POPE BENEDICT XVI IN UK Pope Benedict's homily at the Mass of Beatification of
Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham, Sunday, 19 September 2010
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, This day that has brought us together
here in Birmingham is a most auspicious one. In the first place, it is the Lord’s
day, Sunday, the day when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and changed the
course of human history for ever, offering new life and hope to all who live in darkness
and in the shadow of death. That is why Christians all over the world come together
on this day to give praise and thanks to God for the great marvels he has worked for
us. This particular Sunday also marks a significant moment in the life of the British
nation, as it is the day chosen to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Battle
of Britain. For me as one who lived and suffered through the dark days of the Nazi
regime in Germany, it is deeply moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to
recall how many of your fellow citizens sacrificed their lives, courageously resisting
the forces of that evil ideology. My thoughts go in particular to nearby Coventry,
which suffered such heavy bombardment and massive loss of life in November 1940. Seventy
years later, we recall with shame and horror the dreadful toll of death and destruction
that war brings in its wake, and we renew our resolve to work for peace and reconciliation
wherever the threat of conflict looms. Yet there is another, more joyful reason why
this is an auspicious day for Great Britain, for the Midlands, for Birmingham. It
is the day that sees Cardinal John Henry Newman formally raised to the altars and
declared Blessed. I thank Archbishop Bernard Longley for his gracious welcome
at the start of Mass this morning. I pay tribute to all who have worked so hard over
many years to promote the cause of Cardinal Newman, including the Fathers of the Birmingham
Oratory and the members of the Spiritual Family Das Werk. And I greet everyone here
from Great Britain, Ireland, and further afield; I thank you for your presence at
this celebration, in which we give glory and praise to God for the heroic virtue of
a saintly Englishman. England has a long tradition of martyr saints, whose
courageous witness has sustained and inspired the Catholic community here for centuries.
Yet it is right and fitting that we should recognize today the holiness of a confessor,
a son of this nation who, while not called to shed his blood for the Lord, nevertheless
bore eloquent witness to him in the course of a long life devoted to the priestly
ministry, and especially to preaching, teaching, and writing. He is worthy to take
his place in a long line of saints and scholars from these islands, Saint Bede, Saint
Hilda, Saint Aelred, Blessed Duns Scotus, to name but a few. In Blessed John Henry,
that tradition of gentle scholarship, deep human wisdom and profound love for the
Lord has borne rich fruit, as a sign of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit deep
within the heart of God’s people, bringing forth abundant gifts of holiness. Cardinal
Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or "Heart speaks unto heart", gives us an insight
into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as
the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart
of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the
divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, "a habit of prayer,
the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place,
in every emergency – prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing
and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually … he has
imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles" (Parochial and
Plain Sermons, iv, 230-231). Today’s Gospel tells us that no one can be the servant
of two masters (cf. Lk 16:13), and Blessed John Henry’s teaching on prayer explains
how the faithful Christian is definitively taken into the service of the one true
Master, who alone has a claim to our unconditional devotion (cf. Mt 23:10). Newman
helps us to understand what this means for our daily lives: he tells us that our divine
Master has assigned a specific task to each one of us, a "definite service", committed
uniquely to every single person: "I have my mission", he wrote, "I am a link in a
chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall
do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in
my own place … if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling" (Meditations
and Devotions, 301-2). The definite service to which Blessed John Henry
was called involved applying his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the
most pressing "subjects of the day". His insights into the relationship between faith
and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into
the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only
of profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and enlighten
many all over the world. I would like to pay particular tribute to his vision for
education, which has done so much to shape the ethos that is the driving force behind
Catholic schools and colleges today. Firmly opposed to any reductive or utilitarian
approach, he sought to achieve an educational environment in which intellectual training,
moral discipline and religious commitment would come together. The project to found
a Catholic University in Ireland provided him with an opportunity to develop his ideas
on the subject, and the collection of discourses that he published as The Idea of
a University holds up an ideal from which all those engaged in academic formation
can continue to learn. And indeed, what better goal could teachers of religion set
themselves than Blessed John Henry’s famous appeal for an intelligent, well-instructed
laity: "I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men
who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know
what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give
an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it" (The Present
Position of Catholics in England, ix, 390). On this day when the author of those words
is raised to the altars, I pray that, through his intercession and example, all who
are engaged in the task of teaching and catechesis will be inspired to greater effort
by the vision he so clearly sets before us. While it is John Henry Newman’s
intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature
devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection
on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his
appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous
sermons: "Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled
with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you,
and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and
guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who
come from the midst of you" ("Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel", Discourses
to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly
ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he
spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved,
caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people
lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile
from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again
to rejoice in the Church’s solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this
much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than
by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words
that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven: Praise
to the Holiest in the height And in the depth be praise; In all
his words most wonderful, Most sure in all his ways! (The Dream
of Gerontius).