The Genteel Doctor

Today is, of course, the feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, so happy feast day to you all! 

 

Much has been said about Newman, at this stage there must be thousands of books and doctoral theses.  But one of the things which impresses me about him was his precision and subtlety.  He realised that the mysteries of God, while fulsome and magnificent, need to be understood in truth, in their accuracy, if I may say that.  Newman was no slob when it came to theology or spirituality, he was genteel and careful.  I suppose his study of the Arians will have helped him see that at times there is a fine line between the truth and heresy, between the responsible proclamation of truth and the wobbly misinterpretation and misrepresentation.   Newman teaches us that we must be careful. 

Being careful and accurate does not make us prudes or inauthentic, rather it reminds us that even in exploration and teaching of the faith we must adhere to virtue, in particular prudence, and reason.   Newman never involved himself in verbal or theological jujitsu, faith was too important, too deep, too adventurous for that.  He certainly basked in the mystery and sought to bring others out from beneath the umbrella into the full light of the blazing Son.  Nor does this care undermine passion and love - Blessed John Henry was a passionate lover of Christ.  And it does not undermine zeal - John Henry had zeal in buckets - just read his letters.  No, it helps us keep our heads so when we give our hearts we can do so with even greater understanding and generosity.

By the way, for those of you interested in relics, as you know Blessed John Henry's body disintegrated, so the only relics we have are locks of his hair preserved by friends, his clothes and his possessions.  However, one piece of bone survived the quicklime and is now preserved in the Oratory in Birmingham. 

 

Updates, Snippets And A New Blessed For India

I have updated the pro-life page on the blog.  If any of the pro-life organisations want me to post additional information about their campaigns and events, please let me know and I will do what I can to include them.

A few interesting snippets for you.  Matthew Archbald has a very good article on the issue of the separation of Church and State - it is a one way street, he tells us. How true, those who call for separation of Church and State tend to mean control of the Church by the State.  William Oddie over at the Herald has a good piece on the liberals's obsession with quoting Blessed John Henry Newman to support their dissent.   There is no way Blessed John Henry would support our present tribe of dissidents in their attempts to force the Church replace the timeless teaching of Christ for their ephemeral views. 

Mgr Charles Pope has a good article on St Nicholas, whose feast it is today.  According to Mgr Pope, St Nicholas are neither fat nor jolly: he quotes that story of the Saint at the Council of Nicea which has endeared the Saint to me.  Now I do not propose violence as the solution to any problem, but I think the incident brings Nicholas to life and reveals his passion for Christ and the truth.

With recent events I did not get a chance to blog on the new Blessed, beatified last Sunday in India.  Blessed Devasahayam Pillai, layman and martyr: indeed he is the first Indian layman to be beatified. 

Blessed Devasahayam was born on the 23rd April 1712 into a wealthy southern Indian family, in Nattalam.  He was named Neelakanda.  His father was a Hundu priest.  According to the traditions of his culture he was raised by a maternal uncle who was a pious Hindu, and so the young boy was brought up in the way of Hinduism.  His family was influential and well received at court of the king of Travancore, and so when he was old enough, he entered into the royal service under the king, Maharaja Marthanda Varma.  As a capable and gifted young man he soon attracted the attention of court officials and the king himself and Neelakanda was soon moving up the ladder in the palace and soon occupied an important position in the area of state affairs.  It was at this time that he met a young woman, Bargavi Ammal and they married.

The Maharaja was an influential monarch and sought to consolidate his power in various ways, one of the most successful being through his maritime pursuits.  He had been a soldier and he was renowned for his ability as a tactician, so he brought this gift to his relationship with external powers.  Following a war with the Dutch East India Company – which he won, he captured a number of naval commanders, among them Captain Eustachius De Lannoy whom he pardoned on condition he serve in the Maharaja’s army.  This led to Neelakanda’s meeting with the Dutchman and the development of friendship between them.  It was in the context of this friendship that the young Hindu was first acquainted with Catholicism and he found it most attractive.  The Dutch captain instructed the young official in the faith, and Neelakanda decided to seek baptism.  

Neelakanda was baptised in 1745 by a Jesuit priest, Fr Boutarri, at their mission in Vadakkankulam.  He took as his baptismal name Lazarus, after the disciple of the Lord, and this translated as Devasahayam in his native tongue.  His wife also converted, taking the name Teresa, or in their native language Gnanapoo; other members of his family would eventually follow him into the Church.

While there was no official persecution of the Catholic Church in the kingdom of Travancore, it was not permissible for a state official to become a Christian.  Devasahayam soon found himself facing difficulties.  The Brahmin chief priest of the kingdom and other officials eventually brought false charges against him, accusing him of treason.  He was stripped of his office, arrested and for the next three years subject to torture to make him renounce his Catholic faith.  Devasahayam remained steadfast; his wife Gnanapoo was safe at the Jesuit mission.  In 1752 sentence was eventually passed against him and he was condemned to death.   The execution was to take place at Kuzhumaikkad, and the pre-execution ritual was observed, with the condemned being brought to the place of execution on a buffalo.  When he reached the place, however, Devasahayam was told that the king had granted a reprieve – the death sentence had been commuted to a series of tortures and then banishment. 

On his journey to exile, he was painted with red and black spots and put on public show as a traitor, beaten every day and given only stagnant water to drink.   According to the traditions of local Catholics, God worked miracles to quench the Blessed’s thirst, and Devasahayam is believed to have healed people.  When he reached the place of exile, Aralvaimozhy, he settled down to a life of prayer and meditation.  Among the local people he gained a reputation as a holy man and they began to flock to him.  In these encounters, Devasahayam preached the Gospel.  However, local Hindu priests were not happy and they conspired to rid themselves of the Christian holy man.

On the 14th January 1752 soldiers went up to the place where Devasahayam lived to shoot him.  Unable to fire their guns, the holy man took one of the weapons and blessed it and gave it back to his persecutors.  Untouched by his holiness, the soldiers fired again and killed him.  His body was discarded, but later recovered and buried in the Church of St Francis Xavier in Kottar.

Controversy surrounds the life and martyrdom of Blessed Devasahayam.  Some historians claim that there was no persecution of Christians at that time in Travancore, yet contemporary documents show that the conversion of state officials to Christianity was not permitted .   That he was killed is accepted, but some maintain that he was executed for treason and sedition and not for his faith.  There is enough evidence, however, to prove that Devasahayam was indeed martyred for his faith, and many local traditions, which were found to be sound, testify to his holiness and miracles.  After an exhaustive examination of the evidence, Pope Benedict signed the Decree of Martyrdom, and the beatification took place last Sunday in Kottar.  His body rests in the Cathedral of Kottar.

New Feasts

My attention was drawn earlier today, to two new feast days in Ireland.  It seems, according to Liturgy Ireland, we finally have a feast for Our Lady of Knock - the 17th August (and not the 21st, the day of the apparition, since it is the feast of St Pius X).  Also, Blessed John Henry Newman's feast, it seems, has been extended to Ireland, which is wonderful (See National Calendar here).  So kudos to our bishops for these two wonderful additions to the calendar.  The texts for both feasts are proper, and a new collect for Blessed Columba Marmion has also been added  (memoria of Our Lady of Knock, optional memoria of Blessed John Henry Newman, collect for Blessed Columba Marmion).   From what I can gather, these feasts were approved on the 2nd April last (Prot. N. 454/10/L).  I must say, reading through the Mass of Our Lady of Knock, the texts are lovely.  I have to reproduce collect and prayer after communion: 

Collect
O God, who give hope to your people in a time of distress,
grant that we who keep the memorial
of the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Knock
may, through her intercession,
be steadfast in the faith during our earthly pilgrimage to heaven,
and so come to eternal glory with all the angels and the Saints.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Prayer after Communion
Having been nourished at the banquet of the heavenly Lamb,
we humbly beseech you Lord,
that we, who have honoured in veneration
the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
may live for you always in justice and holiness,  
and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart.
Through Christ our Lord.

I presume these new feasts and texts will be included in the new translation of the Missal.  All that said, I cannot find any announcement from the Episcopal Conference about this anywhere.  I rang the Communications Office - they seem not to know about it either.  So that's not good, how are our priests and people to find out about these new feasts?  I rang them when I found out, so they said they would look into it and get back to me.  So I am going to hold my breath now.  

UPDATE:  Just received a call from the Communications Office (fair dues to them returning the call so soon).  No announcement or Press Release has been made.  So I asked them to do so, to draw people's attention in the Church in Ireland to these new celebrations.   Let's hope they do so.  Minor matter, perhaps, but there are a lot of people out there who will be delighted to hear now have an official liturgical commemoration of Our Lady of Knock.

The Unseen World

An Italian director is working on a movie about Blessed John Henry Newman, and she has cast oscar winning actor F. Murray Abraham to play the Blessed - that sounds interesting. Rome Reports has a news item on it (see below).    The director, Liana Marabini has a devotion to Blessed John Henry, and in this movie, due to be released mid 2011, she is reflecting on his priesthood.  "Newman was above all, a wonderful priest" she says in her interview - true.  The beatification of a priest is always a call to the priests of a particular age to look upon the one glorified to find the lesson for their own lives.  Newman has much to say to the priests of our time. I will look forward to seeing this movie.

I see the director is convinced of the role film can play in evangelisation.  In her interview she says: “A film is a very good tool to have evangelize the culture and the world.  It's exactly what we need now, we need God in our lives in order to live better, to be more successful, to be happier.” I could not agree more.  Members of the Fraternity, remember her and her work in your prayers.

All Souls

We hear so little about Purgatory these days, and yet without it, there is no sense to today's commemoration.  I'm not going to provide a defence of the Church's teaching on Purgatory - it is in Scripture and in Tradition (that teaching handed down to us from the apostles), so that should be enough for the disciples of Christ.   But I am concerned about the souls who are no longer being prayed for.  As a priest in modern Ireland I have had to deal with immediate canonisation ceremonies (aka funerals).  Everyone now goes straight to heaven, it seems, even those who did not believe in God or did not live a good, moral life.  Today's commemoration reminds us that we cannot be so presumptuous, that we must realise that our sinfulness does have consequences and damages us.  While we may not be damned, we do need to undergo a period of purification so we can enter into glory of heaven.  That purification requires assistance from the living by means of prayers, sacrifices and acts of charity.  The effectiveness of these pious works on behalf of the dead is a indication of the union which exists within the Body of Christ.

Today I will offer my three Masses for the Holy Souls: I encourage all my brother priests to avail of that privilege for the sake of our brothers and sisters being purified.   I would also appeal to them to remind the faithful of the Church's teaching on Purgatory so prayer for the Holy Souls will not be neglected as it has been for many years.  We ourselves hope to one day benefit from the prayers and sacrifices of the Church on earth.  I would also encourage the laity to have Masses offered for the Holy Souls.  My late singing teacher, Evelyn Dowling, made a resolution to have a Mass offered every month for the Holy Souls, and she remained faithful to that until her death.  I imitated her practice and as a layman arranged for Mass to be offered each month for the Holy Souls - now I offer the monthly Mass myself - one of my own and separate from Mass requests -not a bad practice for priests to adopt. 

In honour of the Holy Souls on their day, a little piece from Blessed John Henry Newman's Dream of Gerontius in which Gerontius asks to be taken into Purgatory so he may be purified and prepared for heaven:

"Take me away, and in the lowest deep
              There let me be,
And there in hope the lone night-watches keep,
              Told out for me.
There, motionless and happy in my pain,
              Lone, not forlorn,—
There will I sing my sad perpetual strain,
              Until the morn.
There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast,
              Which ne'er can cease
To throb, and pine, and languish, till possest
              Of its Sole Peace.
There will I sing my absent Lord and Love:—
              Take me away,
That sooner I may rise, and go above,
And see Him in the truth of everlasting day."

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them

may they rest in peace.

Ordinariates

Great news yesterday from Anna Arco in the Catholic Herald.  The leader of the Forward in Faith movement, a group of orthodox Anglicans, Bishop John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham, has announced that he is entering the Catholic Church; he hopes to be a member of the Ordinariate established by Pope Benedict XVI before the end of the year (his keynote address can be downloaded here).  According to Damien Thompson, this makes four Anglican bishops who are preparing to enter the Church.  This is wonderful news.  Bishop Broadhurst has been working for many years trying to find a solution to the problems posed within Anglicanism by recent innovations.  He will be an asset to the Church and will help many others who are discerning entering with his wisdom and example.  We must accompany him with our prayers. 

One question I am asking myself is: are these Anglicans converting?   Can we use that word, since many of them already accept most of the teachings of the Catholic faith (the primacy of the Pope may be a difficulty for some)? For many years they have believed in the Real Presence as the Catholic Church teaches, they love Our Lady with that gentle passion which is traditionally English and beautiful; they embrace the saints and venerate them as we do.  They love the liturgy and have been celebrating it in a "Roman manner" (if I can say that), and they have been deferential towards the Holy See, desiring union in their hearts for many years.  Ironically their faith has been more Catholic than some within the Church as it is.  But is this conversion?  I don't think so.  In official terms they are entering full communion with the Catholic Church and the successor of St Peter.  We could say they are coming home, or taking their rightful places in the family of the faith. 

I think Pope Benedict's visit to the UK has helped these Anglicans and convinced them of his sincerity and the warmth of the welcome he will give them.  Contrary to what the press maintains, Benedict is not poaching, but as a loving father opening the door even wider to help restore unity among Christians.  I also think Blessed John Henry is working in heaven and obtaining myriad graces for all concerned.

Whole Anglican parish in Kent also coming into the Church: see here.