Newman, A Mind Alive

Monsignor Roderick Strange , author of "John Henry Newman, A Mind Alive", sits down with Veronica Scarisbrick for a chat focusing on one of the most significant figures of the 19th century.
One who was personally beatified by Pope Benedict in Birmingham's Cofton Park on Sunday.

"...a strong pastoral drive that shaped everything that he did, he wasn't just a remote academic ..the mind was alive not because he was some icy intellectual locked in a a tower but because he didn't want to move minds without touching hearts...

".. his legacy to the average Catholic today would be to help them perhaps understand questions which they might puzzle over whether they are questions of authority... the significance of Our Lady in ecumenical discussion , the place of the laity in the church, attitudes of spirituality but also just the example of faithfulness when things are difficult ..."

"...one influence which the pope has spoken about...some years ago when he was cardinal here in Rome was how as a young seminarian ...he valued Newman's teaching on conscience..the importance of reason not in the narrow sort of dry intellectual sense.... explore and try to discover objective truth .."Listen: