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   BEATIFICATION OF CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 19 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI left the apostolic nunciature in   
   London this morning and, at 8.30 a.m., boarded a helicopter which took him to   
   Birmingham for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman.   
      
   John Henry Newman, one of the great Christian intellectuals of the nineteenth   
   century, was born in London in 1801. His spiritual quest having begun in   
   adolescence, he later went on to study theology at Oxford University.   
   Subsequently he became an Anglican pastor, a fellow of Oriel College, and   
   leader of the Oxford Movement which studied the Catholic roots of the faith in   
   England. In 1842, while writing his "Essay on the Development of Christian   
   Doctrine", he began to mature his conversion to Catholicism. He was admitted   
   into the Catholic Church in 1845 and ordained a Catholic priest in Rome on 1   
   June 1847. Following his ordination, and with the encouragement of Pope Pius   
   IX, he founded the first Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England. In 1852 he was   
   appointed rector of the Catholic University of Dublin, Ireland, a post he held   
   until 1854. Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in 1879 and he died in 1890 at   
   the Oratory of Edgbaston. The process for his beatification began in 1958.   
   Newman's miraculous intercession in the cure of dean Jack Sullivan, who   
   suffered a serious complaint of the spinal column, was officially recognised   
   and approved by Benedict XVI in July 2009.   
      
   The Pope's helicopter landed in Birmingham at 9.30 a.m. He then travelled by   
   car to Cofton Park in the city's Rednal district, very near Cardinal Newman's   
   tomb. Having travelled round the area by popemobile, greeting the 70,000 people   
   present, the Holy Father listened to a greeting from Archbishop Bernard Longley   
   of Birmingham then celebrated Mass for the beatification of John Henry Newman.   
      
   In his homily, before turning his attention to the new blessed, the Pope   
   recalled how "this particular Sunday also marks a significant moment in the   
   life of the British nation, as it is the day chosen to commemorate the   
   seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain. For me as one who lived and   
   suffered through the dark days of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is deeply   
   moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to recall how many of your   
   fellow citizens sacrificed their lives, courageously resisting the forces of   
   that evil ideology. ... Seventy years later, we recall with shame and horror   
   the dreadful toll of death and destruction that war brings in its wake, and we   
   renew our resolve to work for peace and reconciliation wherever the threat of   
   conflict looms.   
      
   "Yet there is another, more joyful reason why this is an auspicious day for   
   Great Britain, for the Midlands, for Birmingham", he added. "It is the day that   
   sees Cardinal John Henry Newman formally raised to the altars and declared   
   blessed".   
      
   "England has a long tradition of martyr saints, whose courageous witness has   
   sustained and inspired the Catholic community here for centuries. Yet it is   
   right and fitting that we should recognise today the holiness of a confessor, a   
   son of this nation who, while not called to shed his blood for the Lord,   
   nevertheless bore eloquent witness to Him in the course of a long life devoted   
   to the priestly ministry, and especially to preaching, teaching, and writing.   
   He is worthy to take his place in a long line of saints and scholars from these   
   islands, St. Bede, St. Hilda, St. Aelred, Blessed Duns Scotus, to name but a   
   few".   
      
   "Cardinal Newman's motto, 'Cor ad cor loquitur', or Heart speaks unto heart,   
   gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to   
   holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into   
   intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to   
   prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness".   
      
   "Today's Gospel tells us that no one can be the servant of two masters, and   
   Blessed John Henry's teaching on prayer explains how the faithful Christian is   
   definitively taken into the service of the one true Master, Who alone has a   
   claim to our unconditional devotion. Newman helps us to understand what this   
   means for our daily lives: he tells us that our divine Master has assigned a   
   specific task to each one of us, a 'definite service', committed uniquely to   
   every single person".   
      
   "The definite service to which Blessed John Henry was called involved applying   
   his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the most pressing 'subjects   
   of the day'. His insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into   
   the vital place of revealed religion in civilised society, and into the need   
   for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only of   
   profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and   
   enlighten many all over the world".   
      
   The Holy Father continued his homily by paying "particular tribute" to Cardinal   
   Newman's "vision for education, which has done so much to shape the ethos that   
   is the driving force behind Catholic schools and colleges today. Firmly opposed   
   to any reductive or utilitarian approach, he sought to achieve an educational   
   environment in which intellectual training, moral discipline and religious   
   commitment would come together. The project to found a Catholic University in   
   Ireland provided him with an opportunity to develop his ideas on the subject,   
   and the collection of discourses that he published as 'The Idea of a   
   University' holds up an ideal from which all those engaged in academic   
   formation can continue to learn. ... On this day, ... I pray that, through his   
   intercession and example, all who are engaged in the task of teaching and   
   catechesis will be inspired to greater effort by the vision he so clearly sets   
   before us".   
      
   Finally, Benedict XVI mentioned the "warmth and humanity underlying" the new   
   blessed's "appreciation of the pastoral ministry. ... He lived out that   
   profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people   
   of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded,   
   visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in   
   prison.   
      
   "No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local   
   streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here.   
   One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to   
   rejoice in the Church's solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this   
   much-loved father of souls".   
      
   Following Mass the Pope prayed the Angelus, expressing a special greeting to   
   "the people of Seville, Spain, where, just yesterday, Madre Maria de la   
   Purisima de la Cruz was beatified". May she, he said, "be an inspiration to   
   young women to follow her example of single-minded love of God and neighbour".   
      
   He continued: "When Blessed John Henry Newman came to live in Birmingham, he   
   gave the name 'Maryvale' to his first home here. The Oratory that he founded is   
   dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. And the Catholic   
   University of Ireland he placed under the patronage of Mary, 'Sedes   
   Sapientiae'. In so many ways, he lived his priestly ministry in a spirit of   
   filial devotion to the Mother of God".   
      
   At 12.40 the Pope left Cofton Park and travelled by car to the Oratory of St.   
   Philip Neri in Birmingham, where the cardinal lived from his conversion until   
   his death on 11 August 1890. There Benedict XVI visited the blessed's room,   
   which has now been transformed into a museum. He then went on to Birmingham's   
   Oscott College where he had lunch.   
   PV-UNITED KINGDOM/VIS 20100919 (1280)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
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