As a young student at the London Oratory School, John McAleer would study next to a shelf of Cardinal John Henry Newman's books, but until he reached college, "Newman" was just a name and a statue in his school.McAleer, now a 21-year-old senior at Trinity College in Dublin, joined about 120 of the world's foremost Newman scholars Aug. 5-7 at the Newman Association of America's annual conference in Pittsburgh to present a paper on the cardinal's devotion to St. Philip Neri, founder of the Congregation of the Oratory.
This year's program, hosted by Pittsburgh's National Institute for Newman Studies, sought to celebrate another facet of Cardinal Newman's legacy: In September, he will be beatified in Birmingham, England, where he began his famous oratory and where he died in 1890.
In addition to being one of the most well-known people to be received into the Catholic Church in the 19th century, Cardinal Newman left behind teachings on the laity and doctrine that influenced the Second Vatican Council's proceedings. He also founded the English community of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.
The diversity of Cardinal Newman's intellectual legacy -- his apologetics, his theological reflections on the role of laity and the development of doctrine, his view of the mission of the Catholic university, the significance of his spiritual novels and poetry -- was reflected in the conference program.
Yet, Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik, who celebrated an evening Mass Aug. 5 to open the conference, encouraged those present to look beyond Cardinal Newman's reputation as a scholar to recognize him as a man of profound holiness.
Writing in the Pittsburgh Catholic, the diocesan newspaper, Bishop Zubik said: "When so many of the great thinkers and doers of the 19th century are little more than a footnote to history now, Cardinal Newman, soon to be Blessed John Newman, stands today more universally known than in his lifetime. And that is because of his holiness. As the church formally recognizes in September, his sanctity."
For McAleer, both sides of Cardinal Newman are inspirational.
"He was a champion of truth in the face of adversity," he said. "He has impressed upon me the importance of holiness in my life. The challenge of holiness is not just one moment, but the challenge of a lifetime."
At the conference, perhaps the greatest example of the challenge of holiness came from Deacon Jack Sullivan of the Archdiocese of Boston.
His inexplicable recovery from a crippling spinal condition after he prayed for Cardinal Newman's intercession was accepted as the miracle needed for the churchman's beatification. In general, a second miracle confirmed by the church is needed for canonization.
Deacon Sullivan, whose spinal cord had at one time been crushed to the diameter of a pea, recounted his story in remarks at the opening Mass. Though the Vatican confirmed his healing as miraculous last year, he emphasized that the Christian life is more than miracles.
"True religion has a beautiful side and a severe side," Deacon Sullivan said, and while we all would prefer to deepen our faith without painful trials or moments of self-denial, "we cannot enjoy the beautiful side without passing through what is severe."
Cardinal Newman knew severity well, Deacon Sullivan said. Born in 1801 in England and raised an Anglican, the Englishman is an example of humility and perseverance in the face of challenge.
As an Anglican priest and Oxford professor, John Newman was drawn to Catholicism even as he sought to resolve conflicts within the Anglican tradition. Eventually, his Oxford Movement -- which he founded to bring the Anglican Church back to its Catholic roots -- led him to become a Catholic in 1845. He was ordained a Catholic priest two years later.
But in anti-Catholic England, the idea of such a well-known theologian becoming a Catholic was beyond a scandal.
For the next 20 years, his life was marked by obscurity, disappointment and turmoil. A few ill-chosen words against an anti-Catholic zealot led to a libel suit, which then-Father Newman lost and narrowly avoided prison. Efforts to create a university in Ireland -- during which he wrote his classic "The Idea of a University" -- ended in failure.
Asked to direct a new English translation of the Bible, he was dropped from the project in favor of bishops from the United States. Attempts to create a magazine for educated Catholic laity led to conflicts with British bishops, forcing him to resign in disgrace. Plans to create an oratory at Oxford were dashed.
"O how forlorn and dreary has been my course since I have been a Catholic!" he wrote in his journal in 1863. "Since I have been a Catholic, I seem to myself to have had nothing but failure, personally."
But he always persevered in his faith. In 1864, he published "Apologia Pro Vita Sua," defending his decision to join the Catholic Church. It is considered one of the great spiritual autobiographies of Christian history. His writings on education influenced a generation of U.S. educators, and Newman campus ministry centers at colleges nationwide are named for him.
He was named a cardinal in 1879. He died Aug. 11, 1890, at age 89.
His motto as a cardinal, "cor ad cor loquitur," translates as "heart speaks to heart." Even as they reflected on the ways that Cardinal Newman's writings continue to influence the church, participants in the Pittsburgh conference readily testified about how he is still speaking to their hearts as well.
Father Ian Ker of Oxford University, perhaps the world's foremost Newman authority and a conference keynote speaker, said that after so many years of steeping himself in his writings, the cardinal's voice always seems to find its way into his preaching and influences his prayer life.
SIC: The Pilot