John Henry Newman in the “Hall of Fame” of the Church of Rome

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If anyone in the Roman Catholic Church experienced a meteoric rise during his lifetime, it was John Henry Newman in particular. He is celebrated by almost all sides of the Roman, Anglican, and supposedly Protestant churches. Now Pope Leo XIV wants to elevate the former cardinal to Doctor of the Church, a sort of “Hall of Fame” of Catholicism. The “saint”‘s lasting merit is due to his lasting subversion of former Protestantism.

Newman to be inducted into “Catholic Hall of Fame”

Things are happening fast. “Saint” John Henry Newman, only raised to sainthood by Pope Francis in 2019, will now be declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV. The media is chirping this “good news” like the sparrows on the rooftops. The man who effectively “re-Catholicized” the Anglican Church in England. Opinions may differ as to whether Newman was a “sudden convert” or a “calculating mole” from the start.

The “Inverted Luther”

Newman was born in London in 1801. At around 16, he began studying theology at Trinity College, Oxford. In 1824, he became a deacon of Christ Church Cathedral in the Anglican Church, and about a year later, Newman was ordained a priest. In 1832, the young priest traveled through Italy, stopping in Rome. As a kind of “inverted Luther,” Newman published his “Tracts for the Times” in 1841, which questioned the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church and cast doubt on their legitimacy. Newman’s official conversion came in 1845, when he converted to the Roman Catholic Church.

Newman and the Oxford Movement

The Oxford Movement is inextricably linked to John Henry Newman. However, it did not begin in the later years of Newman’s ministry, as he suddenly turned to Catholicism, but rather in 1830. It was a movement whose goal was to reintegrate larger elements of Catholicism into Anglicanism. Newman’s fellow campaigners were Edward Bouverie Pusey, an English theologian and advocate of “Anglo-Catholicism,” and John Keble, an Anglican clergyman, supporter of the Church of England, and professor of poetry.

The Oxford Movement used the demanded and defended independence of the Church from the state as its flagship. Well, just as one can expect little good from the “think tanks” of the Roman Catholic Church, they are just as little foolish. With a kind of display of defiance, a raised fist, and a “now more than ever” protest against secular influences, this demonstrated independence was achieved by refilling the churches with Roman Catholic worship. However, the fact that this was actually aimed at the direct eradication of Protestantism was deliberately lost in the euphoria of the resistance.

What Protestants had accomplished in the 16th century through the “Reformation Iconoclasm” was reversed by Henry Newman. Protestant churches were freed from images, figures, other idol-like representations, and especially from the altar. The altar, after all, is not a simple table, but a place of sacrifice (Eucharist). Through his work, Newman, still an Anglican, gradually brought these Roman Catholic paraphernalia back into the church.

Newman’s steep career ladder

His conversion to Catholicism in 1845 was the first step on his rapid career within the Church of Rome. It took only about two years for Newman to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest. His career began in the Oratorian Order, a congregation within the Roman Catholic Church founded in Rome in 1575 and officially confirmed by Pope Gregory XIII. This organization had no presence in England until Newman introduced it there and immediately led it there.

Newman described the most controversial “opinion” of the Roman Church established as doctrine during the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), the infallibility of papal teachings, as “correct in substance.” In 1877, Oxford University believed it had recognized that Newman’s works must be of great value and honored the converted cleric with the title of “Honorary Fellow.” In 1870, Newman reached the highest rung of the career ladder. He was appointed Cardinal Deacon by Pope Leo XIII.

Soon after Newman’s death in 1890, the first calls for his beatification followed. Numerous Newman monuments were erected in England. In 1945, Pope Pius XII celebrated the 100th anniversary of Newman’s conversion to Catholicism. Pope John Paul II crowned the cardinal “Venerable Servant of God” in 1991. Newman’s beatification took place in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis topped his canonization in 2019. The liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church received a new entry on October 9th, the day of Newman’s reception into the Catholic Church.

Newman’s place next to Liguori

With the now announced elevation of Newman to Doctor of the Church, the former Anglican enters the “Hall of Fame” of this institution, just as Alphonsus Liguori and his extraordinary Roman Catholic theologies are already represented there (Info).

Nevertheless, the environment surrounding the late John Henry Newman remains a mystery. Where are his remains? According to the Roman Catholic cult of the dead, the cardinal’s body was to be exhumed and reburied. However, besides his clothing, only a few bone fragments were found. An examination revealed that the large remainder could not have been decomposed by environmental influences. This preserved piece of Newman’s was stolen from the Oratorian branch in Birmingham in 2020.

Newman’s lasting legacy

The legacy of the once-living Newman, however, is lasting. The conversion to Catholicism has been successful on a broad scale, as the Church of England has long demonstrated an equally marked predilection for the dead and is planning to exhume the head of Thomas More. (Source). The skull should be kept separately. More is a declared martyr of the Roman Catholic Church and was a direct opponent of the Protestant William Tyndale. The two engaged in verbal battles via letters, particularly over the doctrine of justification through Jesus Christ by grace and not by works.

Bizarre teachings and the war of annihilation waged against (former) Protestantism seem to be a guarantee of historically lasting veneration in this Roman church. Especially when, as a long-dead person, one can offer one’s bodily remains for worship and, especially, as a catalyst for the functioning of the Eucharistic hocus-pocus.

Today as then:

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