Cardinal Newman: he was a seeker of truth, and he sought after the truth with a human face.
Newman also understood that truth has a cost, as his conversion to Catholicism left him with many friends (and family members) who would no longer speak to him. At the same time, he was also widely distrusted by the Catholics of England for years after his conversion, so his reception of the cardinal’s hat from Pope Leo XIII in 1879 was a real vindication of his life’s work. He himself explained some months later why he accepted: “For 20 or 30 years ignorant or hot-headed Catholics have said almost that I was a heretic . . . On the other hand it had long riled me, that Protestants should condescendingly say that I was only half a Catholic, and too good to be what they were in Rome. I therefore felt myself constrained to accept.”
One cannot overlook the price that Newman paid in his search for truth. His example teaches us that searching for truth is not necessarily rewarded with an easy life. In addition to the difficulties his decision to become Catholic caused in his personal life, his professional life was not excepted from troubles. Newman’s suffering didn’t stop him, but it was severe. In his private journal from 1863, he expressed his feelings:
O how forlorn and dreary has been my course since I have been a Catholic! . . . since I made the great sacrifice, to which God called me, He has rewarded me in ten thousand ways, O how many! but He has marked my course with unintermittent mortification . . . since I have been a Catholic, I seem to myself to have had nothing but failure, personally.
Newman passionately searched for truth, and his conscience directed him in his search. He became Catholic when his conscience directed him to do so, aware of the cost but not deterred by it. It was simply what he had to do. As John Ford phrased it, Newman was received into full communion with the Church only when he became “convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was where his favorite patristic authors – Athanasius, Ambrose, Augustine – would worship were they alive today.”
For those new to the writings of Saint John Henry Newman, his Parochial and Plain Sermons provide an accessible and engaging introduction to his thought and spirituality. The biographies of Newman are legion; for a fascinating alternative view, consult Joyce Sugg’s Ever Yours Affly: John Henry Newman and His Female Circle (Fowler Wright Books Ltd., 1997) for insight on how Newman related to the women in his life.
https://slmedia.org/blog/lead-kindly-light-saint-john-henry-newman-patron-of-seekers
Newman eventually wrote 40 books and 21,000 letters that survive. Most famous are his book-length Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine, Apologia Pro Vita Sua—his spiritual autobiography up to 1864—and Essay on the Grammar of Assent. He accepted Vatican I’s teaching on papal infallibility while noting its limits, which many people who favored that definition were reluctant to
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-henry-newman/
https://www.urnewman.org/about/our-patron-saint/
Feast day October 9
atican City, Sep 10, 2010 / 09:45 am
Differing from the traditional practice, the feast day of Cardinal John Henry Newman will not be celebrated on the day of his death. Instead, in his memory the Church will celebrate his feast on the day he converted to Catholicism.
With Cardinal Newman's beatification just nine days away, the missal has been published by the Holy See on its website and in print by Magnificat. Included in the missal's nearly 500 pages of information on the papal visit and liturgical details is the Rite of Beatification for the famous cardinal on Sunday, Sept. 19.
During the Eucharist celebration at Birmingham's Cofton Park, the Holy Father will pronounce what is called the "Formula of Beatification," in which he declares that Cardinal Newman should "henceforth be invoked as Blessed."
Following these words, Benedict XVI will also proclaim that from here forward Cardinal Newman's feast is to be celebrated on October 9.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/john-henry-newman-a-saint-for-students/
John Henry Newman CO (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet, first as an Anglican priest and later as a Catholic priest and cardinal, or as the Franciscan Media puts it John Henry Newman was the 19th-century’s most important English-speaking Catholic theologian, who spent the first half of his life as an Anglican and the second half as a Roman Catholic. He was a priest, popular preacher, writer, and eminent theologian, canonised in 2019.
https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/john-henry-newman-a-saint-for-students/#:~:text=Newman%20is%20perhaps%20best%20known,was%20founded%20in%20Newman%27s%20honor.
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