In early January Cardinal José Saraiva Martins announced that the beatification of John Henry Newman was imminent.He added, “Personally I wish his beatification to happen very soon because it would be very important at this moment for the path of ecumenical dialogue.”
I found some grounds for optimism when reading the chapter “Seeking Church Unity” in Monsignor Roderick Strange’s book John Henry Newman — A Mind Alive. He acknowledges a personal debt to Newman, to whose life and writings he was introduced as a seminarian in Rome.
The range and depth of Newman’s writings have continued to exert an influence on Catholics and among Anglicans even after Newman was received into the Catholic Church in October 1845.
Since that “parting of friends”, many others, including myself, have taken that same spiritual journey, a movement towards unity of faith and doctrine. When Newman became a Catholic his Anglican friend Dr Pusey, said, “If anything could open their eyes to what is good in us, or soften in us any wrong prejudices against them, it would be the presence of such an one, nurtured and grown to ripeness in our Church, and now removed to theirs.”
Perhaps something akin to this was in Cardinal Martin’s mind when he spoke of “the path of ecumenical dialogue”. This debate is developed by Roderick Strange, acknowledging his debt to the late Father Stephen Dessain. Strange recalls that Newman wrote, “The Church of England has been the instrument of Providence in conferring great benefits upon me.”
There can be few converts to Catholicism who would not want to endorse and affirm that appreciation. Every convert carries “things old and new”, and to some extent we are interpreters and the builders of bridges.
There is a call to realism “about the causes of division”. Newman confessed his “astonishment that I could have ever imagined (the Church of England) to be a portion of the Catholic Church”.
One would hope that other converts might be as reluctant as Newman to cause offence, mindful of the place that the national church has in the life of England. Yet there is a plain duty to speak the truth in love, and equally to hear the other’s response. Dr Strange suggests that in Newman’s day “the lines were drawn more starkly” and since then there has been the more “nuanced recognition supplied by the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on ecumenism of a communion between separated Christians which is real though imperfect”.
Yes, Monsignor, but . . . . There have been developments since then in Anglican practice, order and teaching in morals that have widened the gap. Rome has a centre of unity and a focus of authority. Our Anglican brothers and sisters are so separated among themselves, and authority is so dispersed and diverse, that the fragmentation and the fissiparous tendency that marks Protestantism are now clearly features of Anglican life. Perhaps the role of Newman is to help Anglicans come to a sense of their history, and the Tradition from which they are drawn.
Newman wrote: “The Church must be prepared for converts, as well as converts prepared for the Church.” He was not blind to Catholic defects. Facing up to the truth is a prerequisite for genuine ecumenism. We who would welcome others should welcome them into a community of sinners, who are nevertheless striving for perfection, a people called to holiness in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Newman was concerned that in any ecumenical dialogue there should be “a complete and balanced account of Christian truth”. Strange, who is Rector of the Pontifical Beda College, Rome, and a regular columnist in The Times, is well equipped to develop this, and he does so with a persuasive skill. Clearly some of his chapters have a previous existence as lectures, or journal articles, yet they are woven together with sensitive personal reflection.
Classical texts have what has been called an “excess of meaning”. Briefly we may say that the power and impact of the text resonates through its different readerships in different ages and places. Strange’s reading of Newman’s autobiography, Apologia pro Vita Sua, has lived with him from his first reading in Rome, then as he shared it and other works with Father Dessain at Oxford, and then with other Newman scholars. We find in this new book evidence of “A Mind Alive”, Newman’s vital thoughts and feline graces, charmingly evident in the inspiration given to the Rector of the Beda.
Newman was buried at Rednal in Birmingham in 1890. In 2008, a few weeks ago, his grave was desecrated. What has become of England? The “green and pleasant land” has a great need of mission and evangelisation. Perhaps Newman, the saintly man, will inspire a radical ecumenism where “heart speaks to heart”, and we may in the words of Strange, share “an unequivocal trust which reaches out widely and is deeply felt. Even then progress may well be slow.” But it is surely worth the effort?
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