What happened?
Blessed John Henry Newman will soon be canonised, after Pope Francis officially recognised a second miracle. Medical and theological experts had already given their approval. A pregnant woman in Chicago was suffering life-threatening complications. She was healed through Newman’s intercession.
The convert, priest and theologian, who will be the first non-martyr Briton to be canonised since before the Reformation, was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
What the British media are saying
There was general recognition of the significance of the event. As the BBC observed: “The last English canonisations were in 1970 of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, a group of Catholics who were executed between 1535 and 1679 under laws enacted during the English Reformation.”
Local papers highlighted details of Newman’s life. “The founder of University College Dublin looks set to become a saint,” reported the Irish Examiner, while the Oxford Mail noted that “Cardinal Newman built
St Mary and St Nicholas Church, in Sandford Road, Littlemore, while still an Anglican in 1835.” The current Anglican incumbent, the Rev Margreet Armitstead, said: “He was famous as an academic but in Littlemore he was a parish priest.”
Oxford’s student newspaper Cherwell headlined its story: “Oriel fellow on the way to being canonised.”
In the Daily Telegraph, Fraser Nelson said that the Church “has long understood that saints convey religious points better than any number of any religious texts.” Newman’s canonisation can inspire public figures who come under pressure for their faith; or, indeed, “all kinds of religious people” who “find themselves on the wrong side of the accepted orthodoxy” of today. In a hostile environment, Newman “went against the grain, at some cost, to follow his conscience; and then eloquently explained himself, thereby doing his cause a momentous service”.
In a statement, Cardinal Vincent Nichols remarked: “During his life the people of Birmingham recognised his holiness and lined the streets at the time of his burial.”
What happened?
The Vatican has announced new regulations for its auditor general, bringing it more in line with United Nations agreements. Described as the “Vatican anti-corruption body”, the Auditor’s office monitors the finances of all Vatican dicasteries, looking for anomalies, irregularities, corruption and fraud.
Why was it under-reported?
The very concept of auditing is generally seen as dull. Yet in the case of the Vatican, it is vitally important. Whether the Vatican is seen as a state or as a company, when it appointed a new auditor general in 2015 it was to establish financial transparency. Two years later Libero Milone was forced to resign, amidst accusations that he had abused his office. He claimed that he had really been forced out because he was close to exposing powerful interests. In 2018, with no explanation, the Vatican said there would be no charges against him.
What will happen next?
Surprisingly enough, this vital post has been empty since June 2017, despite the Vatican saying then that it would be filled “as soon as possible”. The department has been overseen by Milone’s deputy, Alessandro Cassinis Righini. Perhaps the new regulations are a precursor to the appointment of a new auditor general.
Whether Milone did discover corruption in corners of the Vatican powerful enough to silence him is still unknown. Optimists will hope that his successor is given the opportunity to do the job fully.
British MPs will hold a debate on Monday on parents withdrawing children from “relationships and sex education” (RSE) lessons. The debate results from an online petition which reached 100,000 signatures. It stated: “We believe it is the parent’s fundamental right to teach their child RSE topics or to at least decide who teaches them and when and how they are taught.”
The annual Conference for Rural Catholics takes place from Monday to Wednesday at Sarum House, Salisbury. It will include a talk from Neil Parish MP, chairman of the Commons rural affairs committee. Details at ruralcatholic.org.uk.
Friday, March 1 is the feast of St David, patron of Wales. There will be celebrations in many towns. Cardiff hosts the National St David’s Day Parade, open to all “regardless of age, ethnic or social background”. St David was a 6th-century monk and doughty opponent of the heresy of Pelagianism, which originated in England. He was canonised by Pope Callixtus II in 1123.
Changing the world by reading Plato
At the American Conservative, the Eastern Orthodox writer Rod Dreher reported on a recent visit to Madrid.
He had met a group of young Catholic men who have banded together around a common vision. They are all suspicious of modern liberal society. “Liberalism is not something you can fight out front, like communism,” says one. “It creeps from beneath.”
The group – students, lawyers, priests, soldiers, and others – think Spain is essentially Catholic and needs to return to its identity. But they are not inspired by either General Franco’s Catholicism or the current Church hierarchy. They want to help rebuild Spanish culture from the ground up.
Their first task is self-education. “We can’t be serious about changing the world without having read Homer, Plato, St Thomas Aquinas, and others,” one told Dreher.
One, Ramon, says Spain faces “one assault after another on the very concept of the human … our transcendence, the immortality of our souls, our need for God, our masculine-female complementarity”.
But the answer is “to light a candle”, says another member of the group – to slowly rebuild society from the very lowest level. Electoral politics is unlikely to be the answer: “Society is in such a shape that if you have won an election, then you have probably done something wrong.”
China’s African conversion problem
At UnHerd, Christopher Rhodes noted that, according to McKinsey, there are about 10,000 Chinese-owned firms operating in Africa, and – according to some estimates – up to a million Chinese workers.
Many Evangelical churches have reached out to the workers, Rhodes said, “including incorporating Mandarin into services”. And they have had some success.
“Despite its best efforts,” he wrote, “China is losing its fight against Christianity, and the growing influx of citizens returning from Africa is shaping up to be another hopeless front in that war.”
Dear gay priests – lay people understand
At Sticking the Corners, Jennifer Fitz wrote an open letter to gay priests – specifically, the priests recently interviewed in the New York Times. They told stories of their distress – “the Church traumatised me for being a gay man” – and said that a culture of secrecy means that “It is not a closet. It is a cage.”
Fitz wrote: “I have good news for you: there are other Catholics who want to be faithful to our vows – whether that be the vows of ordination, or marriage, or baptism, we’re all in this together.” We all, not just priests, feel “fierce temptations to act on urges that are not consistent with our human dignity”.
Few Catholics, Fitz wrote, will be “clutching our pearls” at the priests’ stories, because we know this internal turmoil is not the final reality. “Satan wants to keep you constantly looking inward, gazing at your story of shame and pity, because then you’ll forget that shame and pity aren’t the end of your story. You’ll forget the whole reason you’re Catholic: because you are much more than the sum of your sins. You are made for eternal glory.”
✣ A deserted island with ancient monastic ruins is up for sale for €1.25 million (£1.1 million). High Island, or Ardoileánh, lies off the coast of Connemara in the west of Ireland. The 7th-century monastic settlement is a national monument.
The 80-acre island also boasts a stone beehive hut, an old miner’s cottage, two lakes and thousands of birds. Archaeologists have established that humans have lived on the island since 300 BC, and possibly as much as 700 years earlier. The last inhabitants of the island were a few copper miners in the early 19th century.
✣ An association called “Friends of Papa Luna” is seeking to rehabilitate the 14th-century antipope Benedict XIII. The group, named after his original name Pedro Martínez de Luna, is petitioning the Vatican to recognise “his moral, academic and cultural dignity by repealing his excommunication and incorporating him as a legitimate and faithful son of the Church”.
Benedict was elected in 1394 during the Avignon period, when there were rival popes. His task was to help heal the schism, then resign at the cardinals’ request. But when they elected a new pope in 1417 Benedict refused to resign. He moved to Spain where he ended his days in poverty.
“I hope every parish priest in England will hold his head high today”
Cardinal Nichols on Newman’s miracle
Twitter
“Very excellent sir…”
Pope Francis writes to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro – significantly avoiding the word ‘president’
Corriere della Serra
“It’s hard to be a Catholic”
Actress Mia Farrow, after revelations of abuse in Brooklyn diocese
Twitter
“The near-total silence of the global episcopate … [is] inexplicable”
Fr Aidan Nichols on doctrinal confusion
LifeSiteNews
4,500
Estimated number of priests who say the Traditional Latin Mass
Source: Paix Liturgique
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