Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Journey to the UK: September 16-19, 2010

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Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal John Henry Newman

In 2005 a small book was published by Catholic journalist and broadcaster Peter Jennings, entitled, simply: Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman.

Zenit News ran a brief article at the time of its publication, from which we gather the following description:

"Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman" was presented to an audience of Curia members, journalists and pontifical university students during an upright English, yet relaxed Roman affair.

The glossy book is filled with select writings from both Church figures and other leading English clergy, and is edited by longtime religious commentator Peter Jennings.

Produced in only six months (from the time of the papal election), Jennings' book clearly presents Benedict XVI's keen interest in this convert from Anglicanism which dates back to his seminary days.

Declared venerable in 1991 for heroic virtues, the cardinal's effect on the current Holy Father is recognized throughout the writings in the new book.

These include introductory addresses given by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the symposium "John Henry Newman, Lover of Truth," to his address on conscience and truth, presented at a bishops workshop in Texas.

Jennings told me how he tried to enhance the in-depth chronology of Newman's life by using previously unpublished pictures like that of Newman in his role as founder of the English Oratory of St. Philip Neri, from the archives of the Birmingham Oratory.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the book is only available through various bookstores in the UK -- although some copies may be purchased through Amazon's UK website.

On August 26, 2010, it was announced that Peter Jennings was given the task by the Bishop's Conference of Wales & Scotland of compiling the official record of the historic State Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom, to be published by the Catholic Truth Society in October:

Peter Jennings said: “It is an honour and privilege to have been invited to compile the official record of this historic State Visit of Pope Benedict XVI, culminating as it does with the beatification of Cardinal Newman.”

Mr Jennings added: “I was baptised by the eminent Newman scholar Fr Stephen Dessain in the Newman Memorial Church situated next to the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Edgbaston, where Cardinal Newman lived from 1852 until his death on 11 August 1890, aged 89. I have worked on the Newman Cause since the Holy Year of 1975, helping to raise the world-wide profile of Cardinal Newman not only as a great academic, theologian, writer and preacher but in particular as a holy pastoral parish priest who looked after the sick and poor in Birmingham.”

See Also

• The Influence of John Henry Newman on Benedict XVI, by Tracey Rowland. ABC Religion and Ethics | 16 Sep 2010. "Few English speakers seem to realise the extent to which Newman influenced German Catholic thought in the first half of the twentieth century, and particularly the theology of Joseph Ratzinger."
• Newman, Sophie Scholl, and Joseph Ratzinger - Carl Olson (Insight Scoop) observes a personal connection between Cardinal Newman, Joseph Ratzinger and German heroine Sophie Scholl, martyred for resisting the Nazis.
• Ratzinger the Professor: the influence of Cardinal Newman - The Cause for the Canonisation of Cardinal Newman reports on a new book by Gianni Valente, published in Italian: Ratzinger Professore: Gli anni dello studio e dell’insegnamento nel ricordo dei colleghi e degli allievi (1946-1977) (Milan: Edizioni San Paolo, s.r.l., 2008) [‘Ratzinger the Professor: the years of study and teaching as recalled by his colleagues and students’] -- which addresses Newman's influence on Ratzinger's theological development.

See Pope Benedict in the UK for ongoing roundups of articles, commentary and information on the Pope's September 16-19 visit to England and Scotland. See Cardinal John Henry Newman online archive for news, articles and books on the thought of England's most renowned theologian.

Spinning John Henry Newman and Pope Benedict's visit to the UK

In an August 2 interview with Asia News, John Milbank, Anglican theologian and professor of Religion, Politics and Ethics, at the University of Nottingham, perceives the papal visit as a chance to revitalize the Pope's image in the eyes of the British media and fostering goodwill between Catholics and Anglicans.

However, I expect Milbank's spin on things may raise a few eyebrows in disbelief. For instance, he heralds Anglicanorum Coetibus -- which provides a canonical framework to integrate groups of disaffected Anglicans seeking to swim the Tiber into the Roman fold -- as "a new recognition by the Papacy of the validity of the Anglican tradition, beginning to equate it more with Eastern Orthodoxy", creating "a fluidity between the two communions that will help to lead to full intercommunion in the future."

Likewise, Milbank welcomes Benedict's beatification of the Anglican convert to Catholicism, as a "positive development":

Anglicans by no means feel that Newman ‘betrayed’ them by becoming a Catholic. On the contrary, they are very proud of Newman’s double contribution to both modern Anglicanism and to modern Catholicism. Newman is a sign of unity: he belongs to both Churches and I am sure that our prayers to God through him will aid us in the cause of Church unity, as in the revival of a Christian Britain.

William Oddie takes issue with Milbank in the Catholic Herald ("Sorry, Professor Milbank, Newman was no ecumenist" August 6, 2010):

The “cause of Church unity”, however, was hardly one ever espoused by Newman, and I fear that Professor Milbank’s mellifluous sentiments are part of a general movement towards setting him up as a somewhat anaemic “plaster saint”.

The fact is that Newman was the very opposite of an ecumenist: he was, in his very bones, a controversialist in such matters. To say that “Newman belonged to both Churches” is absurd: the Catholic Newman didn’t believe that the Established Church was a Church at all, but a mere national institution.

This is how he addressed those of Catholic mind within the Church of England (Difficulties of Anglicans, lecture 4): “You can have no trust in the Establishment or its Sacraments and ordinances. You must leave it, you must secede; you must turn your back upon, you must renounce, what has—not suddenly become, but has now been proved to you to have ever been—an imposture. You must take up your cross and you must go hence.”

Related

• The Conversion of John Henry Newman, by Peter A. Kwasniewski.
• Why John Henry Newman converted to Catholicism, by Michael Davies. AD2000 Vol 14 No 4 (May 2001)

Regular roundups of articles and commentary on Pope Benedict's September papal visit to the UK can be found at benedictintheuk.blogspot.com.

Awkward! - John Knox to welcome Pope Benedict to Scotland!

A lookalike of the Protestant Reformation leader John Knox will welcome Pope Benedict to Scotland. Mike Merrit reports for the Daily Record (UK) July 25, 2010:

The actor has been hired by the Catholic Church to play the leader of Scotland's Protestant Reformation in a pageant of the country's historical figures. ...

Knox's surprise inclusion by Catholic Church leaders follows accusations that this year's 450th anniversary of the Reformation is being ignored by the Scottish Government.

The Reformation of 1560 revoked the Pope's authority in Scotland and banned Catholic Mass. ...

A Church of Scotland spokesman said: "It is a sign of a healthy nation that diversity within the Christian community is something to be celebrated as opposed to a source of division and struggle.

"It is a gift to those of us of a Protestant persuasion that by including this figure, the Catholic Church is contributing to the celebrations of the Reformation."

"I can only think that someone in the Catholic Church has taken leave of their senses and clearly has no concept of Knox's theology", muses Martin Hannan (Edinburgh Evening News July 27, 2010):

The man himself smashed "graven images" in churches across Scotland, and never sat for a portrait. He would find the prospect of a mummer playing him in a Papal cavalcade utterly offensive, and I suspect more than a few Protestants and not a few Catholics will be angered by this patronising gesture.

(Regular roundups of news on Pope Benedict's visit to the UK may be found at here).

Benedict in the UK

Pope Benedict in the UK A project of the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club Featuring weekly roundups of news, articles and commentary on Pope Benedict's upcoming visit to England and Scotland.