Notre Dame Des Victoires

I write these words in the Rome airport, on my way to England, where I will deliver a paper on St. John Henry Newman and evangelization. I’m still basking in the glow of the splendid Mass of canonization yesterday, presided over by Pope Francis and attended by tens of thousands of bishops, priests, and faithful from all over the world. Hanging from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica during the liturgy was a marvelous tapestry featuring a portrait of Newman, and I found myself gazing at it frequently as the Mass progressed. I couldn’t help but wonder what Newman himself would have thought if someone had told him when he arrived in Rome in 1846 to commence studies for the Catholic priesthood that one day in the distant future his Mass of canonization would be celebrated at St. Peter’s. He would have been, I’m quite sure, utterly flummoxed. Newly…

Escribo estas palabras en el aeropuerto de Roma, de camino a Inglaterra, donde presento un paper sobre San John Henry Newman y la evangelización. Sigo deslumbrado por la espléndida Misa de canonización de ayer, presidida por el papa Francisco y de la que participaron decenas de miles de obispos, sacerdotes y fieles de todo el mundo. Colgando de la galería central de la basílica de San Pedro durante la liturgia estuvo el maravilloso tapiz que representaba a Newman, y estuve observándolo frecuentemente mientras progresaba la Misa. No puedo ni imaginar lo que Newman hubiera pensado si alguien le hubiera dicho en 1846, cuando llegó a Roma para empezar sus estudios para el sacerdocio, que un día en un futuro distante tendría lugar su Misa de canonización en San Pedro. Seguramente se hubiera quedado atónito. Recientemente convertido a la fe, visto por muchos de sus antiguos correligionarios como un traidor, incómodo…

As I compose these words, I am preparing to leave for Rome, where I will attend the canonization Mass for John Henry Newman, and then for Oxford, where I will give a paper on Newman’s thought in regard to evangelization. Needless to say, the great English convert is much on my mind these days. As I read the myriad commentaries on the new saint, I’m particularly struck by how often he is co-opted by the various political parties active in the Church today—and how this co-opting both distorts Newman and actually makes him less interesting and relevant for our time. I should like to show this by drawing attention to two major themes in Newman’s writing—namely, the development of doctrine and the primacy of conscience. St. John Henry Newman did indeed teach that doctrines, precisely because they exist in the play of lively minds, develop over time. And he did…