervent love will be upon it. Whatever our sincere attachment and unflinching devotion to the Holy see till now, there is a new ingredient cast into these feelings; a warmer gratitude, a tenderer affection, a profounder admiration, a boundless and endless sense of obligation, for so new, so great, so sublime a gift, will be added to past sentiments of loyalty and fidelity to the supreme see of Peter. Our venerable Pontiff has shown himself a true shepherd, a true father; and we cannot but express our gratitude to him in our most fervent language, in the language of prayer. For when we raise our voices, as is meet, in loud and fervent thanksgiving to the Almighty, for the precious gifts bestowed upon our portion of Christ’s vineyard, we will also implore every choice blessing on him who has been so signally the divine instrument in procuring it. We will pray that his rule over the Church may be prolonged to many years, for its welfare; that health and strength may be preserved to him for the discharge of his arduous duties; that light and grace may be granted to him proportioned to the sublimity of his office; and that consolations, temporal and spiritual, may be poured out upon him abundantly, in compensation for past sorrows and past ingratitude. And of these consolations may one of the most sweet to his paternal heart be the propagation of holy religion in our country, the advancement of his spiritual children there in true piety and devotion, and our ever-increasing affection and attachment to the see of St. Peter.

As Cardinal Wiseman progressed on the Continent toward the British Isles he heard about the anger expressed in the British papers. Queen Victoria expressed herself in the strongest terms and the Cardinal responded by publishing a pamphlet and giving lectures that indicated the Catholic Church had no intention of opposing Her Majesty's Government in any way.

Queen Victoria's Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, introduced a bill in Parliament which passed making it illegal for the new Catholic Bishops to be physically present in their new dioceses--a law which was never enforced by the next government under Gladstone. There were still flare ups of anti-Catholic rioting and violence, but the Cardinal Archibishop had toned down his rather triumphalistic rhetoric and settled down to the restoration of simple things, like schools, chapels, seminaries, and churches. Because of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act of 1851, the hierarchy did not restore the pre-Reformation sees.

Don't forget--I'll be on the Son Rise Morning Show talking about this at 6:45 a.m. Central/7:45 a.m. Eastern today!

Book Review: Princes, Pastors, and People

Subtitle: The Church and Religion in England, 1500-1700, Second Edition

London and New York: Routledge, 2003

By Susan Doran and Christopher Durston

From the book description:

Princes, Pastors and People traces the religious upheavals that occurred in England during the turbulent years of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book introduces recent research and guides readers through the major issues that have divided Reformation historians during the last forty years:

--The state of the late-medieval Catholic Church

--The causes of the English Reformation

--The success and popularity of the Elizabethan Protestant Church

--The impact of the Laudian innovations of Charles I's reign

--The Puritan attempt to bring about cultural revolution in the 1650s

--The nature of the Restoration Anglican Church and its relations with the dissenting community

Princes, Pastors and People uses a thematic approach to chart the long-term developments across the period in all the keys areas including theological and liturgical change, the role of the clergy and the importance of religion in the everyday lives of people.

This second edition brings the survey up to date to include historiographical developments since the appearance of the first edition [in 1991] and for the first time examines in detail the religious events of the period from 1500 to 1529.

In their preface to this edition the authors note that they completely re-wrote the book and updated it extensively based on the new scholarship of Duffy, MacCulloch, Peter Marshall, Christopher Haigh, and others. The introduction provides an excellent overview particularly reflecting the revisionist view of this era developed by Duffy and Haigh. There is a list of suggested reading at the end of each chapter; each chapter covers a theme chronologically; and the authors weigh the evidence and the different interpretations fairly and concisely. The themes covered/chapter titles are:

Theology and liturgy

Sacred spaces

The Church in England and churches abroad

Conformist belief and practices

Heresy and dissent

The clergy

The Church and social control

The book ends with "Conclusions" which contained the only quibble I had with the book. On page 200, the authors discuss some revisionists' "denial of the existence of all anti-clericalism on the eve of the Reformation", but never cite which revisionists and where this denial occurs. The authors then state that "Some of them, for example, wrote all Protestants out of their accounts", but again never cite which revisionists, in what books, articles, papers or presentations.

Otherwise, I would highly recommend this book which also includes a chronology and glossary.

The Jesuits and England

On September 27, 1540 Pope Paul III approved the formation of the Society of Jesus. Founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Society would have a great impact on post-Reformation England. Many of the English martyrs mentioned on this blog were Jesuits, including most famously St. Edmund Campion and St. Robert Southworth. Forty years after the order's formation, the Jesuit mission to England began. As the U.K. site for the Society of Jesus states:

The history of the Elizabethan Jesuits is the stuff of legends and hagiography: clandestine meetings, priest-holes, raids, escapes from the Tower of London, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.

There were also conflicts between the Jesuits and the secular priests over the strategy for perpetuating Catholicism in England. Some Catholics, the Appellants, wanted to demonstrate loyalty to the Queen and to England, while Father Robert Parsons, who came to England with Edmund Campion and then returned to the Continent, urged steps like the excommunication of Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada. Jesuit colleges in France, Spain, and Italy trained young men for the mission in England.

The Jesuits in England were also involved in some manner in the plots to place Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne of England and the Gunpowder Plot; then they were suspected in the so-called Popish Plot and supported the Jacobite rebellions after the Glorious Revolution--and therefore many of them suffered execution and/or martyrdom. On the other hand, Lord Baltimore asked the Jesuits to assist in the founding of Maryland in the New World.

The French Revolution drove the English Jesuits from the Continent to Stonyhurst in England in 1794, even though the Pope had suppressed the order in 1773. In 1801 the Jesuits were restored and in 1803 the English Province was restored. Finally, Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the Restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850 led to the foundation of many Jesuit colleges--including Campion Hall in Oxford--and parishes throughout England.

Famed English Jesuits of the modern era include: Gerard Manley Hopkins, convert and poet; Frederick Copleston, the historian of philosophy; John Hungerford Pollen and Philip Caraman, historians and biographers who focused on the English recusant era of Jesuit martyrdoms; and Clifford Howell, who wrote on doctrine and worship. A more infamous Jesuit was George Tyrrell, the Modernist theologian.

EWTN Bookmark Video

My brother-in-law and webmaster worked some magic* to embed video of my interview with Doug Keck on my website, just in case you missed it. It's on the Contact/Events tab.

When I went to the Catholic Writers Conference in early August, the panel of publishers commented that most interviews don't have that great an effect on sales--readings and book signings really have the greatest impact, they said--except for interviews on EWTN. I think there was a pretty immediate increase in sales the day the interview aired.

*When he's not helping me with my book's website, he IS a magician.

The Parting of Friends

On September 25, 1843, John Henry Newman preached his final sermon as an Anglican minister at St. Mary and St. Nicholas, the church he had built in Littlemore. He had resigned his University position and intended to retire to the College there in Littlemore with some other members of the Tractarian Movement.

The sermon's title is "The Parting of Friends." He took as his text "Man goes forth to his work and to his labour until the evening." It was the anniversary of the consecration of the church--I took the picture of the church last year on a tour of Newman's Littlemore. Newman gave examples of leave-taking in the Scripture: Jacob, Ishmael, Naomi, St. Paul.

Then he concluded:

And, O my brethren, O kind and affectionate hearts, O loving friends, should you know any one whose lot it has been, through writing or word of mouth, in some degree to help you thus to act; if he has ever told you what you knew about yourselves, or what you did not know; has read to you your wants or feelings, and comforted you by the very reading; has made you feel that there was a higher life than this daily one, and a brighter world than that you see; or encouraged you, or sobered you, or opened a way to the inquiring, or soothed the perplexed; if what he has said or done has ever made you take interest in him and fell well inclined towards him; remember such a one in time to come, though you hear him not, and pray for him, that in all things he may know God's will, and at all times he may be ready to fulfill it.

Newman remained at the College for more than two years after preaching this sermon, working on his Essay on the Development Christian Doctrine, praying, fasting, and discerning.

A Couple of Radio Gigs

On Wednesday, September 29, I'll conduct a brief radio interview on the Son Rise Morning Show, discussing the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in England in 1850—7:45 a.m. Eastern; 6:45 a.m. Central; listen here live!

Then on Saturday, October 2: I'll participate in a radio interview/live call in show on “The Good Fight” with Barbara McGuigan from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Central/2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, carried on the EWTN Radio Network. We'll discuss Blessed John Henry Newman, how Pope Benedict XVI mentioned the English martyrs during his visit to the UK--and Supremacy and Survival! Call 1-877-573-7825 with your questions and comments.

Our Lady of Walsingham

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. Today in Walsingham there are two shrines--one Catholic, one Anglican. Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's vice regent in these spiritual matters, had the first (Catholic) shrine destroyed along with other shrines to the Mother of God throughout England. The statues were brought to the Chelsea area of the London and destroyed in a bonfire. More about the shrine here.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.

Last Sunday, before the recitation of the Angelus and after the Mass at which John Henry Newman was beatified, Pope Benedict spoke of Newman's devotion to Mary:

In so many ways, he lived his priestly ministry in a spirit of filial devotion
to the Mother of God. Meditating upon her role in the unfolding of God's plan
for our salvation, he was moved to exclaim: "Who can estimate the holiness and
perfection of her, who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? What must have
been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only near earthly relative of the Son
of God, the only one whom He was bound by nature to revere and look up to; the
one appointed to train and educate Him, to instruct Him day by day, as He grew
in wisdom and in stature?" (Parochial and Plain Sermons, ii, 131-2).

From January to September

It's a long, long way from January to September. As I watched my interview with Doug Keck on EWTN Bookmark Sunday morning, I thought about all that's happened since I went to Birmingham early this year--some personal things, like my father dying in June, and some book-related things, like attending the Catholic Writers Conference in August.

My husband really got a kick out of Doug Keck asking about the dedication in Supremacy and Survival since he had encouraged me to write a book for years!

EWTN Bookmark repeats this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Central; 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

New Blessed John Henry Newman Devotional

Father Juan R. Velez kindly contacted me and sent me a copy of the book of meditations he edited with Mike Aquilina, published by Our Sunday Visitor. Father Juan is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and he is preparing a biography of Blessed John Henry Newman.

This present volume offers a short overview of Blessed Newman's life and then uses short excerpts from his works with points for meditation, a passage of scripture, and a take-away for the day. Since I received it I have been using everyday and the selections dovetailed nicely with the Pope's visit to the United Kingdom. I recommend it highly.

Blessed John Henry Newman, pray for us!