We continue with the great humanist and sage J.H. Newman. He wanted a revitalization of the Church of England and formed the Oxford Movement,  with an attempt to return to the roots of Christianity. But he encountered something he did not expect…

He is beginning to realize that Roman Catholicism  is the one that preserves the authentic faith of the apostles, but perhaps it is somewhat “dusty” or degraded by the passage of time… He perceives that the true faith is in the primitive Church of the Fathers and the first Councils, since in them the apostolic doctrine is collected with the deposit of revealed truth. 

Drawing on his intellectual work and profound study of the origins of Christianity, beginning with the early Church Fathers, he wrote the essay: “The Development of Christian Doctrine.” In it, he presents ideas about doctrine as something living that grows and develops throughout history. Not static and unchangeable, but alive, with an essence from its origin that must remain.

After much reflection and writing this treatise, he took the step of converting to the Catholic Church. This occurred in 1845.

He leaves those places where he has developed his training, and in 1846 he goes to Oscott, to a Catholic center, and a little later to Rome.

He knows that the truth makes us free, and that truth must be known with the intellect, and grasped with the heart, that is, experienced, made one’s own life. 

In Oscott he discovers for the first time, with amazement and gratitude, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist,  for he has a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament in his own house.

Months later he goes to Rome, and remembers the Church Fathers. There they admire him and treat him with deference, given his background, but he is disappointed by the level of ecclesiastical studies and the lack of critical thinking and creativity in many theological writings, as they are somewhat resistant to change there .

Then he discovers a reality that greatly attracts him: the Oratory founded by Saint Philip Neri.  It will be he who takes him to the British Isles.

Saint Philip Neri is the saint of joy, good humor, and young people.  He said, ” A joyful heart more easily attains perfection than a sad one.”… One of his thoughts on trust: “Let us throw ourselves into God’s arms and be certain that, if He wants something from us, He will give us the strength to do everything He desires us to do.”

In 1847, Newman was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church. He returned to England to establish the Oratory in Birmingham, with the Pope’s blessing, overcoming many difficulties. The Oratory fostered a very humanistic, Christian vision. It was there that later intellectuals, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and his brother Hilary, found refuge and nurtured after the death of their mother, Mabel. There they discovered a true home and a community where they felt loved. 

Newman delivered lectures at the Oratory  for lay people, which were later collected in “Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England,” defending the compatibility of being a good citizen and professing the Catholic faith,  something that was controversial in that English environment. He also wrote a novel: “Callista,” about the early days of Christianity, incorporating some of his own experiences.

Later, in 1854, the Pope entrusted him with organizing a  Catholic University in Ireland. He went to Dublin, but it took him quite some time to get this initiative off the ground, as he encountered many difficulties and problems of all kinds. At the same time, he oversaw the Oratory in Birmingham. He wanted a predominance of lay people at the University, something very difficult given the clerical mentality of England… He would become its Rector, and he began writing  “The Idea of ​​a University,” which would be published in 1859.

In it, he points out that learned clergymen must be familiar with other fields of knowledge, and that students of scientific subjects cannot neglect universal knowledge : neither “philosophy” itself, or the cultivation of the intellect,  nor theology. In this way, they attempt to achieve a complete understanding of reality, which is one and indivisible.

Because faith and reason are different, but they study the same reality. Science answers more practical, measurable questions, the “hows” of things, while faith and theology point to the “whys”… the ultimate questions of the meaning of life.

That is, to integrate knowledge, to seek universal understanding, not reductive or utilitarian specializations, which are so diminishing. Newman re-establishes the union between science and religion, between the human and the supernatural, as it truly is. To overcome reductionism and scientism in order to understand this wonder that has been given to us.

He continued this work until 1858, the year he left the Catholic University of Dublin and focused on the Birmingham Oratory community .  He had already established a solid foundation at the University, with excellent professors, a medical school, and an adjacent church where he disseminated ideas and delivered sermons offering practical lessons for personal experience. 

The year 1864 was a time of  silence  and sorrow in Birmingham. A time of “silence”… He faced criticism for his conversion, as did the Catholic Church. And he felt compelled to defend the Church. He then wrote ” Apologia pro vita sua,” his account of his conversion, to demonstrate that the truth lay there. Because he took the step, not for human reasons, but because of that inner light that guided him, that calling, ultimately, because of grace.

And he argues clearly, yet delicately… Without offending the Church from which he learned Christianity, and with gratitude towards it. He concludes that revealed truth resides in the faithful deposit of the Church,  and in the early Councils. Without compromising his principles.

He understands the Christian life as an inner call to holiness for each person.   He perceives that everyone has a specific mission in life, as he himself experienced, and can grow in holiness within their own environment. It is not something reserved for an elite, or for priests, but for everyone. A universal call to holiness.

And, in this vein, to arrive at the truth, he explains the embrace of faith and reason, which support each other. In this sense, in 1870 he wrote an essay to better understand this and contribute to the ” Grammar of Assent.”  A profound book with great theological wisdom, it connects intellectual work, certainty, the light of conscience, the heart, and ultimately, assent. A  faith that integrates and embraces. With all of this, he forms that “grammar” for understanding the prodigious revealed truth , which has been given to us freely as “good news,” which grows and is “alive” with the comprehension of all its elements and with real, experiential assent.

We’ll see…

We continue with his life. Somewhat later, in 1874, he wrote the well-known Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, in which he clarifies the compatibility between being a good subject of the Queen and living the Catholic faith. In it, he also speaks of conscience, of that natural law that Thomas Aquinas points out, which participates in the eternal law of God in each person. A messenger of God himself…

The following year, his great friend and collaborator since his Littlemore days, Ambrose Saint John, and a member of the early Oratorians, died. And in 1877, he received a great joy: he was named an Honorary Fellow at Oxford. He experienced this with heartfelt gratitude in the place where his life and faith had grown.

Later, in 1979, the new Pope, Leo XIII, named him Cardinal in recognition of his fidelity to the search for Truth. And he chose as his motto “cor ad cor loquitur”:  “heart speaks to heart ,” with a seal that his father had used.

It reveals a deep desire in his  heart to  enter into intimate union with the Heart of God , and in this way better reach the hearts of human beings.

In this sense, he said something very profound, as many “wise men” have perceived:  ” Only He who created the heart is sufficient for it .”

This motto of the heart offers a glimpse into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced from within the heart itself. That is to say, the deep desire of the human heart to enter into intimate union with the Heart of God, as Benedict XVI pointed out at Newman’s beatification.

To be continued…

If you’d like to learn more, I recommend some of his books, such as ” Apologia pro vita sua “ or ” Gramática del assentimiento.”  And on this author, for example, Mariano Fazio’s ” Contracorriente hacia la libertad,” a beautiful work on various authors, and JM Mañú’s “Semblanza de Newman” published by Ed. Palabra.