St. John Henry Cardinal Newman! - canonized today, Oct. 13th, 2019

Fr. Rutler's Weekly Column
October 13, 2019
Over forty years ago, I told a wise Protestant theologian that I had been reading the Apologia pro Vita Sua of John Henry Newman (1801-1890). He warned me that it is “a dangerous book.” That was just the sort of advice that makes a young thinker all the more eager to read it. And so I did, and so did countless others whose lives were changed by this book, whose passages are some of the most beautiful in the English language, and whose author’s the thoughts considering the psychology of the soul are undying.

Newman wrote that book in four weeks, standing at his upright desk in Birmingham, England, in response to a personal attack on his integrity: “I have been in perfect peace and contentment; I never have had one doubt. I was not conscious to myself, on my conversion, of any change, intellectual or moral, wrought in my mind . . . but it was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on that score remains to this day without interruption.”

Today Newman is to be canonized in Rome, a tribute to his unsurpassed gifts of grace as theologian, historian, writer, poet, preacher and, most of all, a pastor of souls. While preaching and writing immortal words, he also was meticulous in running the Oratory school he founded, even making costumes for school plays, paying coal bills, and playing his fiddle in the school orchestra.

In his honor and in thanksgiving for the Church’s recognition of his holiness, of which the angels never were in doubt, we shall dedicate today a shrine for him in our church. As with all that we try to do in our church, this sculpture is the work of one of our own parishioners. Newman foresaw with uncanny prescience the various challenges of our own day, and this monument should be a reminder to pray for his intercession on behalf of our local church and the Church Universal in a time of spiritual combat, which is a lot like what he faced in his own age.

To Newman’s great surprise, and even “shock,” the newly elected Pope Leo XIII in 1879 created him a cardinal. He had been so attacked and calumniated for his religious views over many years, that he was satisfied that the “cloud” had finally been lifted. In his acceptance speech he said that his entire life had been consecrated to refuting the doctrine of relativism which held that “Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy.”

Today we sing Cardinal Newman’s hymn, “Lead, Kindly Light,” which his own life embodied and faith made bold: “I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me.”

Faithfully yours in Christ,
Father George W. Rutler

Wee bit of heaven ...

The London Oratory, also called the Brompton Oratory, has a special place in my heart. Cardinal Newman, essentially a patron saint to me on my journey into the Church, figures prominently in the history of the Oratory. Beyond that, it's a magnificent place and easy to find in London. It has three world-class children's choirs, as well as at least one other adult choir; and their music is one of the most beautiful things this side of heaven. (For more on the Oratory choirs, see Alex Begin's column in the post below.)

John Henry Newman as a celebrity novelist?

A reader, writing in response to Timothy Larsen's "A Pious Fiction" (Christianity Today, July-August, 2016), says:

"I mostly liked this review in Books & Culture. On a book you recommended to me long ago. And what registers rating this reviewer's take is that Newman was in fact more the popular writer and cultural pundit than you might have thought, and maybe a bit of a celebrity novelist. I am not so sure "A Pious Fiction" isn't a gentle Protestant jab, but Catholics could roll with [Newman's novel,] CONVERSION: A NOVEL ACCOUNT [or, LOSS AND GAIN: The Story of a Convert][(University of Notre Dame Press: 2015)].

The endlessly insightful Newman - and Jaki on Newman

A well-read polyglot and good friend writes (and I publish his words with his permission):

I discovered Fr. Jaki on Newman in my favorite magazine, Christian Order, in 2002. I immediately ordered a copy of Newman to Converts. When I asked Fr. Ian Ker about it he wrote: "While Fr. Jaki is an expert on science and religion, he knows nothing about Newman". With that endorsement, I never looked back and ordered all five of Fr. Jaki's books on Newman one by one: Apologetics, Church of England, Neo Arianism, Justification and Challenge.

No books in my long life as a Catholic (nurtured on Ronnie Knox and Christopher Dawson) have given me such pleasure. Fr. Jaki notes that Newman believed that only in his letters does a man reveal himself. Newman is combative. His Anglican Difficulties is a satire on the Church of England. His book on the Arians is the only place you will learn why the Arians were such a threat and not dialogue partners as Rowan Williams would have it.

It is a scandal that these books have never been reviewed in the principal theology journals. The carefully constructed portrait of Newman the Anglican is blown sky high by the reality of Newman the Catholic. The fact that Fr. Jaki's books on Newman were self published is no excuse. They are the best books on theology to be published in my lifetime and all appeared in the new century.

I [must also] mention that you would probably find Fr. Jaki's Apologetics as Meant by Newman the most interesting as it deals with the Grammar of Assent, the marks of the Church, and the idea of a university.

I discovered today a really interesting article [by Deborah Ostrovsky], "The Freudian Became a Catholic" at the Tablet, a Jewish journal published in London. I've always felt a kinship with Karl Stern, who was welcomed into the Church by the same Montreal Franciscan priest who married my grandparents.

Where you can order the late Fr. Stanley L. Jaki's books on Newman (and a whole lot more!): Real View Books.

Stanley Ladislas Jaki (1924-2009), a Hungarian-born Catholic priest of the Benedictine Order, was Distinguished University Professor at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. With doctorates in theology and physics, for over forty years he specialized in the history and philosophy of science. The author of over fifty books and over three hundred and fifty articles, he served as Gifford Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and as Fremantle Lecturer at Balliol College, Oxford. He lectured at major universities in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He was an honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, membre correspondant of the Académie Nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Bordeaux, and the recipient of the Lecomte du Noüy Prize for 1970 and of the Templeton Prize for 1987.

Catholic and Enjoying It Struggling?

Many seem to be struggling these days. At least this seems evident when someone comes right out and says what many people seem to be thinking. Even if almost no one wants to come out and actually say it -- at least not George Weigel and Co. Here, for example, is what Steve Skojec wrote just a few days ago over at his 1 Peter 5 blog [Disclaimer: Rules 7-9]:

What matters is this: when you believe something is good, but it keeps producing bad fruit, it creates an irreconcilable problem. You’re always looking to square that circle, always trying to find a way to spin straw into gold.

A year before I went to World Youth Day, I fell to my knees in my little rural parish and asked God to help me to keep my faith in a Catholicism that “doesn’t act like it believes what it says it believes.” He answered that prayer, leading me not just to Denver to see how bad things were up close and personal, but through a labyrinthine maze of experiences that ultimately led me out from the tiny stream of Catholicism I had known, and into the ocean of Catholic Tradition.

... It is long past time that we abandon the idea of a need to “correctly implement” the council. Its documents, at times orthodox, at other times vague or even apparently contradictory to previous teachings, were designed with flaws capable of being exploited. Its genius is that it cannot be summarily condemned as a compendium of heretical ideas; it would be more true to say that it is a collection of half-formed or ill-stated ones — mixed with enough assertions of authentic Catholic teaching to give the whole enterprise credibility. Remember: a thing needn’t be completely corrupt to present a problem. A house built on sand is still a house – at least until it weakens enough to collapse.

The post-conciliar experiment is now rapidly approaching that point.

What I generally encourage such struggling individuals to do is to insulate themselves a bit from the "culture wars" being waged within the Church right now, to sequester themselves within the serene walls of Catholic tradition and immerse themselves in the writings of the saints or Church fathers. It can be a real tonic. One's personal spiritual life, or that of one's family, can be no less rich and satisfying than that of Catholics who lived at any other time in history. The foundation of the Church remains unmovable, because it is Jesus Christ Himself. But just as Cardinal Newman once said that "to go deep into history is to cease to be Protestant," so I would say that in times such as ours "to go deep into history is to escape our present turmoil." At least, it is to put everything in proper perspective. This is not a matter of simply escaping the present by delving into the past. Rather, it is like digging beneath the present confusion to find that the foundation of the Church still intact -- and the Church Triumphant very much alive, a "cloud of witnesses" watching on as the Church Militant runs its race (or fights its battles).

[Hat tip to JM]

Worth reading: The 2015 Newman Lecture in Melbourne: - Newman's Conversion of Conscience and the Resolution of the Crisis of Modernity

This year's lecture, the second annual Blessed John Henry Newman Lecture, was delivered by Fr. Scot Armstrong, a founding member of the Brisbane Oratory in Formation, at the Parish of Blessed John Henry Newman, Melbourne, on October 17, 2015. It is entitled "Newman's Conversion of Conscience and the Resolution of the Crisis of Modernity" (Rorate Caeli (November 8, 2015).

Tridentine Community News - EF Masses to be celebrated by Fr. Tim Ferguson, Bishop Boyea; EF Mass at Newman Ctr, Lincoln, NE; Confessions at Solanus Casey Center; Mass times

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (June 14, 2015):

Fr. Tim Ferguson to Celebrate Mass at St. Josaphat

Many of our readers know Fr. Tim Ferguson from his days as a parishioner at St. Josaphat and in his former role as a Canon Lawyer for the Archdiocese of Detroit. He was recently ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan. His first Holy Mass after ordination was in the Extraordinary Form, with at least two metro Detroiters in attendance. Fr. Tim will return to St. Josaphat next Sunday, June 21, to celebrate the 9:30 AM Tridentine Mass. He has been assigned to St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette, which perhaps not so coincidentally was the site of Extraordinary Form Masses formerly celebrated by current Oakland County Latin Mass Association Chaplain and fellow Canon Lawyer Msgr. Ronald Browne.

First EF Mass at Newman Center, Lincoln, Nebraska

An astute reader reported some good news concerning the new Newman Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, a new church constructed in the traditional style which was featured in our May 31 column. The very day before, on May 30, 2015, the Newman Center hosted its first Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form, an ordination Mass for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Bishop James Conley ordained six priests there, a most fitting choice considering that the previous site for FSSP ordinations, the Cathedral of the Diocese of Lincoln, has often been noted for being too modern architecturally for such ceremonies.

Confirmations in the EF at the OCLMA

A reminder for those who have not yet heard: The Oakland County Latin Mass Association has been granted permission to have the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Extraordinary Form administered to those who express a desire and are prepared. Confirmations will take place at the 9:45 AM Mass on Sunday, November 8, 2015 at the Chapel of the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills. His Excellency Donald F. Hanchon, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, will administer the Sacrament. Those with an interest are urged to speak with Chaplain Msgr. Ronald Browne promptly, or to contact us via e-mail at: info@oclma.org. Since there are few occasions to receive this Sacrament in the Extraordinary Form, candidates from the entire Detroit metropolitan area are invited to apply.

Bishop Boyea to Celebrate EF Mass on June 26


Bishop Earl Boyea of the Diocese of Lansing has a long track record of celebrating Holy Masses in the Extraordinary Form, dating back to 2005 at St. Josaphat. His Excellency will offer the monthly Last Friday Mass for Juventútem on June 26 at 7:00 PM at St. Patrick Church in Brighton. A social and dance for young adults age 18-35 will follow the Mass; those of all ages are, as always, invited to the Mass. [Photo of Bishop Boyea at Old St. Patrick, Ann Arbor from the Unam Sanctam Cathólicam blog]

Confessions at Solanus Casey Center

A reader suggested that we make known the fact that the Sacrament of Confession is available six days per week, for many hours of the day, at Detroit’s [Fr.] Solanus Casey Center. Also known as the Capuchin Monastery of St. Bonaventure, the Solanus Center is regarded as the “Starbucks of Confessions” for its convenience. It’s not a secret; there is almost always a (short) line of penitents waiting, no matter the day or time. Visitors also have the opportunity to pray at the tomb of Fr. Solanus.

Confessions are heard Monday through Saturday on the hour at 10:00 AM, 11:00, 12:00 Noon, 2:00 PM, 3:00, and 4:00. The priest remains until all Confessions have been heard. There are two confessionals; a second priest helps out when the line gets long.

It is worth mentioning that the Confessions are heard without hurry, and absolution is given in proper (Ordinary) form. The Solanus Center is located at 1780 Mt. Elliott St. at Kercheval, approximately one mile north of Jefferson. Guarded parking is available in the lot on the north side of the property, with the vehicle entrance off Kercheval.

A little-known fact about St. Bonaventure’s is that there is a hidden chapel, located behind the now-unusable High Altar of the modernized main chapel, which, unlike that main chapel, is fairly traditionally arranged, including its own High Altar.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 06/15 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Vitus & Companions, Martyrs)
• Tue. 06/16 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary (Votive Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for June 14, 2015. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Tridentine Community News -- Canadian bus tour; New Newman Center in Lincoln, NE; Cnl. Burke's EF Mass in Minneapolis; Mass schedule

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (May 31, 2015):

Prayer Pilgrimages Bus Tour to Shrines of Canada

The annual bus tour to the major Catholic Shrines of Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City will take place a few months earlier than in previous years, late Sunday, June 21 through Friday, June 26. Tridentine Masses are planned at Montreal’s Notre Dame Basilica and St. Joseph’s Oratory, and at the Shrine of Sainte Anne de Beaupré near Quebec City. A Mass is also planned in Toronto at a church yet to be determined. For more information or reservations, visit www.prayerpilgrimages.com or call (248) 250-6005.

The New Newman Center in Lincoln, Nebraska

We have before written about the resurgence in popularity of traditional church designs. A significant new edifice was dedicated on April 12 by Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska Bishop James Conley: The Newman Center, a.k.a. St. Thomas Aquinas Church, at the University of Nebraska. Designed by Washington, DC firm McCrery Architects, the Newman Center sports a High Altar, at least one Side Altar, a Communion Rail, a choir loft with pipe organ, and traditional artwork and stained glass. Below are some photos, taken from McCrery’s blog:






While so far only Masses in the Ordinary Form have been held at the Newman Center, the Diocese of Lincoln has a long record of being Tridentine-friendly. With a building so ideally suited to traditional liturgy, one can only hope that Holy Masses in the Extraordinary Form are offered there soon. Regardless, the atmosphere for prayer that such a church sets can only help to edify the faithful.

Cardinal Burke to Celebrate Tridentine Mass at Minneapolis’ Basilica of St. Mary

Raymond Cardinal Burke continues his globetrotting celebrations of Masses in the Extraordinary Form with a stop at the co-cathedral of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Basilica of St. Mary. His Eminence will celebrate a Pontifical Solemn Mass there on Saturday, September 19 at 10:00 AM. Readers may recall that the architecturally impressive Basilica was featured in Episode 3 of Extraordinary Faith. The Basilica thereby joins its sister co-cathedral, the Cathedral of St. Paul, in hosting a Tridentine Mass; the Cathedral of St. Paul held one last fall.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Mon. 06/01 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Angela Merici, Virgin)
• Tue. 06/02 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary (Ss. Marcellinus, Peter, & Erasmus, Martyrs)
• Fri. 06/05 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (Sacred Heart of Jesus) [First Friday]

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for May 31, 2015. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]

Newman, Weigel, "Development"

George Weigel, "Newman and Vatican II" (First Things, April 15, 2015):

That Blessed John Henry Newman was one of the great influences on Vatican II is “a commonplace,” as Newman’s biographer, Fr. Ian Ker, puts it. But what does that mean? What influence did Newman have on a Council that opened seventy-two years after his death? And from this side of history, what might we learn from Newman about the proper way to “read” Vatican II, as we anticipate the fiftieth anniversary of its conclusion on December 8?

... That Newman had considerable influence at Vatican II is ... evident in the Council’s seminal Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum). There, the Council Fathers teach that the Great Tradition “that comes from the apostles makes progress in the Church, with the help of the Holy Spirit ... as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing toward the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her.” Thus did Vatican II vindicate Newman’s great work on the development of doctrine, which grew from a theological method that brought history, and indeed life itself, back into play as sources of reflection and growth in our understanding of God’s revelation.

That Newman could make this contribution to the Catholic future was due to the fact that he was neither a traditionalist, who thought the Church’s self-understanding frozen in amber [I have yet to meet someone who fits this description - G.N.], nor a progressive, who believed that nothing is finally settled in the rule of faith. Rather, Newman was a reformer devoted to history, who worked for reform-in-continuity with the Great Tradition, and who, in his explorations of the development of doctrine, helped the Church learn to tell the difference between genuine development and rupture.

Even as a substantial devotee of Cardinal Newman, I confess to having become a trifle suspicious regarding how his notion of "development" has been used in recent decades, if not also regarding Newman's own understanding of the matter. Our understanding of the Apostolic Deposit of Faith may gain in profundity over time, but may just as easily slacken and grow more forgetful and superficial and confused. I'm not at all convinced that all that passes under the attribution of "development" today is at all credible. Orestes Brownson has written extensively about this in the 14th volume of his collected works, where he takes to task Newman's own theory of doctrinal development. One of the projects to which I've promised to devote myself in the months ahead is a personal study of this issue.

I was therefore forcibly struck by the note that accompanied the message sent to me by my trusted correspondent, Guy Noir, along with the link to Weigel's article. Noir wrote:

My bone of contention with modern Church apologists -- or apologists for the modern Church -- has always been this: they talk and talk and talk about Development of Doctrine, but do not give concrete examples of it positive demonstration or of its abuse in contemporary circles.

Is condemnation of capital punishment a DOD? Because it seems like a reversal. And if it is not, why can't gay marriage be another DOD? And so on, and so on. The modern Church does not seem to be able to expand on doctrines without reversing previous policy, and that is what I think makes the whole appeal to Newman seem vague and unconvincing. If Dei Verbum and the Two Sources Theory is what Development of Doctrine is about, I think it affects most laity very little. If downplaying Hell and condemning capital punishment are examples of DOD, I think it confuses the faithful quite a bit. Everyone talks about change and development, but no one will give clearly defined illustrations. Instead it is used to justify excursions into ambiguity. As a convert from Protestantism, I very much embrace Development of Doctrine. As a concerned Catholic, also I don't see any modern instance where it is convincingly invoked.

"The trials that lie before us are such as would appal and make dizzy ... courageous hearts." And I really [question whether] "development of doctrine" as it is now understood does anything other than add to the disorientation. I guess when you allow development of something that is already generally distorted, you can't expect to like the hybrid new thing.

Golden oldie zingers by Rutler

Old but excellent: "the Liturgical Experts' Long Tassels" (First Things, August 27. 2010). A few excerpts:

A pastor is too busy leading people in worship to attend workshops on how to lead people in worship, and his duties in the confessional prevent him from attending seminars on how to hear confessions. I do know that if I followed the guidelines of one liturgical commission, suggesting that I greet each penitent at the church doors with an open Gospel book and then lead a procession to a reconciliation room which looks more like an occasion of sin than a shrine for its absolution, the number of confessions in the middle of the metropolis where I serve would be severely reduced.

Publicly owned corporations are more accountable to their shareholders than tenured bureaucracies, which may explain why it took the Ford Motor Company only two years to cancel its Edsel, and not much longer for Coca Cola to restore its “classic” brand, while the Catholic Church has taken more than a generation of unstopped attrition to try to correct the mistakes of overheated liturgists....

A genius of the Latin rite has been its virile precision, even bluntness. Contrast this with the unsettled grammar of “alternative opening prayers” in the original books from ICEL (the International Commission on English in the Liturgy), whose poesie sounds like Teilhard on steroids.

... Unfortunately, we have not yet resolved the problem of the simply bad Lectionary texts. While the Jerusalem Bible and Revised Standard Version are licit, only the Revised New American Bible is accessible for parish use. The Jerusalem Bible is a tool for study but was translated with a tin ear.

I grew up with the King James translation and thus am stunned when Job 38:17 (“Hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?”) is given as “Have you met the janitors of Shadowland?” So Sheol becomes a theme park.

But none of this matches the torture of the trans-gendered RNAB which manages to neuter every creature except Satan who remains male. Our Lord sometimes sounds like the Prince of Wales: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world . . . ?” and other times like a bored anthropologist: “Two people went up to the temple to pray . . . .”

... I recall a prelate saying that even as a seminarian he hoped one day to be able to say Mass facing the people. It was a revealing statement, inasmuch as when he said Mass he seemed annoyed that the Lord was sometimes getting in the way.

Then finishing with Cardinal Newman:

John Henry Newman was the greatest master of English letters in his century of brilliant English, but he gave no countenance to his vernacular replacing the sacral tongue. That is another matter for another day. But he knew the meaning of cupio dissolvi, and he taught that without such self-abnegation the gift of personality reduces the Passion to pantomime. It was because his priestcraft was also soulcraft, that he solemnly invoked the Sacred Heart at the altar in order to speak “heart to heart” with the people in the street:

“Clad in his sacerdotal vestments, [the priest] sinks what is individual in himself altogether, and is but the representative of Him from whom he derives his commission. His words, his tones, his actions, his presence, lose their personality; one bishop, one priest, is like another; they all chant the same notes, and observe the same genuflections, as they give one peace and one blessing, as they offer one and the same sacrifice.

“The Mass must not be said without a Missal under the priest’s eye; nor in any language but that in which it has come down to us from the early hierarchs of the Western Church. But, when it is over, and the celebrant has resigned the vestments proper to it, then he resumes himself, and comes to us in the gifts and associations which attach to his person.

“He knows his sheep, and they know him; and it is this direct bearing of the teacher on the taught, of his mind upon their minds, and the mutual sympathy which exists between them, which is his strength and influence when he addresses them. They hang upon his lips as they cannot hang upon the pages of his book.”

[Hat tip to JM]

"Vincentian Canon and Unanimous Consent of the Fathers"

Always worth reading, Boniface has a fine analysis of "Vincentian Canon and Unanimous Consent of the Fathers" (Unam Sanctam Catholicam). Cardinal Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, which was in part provoked by the challenges posed by the 17th century Protestant divine, William Chillingworth's argument that the Catholic claim of "unanimous consent of the fathers" is a mere illusion. Newman's Essay, he shows, may be regarded in a sense as nothing other than an elaboration of the principles of the Vincentian Canon, "Quod Ubique, Quod Semper, Quod ab Omnibus" -- namely, that the Catholic Faith consists in that which has been believed "everywhere, always, and by all."

What is particularly interesting in this post is how the author brings to bear in his analysis the ingenious application of five criteria for applying the Vincentian Canon formulated by Fr. Christian Cochini in his masterful study of clerical celibacy, Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy(Ignatius Press, 1990), which he applies particularly to the Catholicity of Church teaching on clerical celibacy. These criteria include that a point of doctrine or discipline can be said to be kept by the whole Church at a given time in history if (1) the majority of those invested with the moral and intellectual authority of the Church during that age share the same opinions about it; (2) it is kept by the Apostolic Churches; (3) kept by all the bishops as expressed in their corporate judgments; (4) between that time and the Apostolic age there is no decision coming from any authorized hierarchical authority attesting to the existence of a contrary belief or practice; and (5) during the same time the point in question was never contested in the name of a contrary tradition by any of the apostolic churches.

Of course, these points are each expanded upon in the article.

Read more >>

"No, Newman cannot be used to defend Kasper"

Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, DPhil, "No, Newman cannot be used to defend Kasper" (RC, November 1, 2014):

Fr. Robert Barron suggests elsewhere that Cardinal Kasper’s proposition to allow divorced and "remarried" Catholics to receive Holy Communion in the name of mercy should be judged by the criteria that Blessed John Henry Newman developed in his Essay on the Development of Doctrine. Cardinal Kasper would in intellectual honesty have to respond to Fr. Barron that Newman’s criteria have nothing to do with his proposition.  He would respond that he is not advocating changing the Church’s teaching, the doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage and its sacramentality.  He is advocating a change in pastoral practice on behalf of those who are divorced and "remarried" Catholics to receive Holy Communion.

Change in pastoral practice has nothing to do with Newman’s understanding of development of doctrine.  If Newman were with us today, he would tell us that what is going on is the ever encroaching of that “liberalism in religion” that he so strenuously fought against his whole life, as an Anglican and then as a Catholic.  Cardinal Kasper is the first to affirm, very often, that he fully supports the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage based on Jesus’ own clear words in the Gospel of Matthew.  What he is proposing is a change in pastoral practice that would essentially, according to common sense, absolutely contradict the Church’s teaching on the Sacraments of Marriage, Penance, and the Eucharist. 

This has nothing to do with development of doctrine.  It has everything to do with a violation of the principle of non-contradiction and the cynical cleavage advocated between doctrine and praxis.  For this enterprise, Newman cannot be invoked as a possible support.   

He would be, and is, shocked by the thought.

Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, DPhil

[Hat tip to JM]

On ignoring doctrine, or trying to "develop" it

I read two disturbing pieces online this morning. The first was Maureen Mullarkey's "King Francis" (First Things, October 24, 2014), which related (via Paul Anthony McGavin) how Pope Francis, in his morning homilies at Saint Martha's during the Synod "hammered away every day at the zealots of tradition, those who load unbearable burdens onto men." In the early days of his pontificate, she writes, "the romance of Francis was stoked with charming stories of his humility. He scrambled his own eggs, tied his own shoes, took the bus. An ordinary Joe, just like you and me but more so. We saw nothing in the press like this:

On communion for the divorced and remarried, it is already known how the pope thinks. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he authorized the “curas villeros,” the priests sent to the peripheries, to give communion to all, although four fifths of the couples were not even married. And as pope, by telephone or letter he is not afraid of encouraging some of the faithful who have remarried to receive communion without worrying about it, right away, even without those “penitential paths under the guidance of the diocesan bishop” projected by some at the synod, and without issuing any denials when the news of his actions comes out.

"...What bewilders me here is the precipitous end-run being made around collegiality and subsidiarity, with scant regard for the trust of the faithful in the validity of the Church’s essential moral suasion on essential matters. ... The law of unintended consequences is inexorable."

The second was by the Very Rev. [sic.] Robert Barron, "Appraising Kasper’s Proposal via John Henry Newman" (Patheos, October 30, 2014), in which he seriously suggests taking Blessed Cardinal Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine as a template for reconsidering Cardinal Kasper's proposal for Communion for the divorced and civilly "re-married" adulterers:

Well, let’s consider the proposal made by Cardinal Walter Kasper regarding communion for the divorced and re-married. Is it an authentic development or a corruption of Catholic moral teaching and practice? Might I suggest that all of the disputants in that argument take a step back and assess the matter using Cardinal Newman’s criteria? Would Newman be opposed in principle to change in this regard? Not necessarily, for he knew that to live is to change. Would he therefore enthusiastically embrace what Cardinal Kasper has proposed? Not necessarily, for it might represent a corruption. As the conversation continues to unfold over the coming months, I think all sides would benefit from a careful reading of On the Development of Christian Doctrine.

Fr. Barron is (sort of) careful not to come right out and say that Kaspar's suggestion might not be a corruption but an authentic development. But it's clearly an invitation to pause, sit down, and consider this possibility. Here, if you squint at this just right, it almost looks like it could be ... Catholic.

Related: Gloria TV report on Cardinal Marx, the German bishops, and the "principle of gradualism."

Postscript: The first commentor in the combox below gently suggests that I may be mis-reading Fr. Barron here. I heartily hope and pray that this is the case. If this is so, then I wish that he were more explicit in saying exactly what he means rather than hedging his views in repeated circumlocutions. Come to think of it, this is precisely what wearied me about the recent Synod, as well as what wearies me about the Holy Father. Fr. Blake goes so far as to say: "I must admit I still don't understand Francis. Is he the greatest thing since unsliced bread, a cunning old Jesuit, a conservative, a trad, a prophet, a fool or even the anti-Christ; a breath of fresh-air or the stench from the tomb of those rather detestable men who surrounded the Blessed Paul VI and added to his suffering?" -- certainly more than I would say, but you get the point: Does Fr. Barron really believe that hell could be empty? If he's willing to entertain that possibility, then what else might be be willing to consider? If his article here is a defence of Church teaching, I, for one, found it confusing. What we need today is clarity -- all the more because of those who do not even know what the Church actually teaches.

I groan with the weariness of all this, as I'm sure many of you do. Oremus.

Related: Fr. Richard G. Cipolla, "No, Newman cannot be used to defend Kasper" (Musings, November 2, 2014).

Remembering Blessed Cardinal Newman

"I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion." (Rorate Caeli, October 10, 2014)

We cannot let the celebration of the day in which the memory of Blessed John Henry Newman is particularly remembered go by without recalling his remarkable prescience about the current condition of Western culture and the current situation in the Church, a situation that is itself a continuation of the troubled years since the Second Vatican Council.  The great irony—and Newman always understood irony—is that he has been invoked as the “absent Father” of that Council with respect to the role of the laity in the Church, religious freedom, and collegiality.  Those who invoke him in this way have obviously never read much Newman, for he would understand that  the Church today is in the parlous state in which she finds herself precisely because those to whom her ministry has been entrusted have swallowed and digested that noxious weed decried by Newman and are patting their stomachs in self-congratulation, having succumbed to that “liberalism in religion” whose heart is what Newman called the “anti-dogmatic principle”.

What is the current attempt to reduce doctrine to praxis if not an example of that liberalism against which Newman fought so strenuously in his own day?  What is the gobble-de-gook of prelates pontificating about mercy and the "law of graduality",  and the lack of true virile fatherhood among the shepherds, if not examples of that sentimentality that Newman detested and that is the acid of religion? 

One can never read Newman’s Bigletto Speech too many times.  This was in a sense his last will and testament, for he who had been shunned in so many ways by the Catholic hierarchy throughout his Catholic life was given the honor of a Cardinal’s hat in the twilight of his life, and what he said in his acceptance of that honor from Pope Leo XIII, is chillingly prescient.  And this not only with reference to the current situation of the Church.  Newman knew as few today understand that the creeping papalism of the past century has been and is being enabled not by traditionalism but rather by liberalism. Here is the voice of the prophet for our times from his Bigletto speech.

In a long course of years I have made many mistakes. I have nothing of that high perfection which belongs to the writings of Saints, viz., that error cannot be found in them; but what I trust that I may claim all through what I have written, is this,—an honest intention, an absence of private ends, a temper of obedience, a willingness to be corrected, a dread of error, a desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine mercy, a fair measure of success. And, I rejoice to say, to one great mischief I have from the first opposed myself. For thirty, forty, fifty years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion. Never did Holy Church need champions against it more sorely than now, when, alas! it is an error overspreading, as a snare, the whole earth; and on this great occasion, when it is natural for one who is in my place to look out upon the world, and upon Holy Church as in it, and upon her future, it will not, I hope, be considered out of place, if I renew the protest against it which I have made so often…. Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy… Such is the state of things in England, and it is well that it should be realised by all of us; but it must not be supposed for a moment that I am afraid of it. I lament it deeply, because I foresee that it may be the ruin of many souls; but I have no fear at all that it really can do aught of serious harm to the Word of God, to Holy Church, to our Almighty King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Faithful and True, or to His Vicar on earth. Christianity has been too often in what seemed deadly peril, that we should fear for it any new trial now. So far is certain; on the other hand, what is uncertain, and in these great contests commonly is uncertain, and what is commonly a great surprise, when it is witnessed, is the particular mode by which, in the event, Providence rescues and saves His elect inheritance. Sometimes our enemy is turned into a friend; sometimes he is despoiled of  that special virulence of evil which was so threatening; sometimes he falls to pieces of himself; sometimes he does just so much as is beneficial, and then is removed. Commonly the Church has nothing more to do than to go on in her own proper duties, in confidence and peace; to stand still and to see the salvation of God. 

Mansueti hereditabunt terram,
 et delectabuntur in multitudine pacis.

Rutler on Newman, good stuff

From George Rutler's Beyond Modernity(Ignatius Press, 1987). As Guy Noir rightly describes it:

... a tour de force of theologizing historically and philosophically in a manner inspiring [and completely unlike so many] dry similar attempts. If C.S Lewis was "a Mind Awake," Rutler is "a Mind in the Hopper"! This ought to be a preface to some sort of Newman theology, since it easily bests other explanations I have read of him. I was very glad to find it buried in ETWNs impressive reading archive. Along with John Senior's chapter, it makes Newman seem relevant and not Victorian. Written too long before the canonization ...

Indeed. And so here is the choice excerpt, Fr. George W. Rutler's "Newman and the Power of Personality" (EWTN document library, posted 1996):

The many accounts of Newman's manner, his look, and above all his voice, might make us think that we have read enough. And we certainly know by now that his voice was as silver and his style crystal. But there are those, among whom is anyone of reason, who would want more; and this because, as he stooped somewhat in the pulpit and dimmed the lamp before a sea of undergraduates who were missing their dinner to be there, the silver of the voice mellowed the way gold is meant to; and his pellucidity was less like a sensible equation and more like a sensual form. This is a mystery of Newman, and one should want to learn more about it, for it is the mystery common to all persons: personality.

As a working definition, too slight to fill out a whole system, human personality is the vernacular evidence of the speechless soul, the natural expression of the supernatural endowments in will and intellect, much as graciousness is the declaration of grace. Man is an unfinished being, but he is not mute. A greatness of Newman is the way he represents the personality properly as a spiritual deduction and shows how its development, as any art, attains full worth when it is faithful to a spiritual theme. As every agnostic painting called "Mother and Child" is a surreptitious Madonna and Christ, so the "real character" begrudgingly respected by the cynic is a clandestine ikon.

Any list of Newman's inventive gifts to the modern critic must in some way include the illustration of how the higher reference perdures even as the cultural climate obscures it; into lengthening shadows of behaviorism, he pokes the glimmer of a thing good in content and holy in potential. He calls it personality and describes it in such a torrent of allusion that one would think the only perfectly mature personality has to be that of the saint.

To the latest catch-phrase about "growing as a person," Newman would reply that there is no other way to grow, and as for "getting in touch with your feelings," he would say precisely that there is no other way to touch. Actually, the Victorian Liberals anticipated the muddled thought behind the jargon, although they spoke it more elegantly; they shared the mistaken idea of perfection as endless growth rather then the attainment of an end, so that the substance of perfection is "not a having and a lasting but a growing and a becoming." That expression is not from the latest suburban sensitivity session; it belongs to Matthew Arnold. Now everyone knows that persona is defective until it obliges But this is common sense only because there is an uncommon reason behind it. If the Liberal optimist sees the personality as a puzzle, the Christian knows it to be a mystery. For a mystery does not contradict reason; it compels the reason to acknowledge a depth beyond observable reference. Newman compares mystery to an island which seems to be alone and wafted in the water but which is the summit of a submerged mountain range. A mystery, we should then say, is the sort of mountain you do not climb, but descend, to conquer. This is the principle of depth psychology to which God shows a favor by his Incarnation. The self knows only part of itself until it acknowledges the unseen self. The cry of the isolated is: "I want to be me." Newman would persist: "Who else can you be?" But only the true principles beneath becoming and being, underlying contingency and its source, can make the man on an island a man on a mountain, like St. Paul: "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20)." This is the descent from the topical ego to the fundament of being. Newman's own life models what that means.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's prospective feas day

Today is August 11th, the anniversary of Cardinal Newman's death in 1890. I'm assuming that when he is canonized, this will become his feast day.

"Best Blog Post Title of 2013 Thus Far!"

Thus saith the Noir Guy ... check it out: http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/12/31/newman-family-values-3/

[Hat tip to JM]

New video of Cardinal Newman

I'm grateful to "New Catholic" for calling this video to my attention, and there's more about it and the Campion project right here.

Nevertheless, I'm curious what became of the feature-length film that was being promoted two years ago about the life of lately beatified Newman in which F. Murray Abraham (Salieri in the film Amadeus) was slated to play Newman. It looked to be a decent film from the trailer and promotional material I saw back then.

Here is a trailer of that earlier film, The Unseen World (although the video quality is poor), and interview with the director, Liana Marabini. Anyone know what became of this film?




Related: Condor Pictures promotions.

CUA Pres. Garvey's inaugural address relates knowledge to virtue

"Intellect and Virtue: The Idea of a Catholic University" is the title of President John Garvey's inaugural lecture at The Catholic University of America, delivered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Jan. 25, 2011. He reverses the relationship ordinarily assumed by academics and intellectuals to subsist between intellect and virtue, and he leans particularly on a number of insights from Blessed John Henry Newman at a couple of points.

[Hat tip to Sr. Maria Guadalupe, Spiritus Sanctus Academy, Plymouth, MI]

Cardinal Newman: The Urban Legend

by Michael Rose

We’re sure you’ve heard the term “urban legend” — that genre of folklore that gets told and retold as an account of actual incidents and that comes to be believed simply by virtue of its dissemination and perpetuation. Stories of alligators living in the sewers of New York City and ghost hitchhikers haunting the highways are some of the classics of the twentieth century. In recent years, urban legends have gained steam and amplification through news stories and the Internet, despite their apocryphal origins. One particularly scurrilous urban legend of the day involves Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and the particularities of his burial.

According to the legend, Newman requested that he be buried next to fellow Oratorian Fr. Ambrose St. John because he was his homosexual lover — or “boyfriend,” if you will. That might sound like pure rot to your ears — because it is — but the legend has gained traction among those who want to believe that Newman, arguably the most brilliant and erudite of all Anglican converts, clung to sexual peccadilloes until and even after his death. Gay activists, for example, are enraptured by the opportunity to either point a finger at an ostensibly holy man and say: hypocrite, he! or elevate him to the status of a gay icon.

As you might guess, the September 19 beatification of John Henry Newman by Pope Benedict XVI occasioned the perpetuation of this myth — not only through whispers from ear to ear, but also by certain less-than-scrupulous media outlets.

Fr. Dermot Fenlon, an Oratorian formerly of New­man’s home Oratory in Birmingham, England, has spelled out the facts in an effort to debunk the burgeoning myth. In an article in the September issue of Standpoint magazine, titled “Friends & Saints: Newman’s Last Mystery,” Fr. Fenlon explains that Cardinal Newman left specific instructions that he be buried near Birmingham in ground reserved for the priests and brothers of his Oratory. In a specific and strongly worded request in his will, dated July 23, 1876, Newman wrote, “I wish with all my heart to be buried in Father Ambrose St John’s grave — and I give this as my last, imperative will.”

That part of the legend is true. Cardinal Newman did indeed make such a request. He even added a postscript to his will in 1881, reiterating in even stronger language his seemingly peculiar request. Without any further knowledge of the facts surrounding the request, one could easily jump to untoward conclusions — but those conclusions would be both hasty and wrong. The request needs to be put into context — the context of the time, and the context of Newman’s life and his personality. And that’s exactly what Fr. Fenlon does.

Just as the faithful of early Rome wanted to be buried near the saints in the consecrated ground of the catacombs outside the city, Newman wanted to be buried near the man he looked to in his day as the one priest who most fully lived a life of heroic virtue — defending the Catholic faith against the hostilities of nineteenth-century England. Newman had a keen understanding of the role of the saints in the Church and a “deep sensitivity to the spirit of a place, its genius loci,” particularly of the cemetery where the Oratorian fathers were buried. According to Fr. Fenlon, just as St. Gregory, out of devotion to St. Benignus, wanted to be buried ad sanctos, near that saint, so too Newman wanted to be buried near a saint: “He believed not only that Father Ambrose St. John was a saint, but that he had become a saint and given his life through the stress of overwork.” Further, Newman felt that it was Fr. St. John who helped him in his intellectual life and ministry to put to rest “fears and suspicions rooted in centuries of bitter mutual recrimination between Protestants and Catholics.” Between 1850 and 1853, Newman had helped to protect the Catholic Church in England from a potentially destructive resurgence of anti-popery. Newman felt that without the labors of Fr. St. John, his own work would not have been possible. In Fr. Fenlon’s words, “Newman wanted permanently to leave a sign, redressing the balance, pointing away from himself, towards his community and under the one Cross.”

These are most obviously not the sentiments of an old man who had a homosexual funny bone for a confrere. Nevertheless, many modern folk are simply not spiritually equipped to understand the bond of true fraternal Christian love, whether it be between those of the same or the opposite sex. They view the world — and especially Christians — with a suspicious eye, rejecting even the possibility that a man or a woman could be a saint, could have lived a life of heroic virtue, and could serve effectively as a model of the Christian life for our day as well as for future generations.

Nevertheless, with the Pope’s beatification ceremony in September, the Church has, to the consternation of many, given Newman her seal of approval. Next step: canonization.

[Michael Rose is Associate Editor of New Oxford Review. The foregoing article, "Cardinal Newman: The Urban Legend" was originally published as a New Oxford Note in New Oxford Review (November 2010), and is reproduced here by kind permission of New Oxford Review, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706.]

Related:

See the video trailer linked in the foregoing post (below), "Newman film coming in 2011" (Musings, December 5, 2010), which indicates that the forthcoming film on Newman, The Unseen World, addresses the slanderous character defamation of Newman referenced in the present post.