A Champion of Tradition

Alberto Carosa looks at the life ofSaint John Henry Newman

St John Henry Newman’s conversion was the end result of a centuries old process dating at least as far back as 1694, the year when Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775), founder of the Passionists, was born in Ovada, a town in the province of Alessandria in Piedmont.

In 1845 Newman was received into the Catholic Church by a Passionist Father, Blessed Domenico Barberi (1792- 1849), also known as Domenico della Madre di Dio (Dominic of the Mother of God). He was a spiritual son of St Paul, who mandated him to establish a Passionist mission in England.

So, one may well wonder, how is it possible for Newman to be at times described as a sort of liberal Catholic, in a way a forerunner of all that led to Vatican II, if he is spiritually so closely associated with these two Italian giants of the faith? Well, the answer is simple and Professor Peter Kwasniewski has set the record straight in one of his recent articles in the New Liturgical Movement blog (14 October, 2019) significantly entitled “St John Henry Newman, the Traditionalist”.

A few quotes will be enough to prove the point and finally we may breathe a sigh of relief.

“It is ironic, to say the least,” says the Professor, “that Cardinal Newman is so often hailed as ‘the theologian of the Second Vatican Council’ or the great proponent of reforming trends within the contemporary Church, when — at least on matters concerning fundamental theology, Christian morality, and sacred liturgy — he argued strenuously and consistently throughout his career against rationalism, emotionalism, liberalism, and tinkeritis.”

The Professor continues: “In the realm of liturgy in particular, he was staunchlyopposedtoritualmodifications and modernizations designed to ‘meet people where they’re at’ or to (as Paul VI put it in his 3 April, 1969 Apostolic Constitution promulgating the Novus Ordo ) ‘accommodate the mentality of today’.”

St John Henry Newman: “The number of converts who owe their conversion, under grace, to Newman, at least in part, are too numerous to mention”

Newman did not just proclaim himself just anti-liberal, the Professor goes on. “He was what is now called a traditionalist in matters dogmatic and liturgical, one who would have lambasted the entire conciliar project, and certainly the liturgical reform carried out in its name, as misguided and doomed to failure.”

In other words, as the Professor explains, Newman was “a Catholic traditionalist avant la lettre. One can see this in so many writings from every period of his life, and of every genre, that it takes little more than opening pages at random to be able to start a fine personal collection of polished gems of perennial, hence anti-modernist, wisdom.”

In the Professor’s opinion, Newman has been selectively misquoted and misrepresented as a friend of the post-conciliar progressive and modernist cause, thus “falling under a cloud of suspicion in the minds of more conservative or traditional Catholics who do not know his work well”. Let us remember that Newman has always been a favourite author for traditionalist writers such as Michael Davies, Neil McCaffrey and two former Anglicans, Fr John Hunwicke and Fr Richard Cipolla.

And last but not least, the Professor explains that, “Newman played a crucial role in my own intellectual and spiritual ‘conversion’ to traditional Catholicism.” This explains the Professor’s decision to edit Newman on Worship, Reverence, and Ritual: A Selection of Texts by John Henry Newman, edited by Peter A. Kwasniewski and published in paperback last year. This book is available from, among other places, the LMS online shop.

But there is also another way to prove the point that Newman can be surely regarded as a traditionalist ante litteram – the sheer number of people who were converted by his pastoral actions and writings. And who has ever heard or read of people converted by modernists or progressives? As reported in some media, Newman converts were in attendance at his recent canonization in Rome (“Newman converts come home to Rome for canonization”, Catholic News Agency, 13 October, 2019).

“He worked tirelessly as a Parish Priest and had a fatherly care for his Oratorian community”, the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, the Rt Rev. Robert Byrne CO, said during a Mass of Thanksgiving for Newman’s canonization, celebrated at the Basilica of St John Lateran on 14 October, 2019, in Rome.

“He guided countless people with letters of spiritual direction and counsel. He gave light to those who were searching for the truth and continues to do so through his published works of theology, philosophy, sermons and prayers” (see also the Catholic Herald of 15 October, 2019).

On the occasion of Newman’s beatification in 2010, in an interview in ZENIT (23 September 2010) Joseph Pearce, a British scholar and Catholic convert who has published numerous books on the great Christian intellectuals, including Newman, was quoted as saying that: “the number of converts who owe their conversion, under grace, to Newman, at least in part, are too numerous to mention”. Moreover, he points out, among these were senior personalities such as Gerard Manley Hopkins, Oscar Wilde, Hilaire Belloc, J.R.R. Tolkien, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark.

This wave of conversions perfectly fits in the mission St Paul of the Cross had envisioned for England. But why a mission in England? Many people may not be aware that for mysterious reasons, England’s return to the Catholic fold became one of St Paul’s main apostolic concerns, up to the point that he made this a specific purpose of his apostolate.

As recounted in his biography by Passionist father Luigi-Teresa di Gesù Agonizzante (S. Paolo della Croce, Rome, 1952), during his first trip to Rome in 1721 he prayed in front of the miraculous image of Our Lady Salus Populi Romani in the basilica of Saint Mary Major, vowing to propagate the devotion to the passion of Our Lord around the world (page 69). The central position of England in this mission, as revealed in the biography (pages 248- 249), he himself was not able to explain in human terms. Since it was not his will at all to do this, it was certainly the will of God and thus St Paul prayed for the conversion of England for fifty years, leaving this commitment as a spiritual legacy to his congregation. The Saint’s dream for the establishment of a Passionist foundation started to come true when the Passionist Father, Blessed Domenico Barberi, landed in England in 1841.

The writer's family house where St Paul of the Cross stayed

As a devotee of St Paul of the Cross, the author of this article was particularly enthused with the canonisation of Newman, such an illustrious saintly cardinal so closely associated to the founder of the Passionists. This author’s devotion is also related to the singular privilege his family’s ancestors received from St Paul who, during one of his countless apostolic missions throughout Italy, was given hospitality in his centuries old ancestral house in Abruzzo. A bust of the saint and a plaque on the entrance façade of the building are a reminder of this event.

This is the very house where this author was born in Oricola, a little town on a hilltop overlooking the Piana del Cavaliere, an area which is the gateway to the Abruzzo district of La Marsica, immediately after the border separating the Province of L’Aquila from that of Rome, on the route that connects the Tyrrhenian coast to the Adriatic sea, along the ancient Tiburtina-Valeria Roman road.