THE P
RTAL
Newman and his troubles
Joanna Bogle points us in his direction , or does she point him in ours ?
March 2017 Page 4
Auntie
Major renovations at Bogle Towers : heating , plumbing , and electricity needing complete renewal . Husband despatched to his London club , and I have been staying with a kind friend in a neighbouring suburb . Amanda ’ s pleasant flat has been a place of hospitality to many visiting clergy and sisters needing accommodation , and I am the latest in a long list of people grateful for her help .
Joanna
writes
What makes it particularly enjoyable is Amanda ’ s great collection of books by and about Bl . John Henry Newman , ( she was a Mastermind finalist with Newman as her subject ). I am frankly feasting on it all . Of course , I have long known Newman ’ s story – first read Meriol Trevor ’ s Newman ’ s Journey as a teenager , and was in my 20s when I tackled the Apologia . I remember hurrying across to get a return train , still mentally deep in the Christological debates and the importance of authority and truth …
What I failed to grasp , in those early years , was how difficult , distressing and uncomfortable things were for Newman again and again and again . It ’ s all rather grim : from the parting of friends at Littlemore right through to the endless troubles with the Irish Bishops over the planned Catholic University in Dublin , the deep chill from Pius IX in Rome where for far too long Newman was regarded as having dangerously modernist tendencies , and on to the long drawn out drama of the Achilli libel where even the Times newspaper , at that time very anti-Catholic , questioned whether justice had really been served .
Newman had an interior serenity : he prayed for strength to accept the Cross , he saw difficulties as part of the Christian life , but my earlier simplistic understanding of his life had been a rather smug one : a good and decent Anglican who saw the light and – hey , presto ! - found his way into the fullness of things in the Catholic Church , and gave us some lovely hymns and a story with a satisfactory ending . But that ignores the reality : awkwardness and disappointment at every turn . The plan for him to do a translation of the Bible ( which would have been superb , and just what English-speaking Catholics needed at that time , to say nothing of how much we would still relish it today ) but bishops dithered and it was postponed
again and again . He was to be made a Bishop , and friends sent gifts and congratulations – but then Rome never followed up with the action . Endless calumnies in the press : one newspaper wrote that his planned Oratory at Birmingham had subterranean dungeons and hinted at dark practices , while others announced that he had secretly married , had returned to the CofE , or was now an atheist .
And yet he kept on course : the Oratories in England flourish and show new strength in this 21st century , Newman ’ s Oratory School is one of the top schools in the country , his legacy at Maryvale is a study centre where many ( including this writer ) have been hugely enriched , his magnificent writings teach us again and again – and the Ordinariate is in a most fundamental and exciting sense his latest achievement and one which is only just embarking on its journey through history .
Newman is a saint for today : his Britain was not ours , but is at least vaguely recognisable with its cities and railway stations and umbrellas and pots of tea . He is not remote from us as some Medieval saints are . Above all , he feels near to us in the tensions that accompany us on our lives in the Church : disappointments , and unfinished projects , and misunderstandings . Perhaps we need reminding that any achievements may be unexpected or arrive much later …
Newman has been given to us as a patron by beloved Benedict XVI , himself so often misunderstood and caricatured in the media , and so full of real wisdom and quiet courage . Both have given the Church superb scholarship and wonderfully readable insights into the Faith – along with a sense of the joy that comes from a true relationship with Jesus Christ .
Blessed John Henry Newman : pray for us !