POPE BENEDICT XVI IN UK Pope Benedict's ‘Angelus’ message at the end of the Mass
of Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham, Sunday,
19 September 2010
Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, I am pleased to send my greetings
to the people of Seville where, just yesterday, Madre María de la Purísima de la Cruz
was beatified. May Blessed María be an inspiration to young women to follow her example
of single-minded love of God and neighbour. 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 (Seat of Wisdom). In so many ways, he lived his priestly ministry in a
spirit of filial devotion to the Mother of God. Meditating upon her role in the unfolding
of God’s plan for our salvation, he was moved to exclaim: “Who can estimate the holiness
and perfection of her, who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? What must have
been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only near earthly relative of the Son of
God, the only one whom He was bound by nature to revere and look up to; the one appointed
to train and educate Him, to instruct Him day by day, as He grew in wisdom and in
stature?” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, ii, 131-2). It is on account of those abundant
gifts of grace that we honour her, and it is on account of that intimacy with her
divine Son that we naturally seek her intercession for our own needs and the needs
of the whole world. In the words of the Angelus, we turn now to our Blessed Mother
and commend to her the intentions that we hold in our hearts.