Chapter 34: First Years as a Roman Catholic
CHAPTER 34
FIRST YEARS AS A
ROMAN CATHOLIC
WHEN Newman was received into the Roman Catholic Church, he was 44 years of age. He was an accomplished writer and an important religious figure in England. He had reached a high level of intellectual and spiritual maturity. For the remaining 45 years of his life, he was to play an important role in Roman Catholic intellectual life, which extends to this day.
The last day of October 1845, Newman went to St. Mary’s College in Oscott to meet with Dr. Wiseman, who was President of the college and Apostolic Vicar for the Central District of England. On the feast of All Saints, Wiseman administered the sacrament of Confirmation to Newman, who took the name of Mary as his Confirmation name. Afterward, Wiseman asked Newman to carry out an intellectual defense of the Catholic faith against growing agnosticism and unfaithfulness by means of an intense preaching of Catholic doctrine. Wiseman also asked Newman to move with his community of friends to St. Mary’s College. At the end of December, Newman and his friends left Littlemore and moved to Oscott. Newman related to James Hope the thoughts of Wiseman: “He thinks such a community, cultivating sacred literature, or acting in missions and the like through England, according to the calling of each [member of it], is the best chance for the conversion of our country.”1
In the last weeks of 1845, others followed Newman’s conversion to Rome: Albany Christie, John Walker, Frederick Oakeley, William Faber, Watts-Russell, Thomas Knox, Maria Giberne and Robert Coffin. He wrote to Lucy Ann the Marquise de Salvo: “I earnestly exhort you to join the Catholic Church. It is necessary for your salvation, considering your present state of mind.”2 Shortly afterwards in 1846 she was received into the Church and Newman expressed his joy to hear and gave thanks to God. Soon others from aristocratic families such as Lady Georgiana Fullerton, who was a novelist, followed. Many more, influenced by Newman’s writings and life, were to follow in the years afterward. Other close friends, such as Charles Marriot and John Bloxam, his former curate, remained Anglican. Newman and Bloxam maintained friendly contact and Newman always hoped that he would become a Catholic.
In February of 1846, Newman spent some time gathering his belongings at Littlemore. Upon leaving, he wrote to Copeland about the melancholy he experienced: “I have been most happy there, though in a state of suspence [sic]. And there it has been, that I have both been taught my way and received an answer to my prayers.”3 Newman spent his forty-fifth birthday, February 21, alone at Littlemore. On Sunday, February 22, he spent his last night at Oxford, with his friend Manuel Johnson, Bowden’s cousin, who was an astronomer and director of the Radcliffe Observatory.4 Some of his Anglican friends: Lewis, Copeland, Church, G. Buckle, Pattison, and Pusey stopped to say farewell. Newman also called on James Ogle, his former private Tutor. A few days later Copeland wrote to Newman from Littlemore: “the poor old place seems indeed a strange place without you … and deeply did I think when I was with you on Sunday week [sic] what it must have cost you to have left it ….”5
Soon after Newman’s farewells came the publication of his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. People had anticipated the book, and the first edition was sold out within two weeks. The readers expected to find in the Essay the explanation for Newman’s conversion, and many Anglicans criticized Newman for the book. At first English-speaking Catholics reacted to the book with certain reservations. In contrast to this, Pope Gregory XVI sent Newman a silver crucifix with a relic of the true cross, which Newman interpreted as an “indirect approval” of his book.6 The date on the certificate of the sacred relic coincided with the same day Tract 90 had been published.
The Oxford Movement had begun to unravel a few years before Newman’s final step; now it received its greatest blow and the objectives of its founders clearly diverged. In retrospect Newman saw the Movement as leading men toward the Catholic Church. He began to pray for the conversion of Keble, Pusey, Williams, and others. He could not understand why they would not convert. It soon became evident that neither Keble, nor Pusey, who together with himself and Froude had begun the Oxford Movement, would convert. Pusey tried to dissuade possible converts. He wished to part peaceably with Newman, but tension arose between the two when he realized that his friend planned to proselytize Anglicans.7 Except for a short visit to Pusey, who was ill, many years passed before Newman met either Pusey or Keble again.
After Easter 1846, Wiseman encouraged Newman to study for some time at the Roman College of Propaganda Fidei in order to deepen his knowledge of Roman Catholic theology and to prepare for ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. Propaganda Fidei was a college founded in 1627 to house and educate theology students from mission countries. The Jesuits ran the college, and students went to classes at the Gregorian University. Newman made plans to study in Rome with Ambrose St. John, hoping that a stay in Rome would allow him (Newman) to find his place in the Catholic Church. At the same time, he was uneasy because he felt like a showcase for Wiseman’s apostolic zeal. He also felt that Catholics were expecting too much from him and the new converts.
Newman traveled through Paris to Milan, where he prayed before the tombs of St. Ambrose and St. Charles Borromeo. Writing to his sister Jemima he said: “Milan is a most favored place, as having been blessed with that wonder Saint Charles. I have been reading a good deal of a very accurate life of him. A great Saint indeed … He died in the midst of a great career of reform at the early age of 46—but he lives still.”8 He arrived in Rome in late October 1846, two months after the death of Pope Gregory XVI, who was succeeded by (now beatified) Pope Pius IX. This was to be Newman’s second of four visits to Rome. He was again impressed by Rome and went to a papal Mass at the Altar of Peter’s Confession in St. Peter’s Basilica. Newman and Ambrose St. John moved into the Propaganda Fidei College and within a few weeks they had an audience with Pope Pius IX, who received them in a jovial and affectionate manner. The Pope gave Newman a painting of the Virgin Mary.
Mid-nineteenth-century Rome had a relatively small population of 160, 000 inhabitants.9 The cultural level of Florence and Milan was higher than that of Rome, which had some artists but few philosophers and writers.10 Newman was received kindly at Propaganda Fidei College and he was impressed that 32 languages were spoken, but he did not find a vibrant theological environment in which he could discuss theology and his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. He discovered that in Rome the works of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas were not used, nor those of Aristotle. Newman transcribed the reply a Jesuit father made to the question on whether the youths learned Aristotle: “O no—he said—Aristotle is in no favor here—no, not in Rome:—not St. Thomas. I have read Aristotle and St. Thos [sic], and owe a great deal to them, but they are out of favor here and throughout Italy.”11
In Rome, Carlo Passaglia, a leading dogmatic theologian, did not agree with the Essay on Development. Newman wrote Dalgairns that Passaglia “has certainly in lecture spoken against the view, and after lecture said he was speaking against me. I don’t like to begin my career in the Catholic Church with a condemnation or retraction.”12 Newman worried a great deal about being misunderstood by others, in particular at the Holy See, and he prepared a summary of his thesis to show ecclesiastical authorities. In the spring of 1847, Newman sought advice and approval of his thesis from Giovanni Perrone, another leading Roman theologian with whom he had had prior correspondence. Perrone, who had contributed to the theological notion of Tradition and of the Church as the mystical Body of Christ, offered Newman some moderate and constructive criticism which reassured Newman, and laid the ground for an academic friendship between the two. St. John wrote to Dalgairns, “N. has struck up quite a close friendship with F. Perrone: they embrace each other.”13
What concerned Newman most in Rome, however, was discovering the spiritual calling that God had in store for him and for his friends. What were they to do as Catholics? What was their mission in the Church? As an Anglican, Newman had promoted the idea of colleges for the formation of celibate clergymen, dedicated to preaching in cities. He and his friends began to study the spiritual characteristics and apostolic activities of various religious congregations within the Catholic Church, for they wished to join one of the existing religious institutions.
One of the religious institutions that was investigated by Newman and his friends was the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Newman first heard of the Oratory in a review of Froude’s Remains by Wiseman. In this article, Wiseman had expressed the idea that the best way to spread the Catholic faith in England was through a community of priests who lived a common life such as the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Newman and his friends visited the Oratorian houses of Milan, Rome, and Naples. Dalgairns favored joining the Dominicans and St. John the Jesuits. Newman admired both of these religious communities, but neither satisfied what he looked for. After visiting the rooms where St. Philip Neri had lived and died, he felt more inclined to the Oratorian way of life, especially to the Oratorian spirit of Christian love and mild ascetical practices. He was attracted by the libraries which the Oratorians had, and he thought that the way of life of the Oratorians provided continuity with the life that they had lived at Oxford.14 In January 1847, Newman made a novena of prayers at the Tomb of St. Peter, and shortly afterward he, Ambrose St. John, and Dalgairns agreed that they would become Oratorians.15 He wrote to Fr. Dominic: “We are to be Oratorians. The Pope has been very kind to us—suggested that others of us had better come here and pass their novitiate with us all together under an Oratorian Father.”16 The Pope even offered them an Oratorian house in Malta which could be the novice house for the English mission, but not wishing to be separated, some in Rome and some in Malta, they politely declined the offer.
Newman was captivated by the life and example of St. Philip Neri and later wrote an essay describing the witness of this holy man, who was filled with a burning love for God and neighbor.17 Philip Neri, called the apostle of Rome, was a diocesan priest who lived a long and fruitful life in sixteenth-century Rome. He was known for his wise counsel and the moderation with which he guided not only simple men, but also the clergy and aristocracy. He gathered young laymen to practice spiritual devotions and carry out works of charity with the infirm poor. The word “Oratory” described the devotional and ascetical practices of the youth under Philip Neri. Later the name Oratory was given to the houses established in various parts of Europe. Toward the end of Philip’s life, urged by the ecclesiastical authorities of Rome, he wrote statutes for priests who would continue the work with laity in a stable manner.
Drawn by St. Philip’s life, Newman asked Pius IX permission to start an Oratory in England. The Pope granted the permission, but he asked Newman to make adaptations of the rule for England. In his adaptation, Newman added that English Oratorians could run preparatory schools to prepare Catholics for university studies. He also did away with the practice of public penance. Newman thus departed from the monastic idea that he had practiced for some time. He believed that monastic life was necessary for some, in certain periods of life, but he saw his future Christian vocation differently.18
The new convert considered the vocation of an Oratorian priest to be different from both the monastic and the Jesuit spirituality. As a model for the English Oratorians, Newman had in mind something akin to that of celibate Fellows in Oxford colleges who cultivated an intellectual life and, as clergymen, exercised pastoral care; this had been his way of life at Oriel, St. Mary’s, and Littlemore.19 In St. Philip Neri, Newman saw the model of a great saint who, faced with the Renaissance’s exaltation of man, responded by presenting the Christian ideal of purity and truth.
On Trinity Sunday, May 30, 1847, Newman was ordained a Catholic priest by Cardinal Frasoni in the chapel of the college of Propaganda Fidei, and celebrated his first Mass at a private chapel of the Jesuits on June 3rd, which that day was the feast of Corpus Christi. Ambrose St. John (1815–1875), who had become Roman Catholic only a few days before Newman, was ordained on the same day with Newman. St. John, fourteen years Newman’s junior, had graduated from Christ Church College at Oxford. He was a clever and good-natured man despite moments of quick temper. He knew German and Spanish, and had knowledge of Semitic languages and exegesis. Unlike Newman, he had no interest in Patristics or Philosophy and did not have a good ear for music.20 St. John would remain a very close lifelong friend of Newman for thirty-two years, taking the place that Richard Hurrell Froude (1803–1836) had occupied.
Like Froude and St. John, Henry William Wilberforce (1807–1873) was one of Newman’s closest friends; it was he who had introduced St. John, once his curate, to Newman. When Newman became Roman Catholic, Wilberforce felt the pain of their separation, but their friendship was not hurt by Newman’s change. Newman considered St. John to be a sign of their friendship, and encouraged Wilberforce to become Roman Catholic, which he eventually did in 1850.
In July 1847, Newman and six other converts gathered in Rome at the Church of the Santa Croce where they underwent a brief novitiate. The seven men were Newman, Ambrose St. John, John Dalgairns, William Penny, Richard Stanton, Frederick Bowles, and Robert Coffin. All, except for Penny, had become Roman Catholics in 1845; Penny had converted a year earlier. In August 1847, the Pope himself visited the Oratorians, and he formally established the Oratory. Newman was named the first superior of the English Oratory. He remained for some months in Rome, and in December, he and St. John returned to Maryvale, stopping by the House of the Holy Family in Loreto, and Munich, where they visited Döllinger.
Renamed Maryvale out of Marian devotion, Old Oscott was the first home for the Oratorians when they returned to England. Old Oscott was situated on the outskirts of Birmingham. Soon William Faber and a group of young converts who had followed him expressed the desire to join the Oratory. Faber, a Fellow at Oxford, was a very intelligent and gifted preacher with an enthusiastic personality.21 Newman, however, was worried by Faber’s impulsive character and lack of prudence. He was concerned that Faber would not understand the spirit of the Oratory, but upon Faber’s assurances of submissiveness, Newman decided to admit him and his friends, which included two priests and lay brothers, into the Oratory. That same year, Newman’s friend, George Ryder, became Roman Catholic. One of Ryder’s sons, Henry Ignatius, once a pupil to Newman, had already become Catholic and later joined the Oratory. Newman’s spirits were high. Just a few days before closing the year he wrote to Henry Wilberforce:
“Lately several of our Fathers held a mission in this neighborhood. They heard between 700–800 confessions, and received 22 persons into the Church. Never surely were the words more strikingly exemplified, ‘The Harvest is great, the labourers are few’ than in England. We could convert England, humanly speaking, at least the lower classes, had we priests enough.” In 1849, the Oratorians moved to Birmingham, where they set up a provisional house in a poor neighborhood on Alcester Street in an unused gin distillery. Soon, large numbers attended talks in the chapel, which accommodated as many as 600 people. In addition to running the Oratory, Newman made time to hear confessions and care for the sick; he also set aside time for study. Despite the good initial results, Newman thought that the Oratory should prepare students for university studies, as had been stipulated in the statutes for the English Oratory.
Faber did not understand Newman’s vision for the Oratory, which involved exerting influence on the educated classes of society. He and Newman had very different backgrounds and temperaments; the former was charismatic and the latter shy in public. Faber disliked Newman’s close friendship with Ambrose St. John, and he and the new arrivals to the Oratory found it awkward to deal with Newman because of his shyness. Faber was soon impatient to open a London house for the Oratory. Newman wished to remain in Birmingham, but in April, he rented a property for the London Oratory and in May decided that Faber should be the superior.22 On May 31, 1850, the London Oratory was established, and according to the statutes, it was independent of Birmingham.
William Bernard Ullathorne, a Benedictine monk who was ordained a bishop in 1846 as Vicar Apostolic for the Western District of England, became the Bishop of Birmingham in 1850.23 He was emblematic of “Old Catholic” families, who had remained faithful throughout three centuries of Protestant persecutions. Although at first Ullathorne did not understand the canonical rights of the Oratorians, he and Newman eventually developed a sincere friendship. Ullathorne, an intelligent and humble man, became Newman’s strong defender and supporter. He was the bishop of the diocese in which Newman would work for the rest of his life.
In addition to Old Catholics, English Catholics consisted of immigrants and the new converts.24 The immigrants were primarily poor Irish Catholics who had flocked in large numbers to the industrial cities. Some relatively new Italian religious congregations like the Passionists, Redemptorists, and Rosminians brought Italian devotions, and also a proselytic zeal that clashed with Old Catholics.25 The converts proceeded for the most part from Oxford and Cambridge graduates and their families. Some came from wealthy families, such as the Phillipps, Wilberforce, or Bowden families. For instance, Elizabeth, Bowden’s widow, and her children became Catholic. John, one of her sons, a student at Eaton, later joined the Oratory. Henry, Bowden’s brother, married by Newman, became a Catholic with his wife and family in 1852.
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1LD, Vol. XI. JHN to James Hope (December 19, 1845), 71-72, 71.
2LD, Vol. XI. JHN to the Marquise de Salvo, (December 18, 1845), 71.
3LD, Vol. XI, JHN to W. J. Copeland (March 10, 1846), 132-33.
4LD, Vol. XI, Diary entry (Sunday, February 22), 1846, 125.
5LD, Vol. XI, W. J. Copeland to JHN, (March 7, 1846), 132.
6LD, Vol. XI, JHN to Miss M. R. Giberne (March 20, 1846), 139-40; 140.
7Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 136-37.
8LD, Vol XI, JHN to Mrs. John Mozley, (October 22, 1846), 264-266, 265.
9Pope Pius IX brought about a reform of the administration of the Pontifical States, and introduced, for the first time in their history, laymen into their government. Despite his reform efforts, in 1848, the Roman Republic was proclaimed and the Pope fled to Gaeta.
10Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 143.
11LD, Vol. XI, JHN to John Dobrée Dalgairns (November 22, 1846), 279-82; 279.
12LD, Vol. XII, JHN to J. D. Dalgairns (February, 14, 1847), 33-36, 36.
13LD, Vol. XII, JHN to J. D. Dalgairns from Ambrose St. John (April, 1847), 40; Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 144-45.
14LD, Vol. XI, JHN to J. D. Dalgairns (December 31, 1846), 303-07; 305-06; Ian Ker, John Henry Newman, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1988, 328-30.
15LD, Vol. XII, Diary entry (January 17, 1847) and footnote n. 2, 19.
16LD, Vol. XII, JHN to Fr. Dominic Barbieri (March 14, 1847), 62.
17“The Mission of St. Philip,” in OS, 218-42,
18Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 150-54.
19Ibid., 153.
20Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 155.
21Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 159-60.
22Brian Martin, John Henry Newman, His Life & Work (London: Continuum, 1982), 88-89.
23Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 162-63.
24Morales, Newman (1801-1890), 165.
25Ibid., 166.