16.4. Newman's Homecoming Address
16
Cardinal
16.1. CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES
Once the news broke of Newman's elevation to the cardinalate, numerous people sent their congratulations. Among these was a letter from the new president of Trinity College, Oxford, which had named Newman an honorary fellow the year before:
TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, Mar. 28, 1879
DEAR SIR,
I have been requested to make known to you that it has been unanimously resolved that “The President and Fellows of Trinity desire to offer their most sincere congratulations to the Very Rev. J. H. Newman on his nomination to the rank of Cardinal; and to assure him of the deep sympathy of the College, which is at once his earliest and latest in Oxford, on an occasion of such great and general interest and such personal moment to himself; and to record their hope that he may long be spared to fill the high position to which he has been called.”
Whilst conveying this imperfect expression of our feeling I trust that, although I am at present personally a stranger to you, I may be permitted to look forward to the pleasure of offering you hospitality at my lodgings on some early occasion.
I have the honour to remain, Dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,
J. PERCIVAL, President
Newman promptly replied to the president of Trinity College:
THE ORATORY, BIRMINGHAM, Mar. 30, 1879.
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT, I had been looking out, ever since I heard of your election, for the time when you would come into residence, and when I might be allowed to pay my respects to you—and now you anticipate me with so kind an invitation, and such warm congratulations on my recent promotion, from yourself and your Fellows.
I hope you and they will understand how very pleasant it is to me to find the events which happen to me a subject of such friendly interest to my friends at Trinity, and with what pride I reflect that, if a historical title and high ecclesiastical distinction goes for anything in college estimation, I shall be thought, when the name of a Cardinal appears on of your list of members, not to have done discredit to your generous act of last year, when you singled me out for your honorary Fellowship.
I am, dear Mr. President,
With much respect,
Sincerely yours,
JOHN H. NEWMAN
P.S.—As to my movements, at present I am quite uncertain where I shall be in the weeks before us; but I certainly shall not forget your kind proposal.
—Addresses to Cardinal Newman with His Replies, 43–45
16.2. BIGLIETTO SPEECH
On Monday morning, May 12, 1879, Newman went to the Palazzo della Pigna, the residence of Cardinal Edward Henry Howard (1829–1892) to receive the messenger from the Vatican bearing the official letter (biglietto) from the Cardinal-Secretary of State, informing him that in a secret Consistory that morning Pope Leo XIII had named him a Cardinal. Soon after midday the consistorial messenger arrived and, in the presence of a large number of people assembled for the ceremony, handed the biglietto to Newman, who broke the seal and gave the letter to Bishop William Clifford (1823–1893) of Clifton, who read the announcement. Following a few words of appreciation in Italian to both the Pope and the papal representative who had delivered the biglietto, Newman spoke in English, first, pointing out that the honor was not only personal, but a “pleasure” for English Catholics and even Protestants. Newman then reminisced about his lifelong “desire to serve the Church”—a service that had been characterized by his opposition to “Liberalism in Religion,” which he characterized as “the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another.”
First of all then, I am led to speak of the wonder and profound gratitude which came upon me, and which is upon me still, at the condescension and love towards me of the Holy Father in singling me out for so immense an honour. It was a great surprise. Such an elevation had never come into my thoughts, and seemed to be out of keeping with all my antecedents. I had passed through many trials, but they were over; and now the end of all things had almost come to me, and I was at peace. And was it possible that after all I had lived through so many years for this?
Nor is it easy to see how I could have borne so great a shock, had not the Holy Father resolved on a second act of condescension towards me, which tempered it, and was to all who heard of it a touching evidence of his kindly and generous nature. He felt for me, and he told me the reasons why he raised me to this high position. Besides other words of encouragement, he said his act was a recognition of my zeal and good service for so many years in the Catholic cause; moreover, he judged it would give pleasure to English Catholics, and even to Protestant England, if I received some mark of his favour. After such gracious words from his Holiness, I should have been insensible and heartless if I had had scruples any longer.
This is what he had the kindness to say to me, and what could I want more? In a long course of years I have made many mistakes. I have nothing of that high perfection which belongs to the writings of Saints, viz., that error cannot be found in them; but what I trust that I may claim all through what I have written, is this,—an honest intention, an absence of private ends, a temper of obedience, a willingness to be corrected, a dread of error, a desire to serve Holy Church, and, through Divine mercy, a fair measure of success. And, I rejoice to say, to one great mischief I have from the first opposed myself. For thirty, forty, fifty years I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion. Never did Holy Church need champions against it more sorely than now, when, alas! it is an error overspreading, as a snare, the whole earth; and on this great occasion, when it is natural for one who is in my place to look out upon the world, and upon Holy Church as in it, and upon her future, it will not, I hope, be considered out of place, if I renew the protest against it which I have made so often.
Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. Devotion is not necessarily founded on faith. Men may go to Protestant Churches and to Catholic, may get good from both and belong to neither. They may fraternise together in spiritual thoughts and feelings, without having any views at all of doctrine in common, or seeing the need of them. Since, then, religion is so personal a peculiarity and so private a possession, we must of necessity ignore it in the intercourse of man with man. If a man puts on a new religion every morning, what is that to you? It is as impertinent to think about a man's religion as about his sources of income or his management of his family. Religion is in no sense the bond of society.
Hitherto the civil Power has been Christian. Even in countries separated from the Church, as in my own, the dictum was in force, when I was young, that: “Christianity was the law of the land.” Now, everywhere that goodly framework of society, which is the creation of Christianity, is throwing off Christianity. The dictum to which I have referred, with a hundred others which followed upon it, is gone, or is going everywhere; and, by the end of the century, unless the Almighty interferes, it will be forgotten. Hitherto, it has been considered that religion alone, with its supernatural sanctions, was strong enough to secure submission of the masses of our population to law and order; now the Philosophers and Politicians are bent on satisfying this problem without the aid of Christianity. Instead of the Church's authority and teaching, they would substitute first of all a universal and a thoroughly secular education, calculated to bring home to every individual that to be orderly, industrious, and sober, is his personal interest. Then, for great working principles to take the place of religion, for the use of the masses thus carefully educated, it provides—the broad fundamental ethical truths, of justice, benevolence, veracity, and the like; proved experience; and those natural laws which exist and act spontaneously in society, and in social matters, whether physical or psychological; for instance, in government, trade, finance, sanitary experiments, and the intercourse of nations. As to Religion, it is a private luxury, which a man may have if he will; but which of course he must pay for, and which he must not obtrude upon others, or indulge in to their annoyance.
The general character of this great apostasia is one and the same everywhere; but in detail, and in character, it varies in different countries. For myself, I would rather speak of it in my own country, which I know. There, I think it threatens to have a formidable success; though it is not easy to see what will be its ultimate issue. At first sight it might be thought that Englishmen are too religious for a movement which, on the Continent, seems to be founded on infidelity; but the misfortune with us is, that, though it ends in infidelity as in other places, it does not necessarily arise out of infidelity. It must be recollected that the religious sects, which sprang up in England three centuries ago, and which are so powerful now, have ever been fiercely opposed to the Union of Church and State, and would advocate the un-Christianising of the monarchy and all that belongs to it, under the notion that such a catastrophe would make Christianity much more pure and much more powerful. Next the liberal principle is forced on us from the necessity of the case. Consider what follows from the very fact of these many sects. They constitute the religion, it is supposed, of half the population; and, recollect, our mode of government is popular. Every dozen men taken at random whom you meet in the streets has a share in political power,—when you inquire into their forms of belief, perhaps they represent one or other of as many as seven religions; how can they possibly act together in municipal or in national matters, if each insists on the recognition of his own religious denomination? All action would be at a deadlock unless the subject of religion was ignored. We cannot help ourselves. And, thirdly, it must be borne in mind, that there is much in the liberalistic theory which is good and true; for example, not to say more, the precepts of justice, truthfulness, sobriety, self-command, benevolence, which, as I have already noted, are among its avowed principles, and the natural laws of society. It is not till we find that this array of principles is intended to supersede, to block out, religion, that we pronounce it to be evil. There never was a device of the Enemy so cleverly framed and with such promise of success. And already it has answered to the expectations which have been formed of it. It is sweeping into its own ranks great numbers of able, earnest, virtuous men, elderly men of approved antecedents, young men with a career before them.
Such is the state of things in England, and it is well that it should be realised by all of us; but it must not be supposed for a moment that I am afraid of it. I lament it deeply, because I foresee that it may be the ruin of many souls; but I have no fear at all that it really can do aught of serious harm to the Word of God, to Holy Church, to our Almighty King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Faithful and True, or to His Vicar on earth. Christianity has been too often in what seemed deadly peril, that we should fear for it any new trial now. So far is certain; on the other hand, what is uncertain, and in these great contests commonly is uncertain, and what is commonly a great surprise, when it is witnessed, is the particular mode by which, in the event, Providence rescues and saves His elect inheritance. Sometimes our enemy is turned into a friend; sometimes he is despoiled of that special virulence of evil which was so threatening; sometimes he falls to pieces of himself; sometimes he does just so much as is beneficial, and then is removed. Commonly the Church has nothing more to do than to go on in her own proper duties, in confidence and peace; to stand still and to see the salvation of God.
—Addresses to Cardinal Newman with His Replies, 62–70
16.3. ROMAN ADDRESS TO CARDINAL NEWMAN
On Wednesday, May 14, 1879, the newly created Cardinal Newman went to the English College to receive an address and gifts of vestments from the English, Irish, Scotch, and American residents in Rome. On each vestment was embroidered the cardinal's coat-of-arms with his motto Cor ad cor loquitur (“Heart speaks to Heart”). After the Cardinal was seated, Lady Herbert of Lea (1822–1911) read the following address, which expressed not only admiration for Newman's writings, but also appreciation for his role as “their spiritual father and their guide in the paths of holiness”:
MY LORD CARDINAL,
We, your devoted English, Scotch, Irish, and American children at present residing in Rome, earnestly wishing to testify our deep and affectionate veneration for your Eminence's person and character, together with our hearty joy at your elevation to the Sacred Purple, venture to lay this humble offering at your feet. We feel that in making you a Cardinal the Holy Father has not only given public testimony of his appreciation of your great merits and of the value of your admirable writings in defence of God and His Church, but has also conferred the greatest possible honour on all English-speaking Catholics, who have long looked up to you as their spiritual father and their guide in the paths of holiness. We hope your Eminence will excuse the shortness and simplicity of this Address, which is but the expression of the feeling contained in your Eminence's motto, “Heart speaking to Heart,” for your Eminence has long won the first place in the hearts of all. That God may greatly prolong the years which have been so devoted to His service in the cause of truth is the earnest prayer of your Eminence's faithful and loving children.
—Addresses to Cardinal Newman with His Replies, 72–73
16.4. NEWMAN's HOMECOMING ADDRESS
After an exhausting round of ceremonies in Rome and a strenuous return trip, which was plagued with illness, Cardinal Newman arrived back at the Birmingham Oratory to welcoming crowds. His address on this occasion was recorded by William Paine Neville (1824–1905), an Oratorian, who had been received in the Roman Catholic Church by Newman in 1851 and became his aide and literary executor:
My dear Children,—I am desirous of thanking you for the great sympathy you have shown towards me, for your congratulations, for your welcome, and for your good prayers; but I feel so very weak—for I have not recovered yet from a long illness—that I hardly know how I can be able to say ever so few words, or to express in any degree the great pleasure and gratitude to you which I feel.
To come home again! In that word “home” how much is included. I know well that there is a more heroic life than a home life. We know the blessed Apostles—how they went about, and we listen to St. Paul's words—those touching words—in which he speaks of himself and says he was an outcast. Then we know, too, our Blessed Lord—that He “had not where to lay His head.” Therefore, of course, there is a higher life, a more heroic life, than that of home. But still, that is given to few. The home life—the idea of home—is consecrated to us by our patron and founder St. Philip, for he made the idea of home the very essence of his religion and institute. We have even a great example in Our Lord Himself; for though in His public ministry He had not where to lay His head, yet we know that for the first thirty years of His life He had a home, and He therefore consecrated, in a special way, the life of home. And as, indeed, Almighty God has been pleased to continue the world, not, as angels, by a separate creation of each, but by means of the Family, so it was fitting that the congregation of St. Philip should be the ideal, the realisation of the Family in its perfection, and a pattern to every family in the parish, in the town, and throughout the whole of Christendom. Therefore, I do indeed feel pleasure to come home again. Although I am not insensible of the great grace of being in the Holy City, which is the centre of grace, nor of the immense honour which has been conferred upon me, nor of the exceeding kindness and affection to me personally of the Holy Father—I may say more than affection, for he was to me as though he had been all my life my father—to see the grace which shone from his face and spoke in his voice; yet I feel I may rejoice in coming home again—as if it were to my long home—to that home which extends to heaven, “the home of our eternity.” And although there has been much of sickness, and much sadness in being prevented from enjoying the privileges of being in the Holy City, yet Almighty God has brought me home again in spite of all difficulties, fears, obstacles, troubles, and trials. I almost feared I should never come back, but God in His mercy has ordered it otherwise. And now I will ask you, my dear friends, to pray for me, that I may be as the presence of the Holy Father amongst you, and that the Holy Spirit of God may be upon this Church, upon this great city, upon its Bishop, upon all its priests, upon all its inhabitants, men, women and children, and as a pledge and beginning of it, I give you my benediction.
—Wilfrid Ward, Life of Cardinal Newman, 2:470–471