John Cornwell in the Times explains Why Cardinal Newman is no saint. The Catholic Church plans to make Cardinal Newman a saint when the Pope comes to Britain. A private Vatican document supposedly proves he was responsible for a miracle of healing. It shows no such thing.
Roderick Strange, also in the Times, writes that John Henry Newman’s fidelity to his calling should inspire us all.
Earlier this month the Archbishop of Canterbury gave a sermon at an ecumenical service held at Charterhouse, London, to commemorate the 475th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of St John Houghton and his companions.
Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon to commemorate Carthusian Martyrs
This week he delivered a lecture entitled “Enriching the arguments: the refugee contribution to British life”.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times: Blowing on the embers of society.
Stephen Tomkins writes in The Guardian that Christian parties take a hammering. Christians in this country want real politicians, not the amateurs who lead the pitiful ‘Christian parties’.
Michael Nazir-Ali, also in The Guardian, writes that It’s not just the economy, stupid. Amid pressure to slash budgets, the new government must not leave the spiritual and moral agenda out of its plans.
“The final irony is that Newman himself was utterly opposed to the idea of his own beatification. To thwart attempts to make a cult of his remains, he ordered them to be buried in a rich compost so that his corpse would decompose rapidly – an action that cheated the saint-makers. When the clerical grave-diggers attempted an exhumation to retrieve his relics in October 2008, they found nothing except the coffin’s brass plate and handles.” – John Cornwell, ‘The Sunday Times’ – This really begs the question as to why, when the eminent Anglican/RC cleric himself expressly did not want… Read more »
I think the veneration of relics is fine, even against the express wishes of the person involved, but the RC canonization process seems seriously off track. Especially in recent decades it seems to be run on ideological, rather than spiritual, grounds. Of course, my own Church’s process is pretty flawed, too (witness Holy Women, Holy Men). I’m beginning to think that the bureaucratic approach to sainthood needs to change, and wish I knew more about the Eastern Orthodox practice.
“The question will naturally suggest itself to the reader, whether the miracles recorded in these narratives, especially those contained in the Life of St. Walburga, are to be received as matters of fact; and in this day, and under our present circumstances, we can only reply, that there is no reason why they should not be. They are the kind of facts proper to ecclesiastical history, just as instances of sagacity and daring, personal prowess or crime, are the facts proper to secular history. And if the tendency of credulity or superstition to exaggerate and invent creates a difficulty in… Read more »
Local congregations should decide who should be named a saint. The “proof of a miracle” should be dropped entirely as it calls the entire process into question. What is a saint? A disciple of Jesus who tries perhaps, a bit harder to live by Jesus’ example. Rome should really have nothing to with making saints.
Rick Allen; What exactly are you trying to say?
My theology of sainthood is derived mostly from “I sing a song of the saints of God…”
FRS – I think what Rick Allen is saying is that there may be the possibility that a flawed religious mindset operates as a conduit for saintly facts within the Church, just as there may be partisan spin in the political world, but that this should not diminish or occlude our apperception and consideration of objective relevance when making the case for saints. For example, in judging whether Tony Blair was an effective politician, do we use the evidence only that the Labour Party indulged in a novel and creative way of framing news, or that ultimately the ideology of… Read more »
Cynthia, I love that hymn, and do impromptu concerts featuring it and Ein Feste Burg in the shower and the car. It’s a pity “Saints” got saddled with the label as being for children.
I think, first, if we are to discuss Newman, we should do so with respect to what he himself said and believed, with reference to his own work. There is, incidentally, an excellent resource for this at http://www.newmanreader.org/works/index.html Cornwell quotes a few lines, unattributed, from Newman, that “nothing comes of miracles.” The quotation comes from the sixth sermon in the eighth volume of the Parochial and Plain Sermons, from a sermon entitled “Miracles no Remedy for Unbelief.” The sermon is certainly worth reading in its entirety. The point, of course, is not that Newman thought nothing of miracles, or disbelieved,… Read more »
Rick: my favourite Newman line is from the Essay on Development: “Here below, to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” That seems to me a great motto both for individuals and institutions.
I think that the moves towards acceptance of women and openly gay people at all levels in the Church are good examples of Newman’s idea of organic development of doctrine.
I think there is a general perception that Newman’s “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine” is simply an unabashed hymn to change. But in fact the problem set by the Essay is how to judge change, how to distinguish genuine developments from corruptions, which will destroy a faith. One of Newman’s criteria was this: “As developments which are preceded by definite indications have a fair presumption in their favour, so those which do but contradict and reverse the course of doctrine which has been developed before them, and out of which they spring, are certainly corrupt.” Newman’s notion of… Read more »
‘The point, of course, is not that Newman thought nothing of miracles, or disbelieved, but that miracles alone will not move the unbeliever. As the parable concludes–if they won’t believe Moses and the prophets, why should they believe someone who comes back from the dead? Hardness of heart will not be overcome by a thousand miracles.’ I regard this approach to (Other) people as unfortunate. To label people as ‘unbelievers’ because of their opinions, convictions and journey (to date)seems to me a kind of not so subtle put-down. But why ? Are you so afraid of their convictions, their discoveries… Read more »
Rick Allen: “A development expands, illuminates, illustrates, meditates upon a doctrine.”
Exactly: that is precisely what we see happening at the moment. For example, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor freeman, male nor female” was a verse whose doctrine was especially illustrated at the time of the abolition of slavery, and is being so again now.