There has been a press release published on the recently created website for the Cause of the Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman. Please follow the link.It is interesting that the Venerable Cardinal leaves us nothing of himself. Perhaps it is something of his humility and virtue, his simple desire to be buried amongst his brothers, that God has allowed this interesting course of events. I reproduce the contents of the press release below:
Statement by Peter Jennings, Press Secretary to the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory and for the Cause of the Beatification and Canonisation of Cardinal Newman, Saturday 4 October 2008:
“The grave of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801 - 1890) was excavated with the utmost care on Thursday 2 October 2008, Feast of the Guardian Angels.
Cardinal Newman died on Monday 11 August 1890 and was buried in the small secluded cemetery at the Oratory House, Rednal, near Birmingham on Tuesday 19 August 1890. He was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II on 22 January 1991.
During the excavation the brass inscription plate which had been on the wooden coffin in which Cardinal Newman had rested was recovered from his grave. It reads:
‘Eminent [issimus] et Reverend [issimus] Joannes Henricus Newman Cardinalis Diaconus S Georgii in Velabro Obiit Die XI August. MDCCCXC RIP’
English Translation:
‘The Most Eminent and Most Reverend John Henry Newman Cardinal Deacon of St George in Velabro Died 11 August 1890 RIP’
Brass, wooden and cloth artefacts from Cardinal Newman’s coffin were found. However there were no remains of the body of John Henry Newman. An expectation that Cardinal Newman had been buried in a lead lined coffin proved to be unfounded. In the view of the medical and health professionals in attendance, burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition of the body unsurprising. The absence of physical remains in the grave does not affect the progress of Cardinal Newman’s Cause in Rome.
The Birmingham Oratory has always been in possession of some actual physical remains of Cardinal Newman. These consist of some locks of hair, some of which were sent to Deacon Jack Sullivan prior to his inexplicable cure.
These, together with items found in his grave, will be housed in a casket for a Vigil of Reception on Friday 31 October and Saturday 1 November, to be followed by the High Mass of All Saints on Sunday 2 November at 11.00 am, when the casket will be placed in the Oratory Church, Edgbaston.”
The Very Reverend Paul Chavasse, Provost of the Birmingham Oratory and Postulator of the Newman Cause said: “The lack of substantial physical remains does nothing to diminish our deep reverence for Cardinal Newman. Yesterday’s outcome seems to have a Providential significance.”
Father Chavasse added: “In the ‘Dream of Gerontius’, Cardinal Newman reflected on the experience of death. He wrote:
‘I went to sleep; and now I am refreshed. A strange refreshment: for I feel in me an inexpressive lightness, and a sense of freedom, as I were at length myself, and ne’er had been before’.
The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham said: “The establishment of this new location in the Oratory Church for our last bodily contacts with Cardinal Newman is an important moment and one that many people will want to mark with prayerful thanksgiving.
Picture is of the brass inscription plate on the wooden coffin in which Cardinal Newman was buried, recovered from his grave at Rednal on 2 October 2008. It is taken by Peter Jennings, and is the copyright of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory.
I am so glad to find your blog! I am a convert, and a relative of venerable John Henry Newman. I heard about him all through my childhood (when I was an Anglican/Episcopalian). When I converted, He became even more special to me. I have no doubt that he was praying me into the Church. When I am able to travel to Europe, the Oratory will be first on my agenda!
ReplyDeleteI hope to have the pleasure of meeting you one day, Becca. I'm sure you would be a guest of honour at the Birmingham Oratory. London has the biggest statue of Newman, though!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the Catholic church sees a lack of decomposition as one of the hallmarks of saintood and yet it is now claiming that total decomposition is providential?
ReplyDeleteI suppose that if one is determined to manufacture a saint, one must work with what one has. In this case...nothing ...so "nothing" must be seen as glorious.
Such hypocrisy is mind-bending.
Anonymous: I never suggested the body would be 'incorrupt' (which is a very rare but extraordinary supernatural occurance). It is not for us to assume why God has this happen in some people and not others, and I apologise if I was portraying the Catholic Church as assuming any such thing. I was simply expressing my own opinion about providence.
ReplyDelete"nothing" is not glorious; what is glorious is only the secure knowledge that Newman's legacy and life extends far beyond the dust he has left behind.
While many will be intensely disappointed that Cardinal Newman's remains have been absorbed into the earth this should not cause great worry. There is something strangely fitting in the dissolution of his body that fits the spirituality of the Dream of Gerontius. His work lives on in his writing and intercession and there is enough DNA in the mss of his letters to provide relics in abundance, if you need to have them. I hope that whatever was found in his grave will be put into the proposed marble sarcophagus in the Birmingham Oratory with the relics of his hair to provide a focus for prayer.
ReplyDelete