Visit a shining moment for Benedict, Newman

The Catholic Register, 01 October 2020

The 2010 visit to Great Britain was important for three key reasons which unite the figures of Newman and Benedict.

This autumn brings a trifecta of anniversaries for those of us devoted to St. John Henry Newman.

It’s the 175th anniversary of his reception into the Catholic Church (Oct. 9, also chosen to be his feast day). It’s 10 years since his beatification in Birmingham and one year since his canonization last year in Rome. And we urgently need his intercession this year, as all the campus ministries named in his honour are struggling to function during the pandemic. Most of our activities aim to bring people together and build up a fellowship of faith; bans on gathering make our evangelical work very difficult.

One of the highlights of my 25 years in Catholic journalism was covering the 2010 pilgrimage — and official state visit — of Benedict XVI to Great Britain to beatify Cardinal Newman. It was a signature moment of his pontificate, as was, for example St. John Paul II’s canonization of Faustina Kowalska on Divine Mercy Sunday 2000 as the “first saint of the third millennium,” or his beatification of Jacinta and Francisco at Fatima later that same year.

I had hoped to go to San Salvador in January 2019 for what would have been a similar moment for Pope Francis, the canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose heroic witness inspired me even as a teenager. But it was not to be, despite the fervent wishes of the bishops of El Salvador. The Holy Father was next door in Panama for World Youth Day and the canonization of Romero in his own diocese would only have been a day trip, but Pope Francis opted for a ceremony in Rome instead.

At the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI had decided that he would no longer do beatifications himself, as John Paul had done, but revive an older tradition of beatifications being done in the local place by a papal delegate. Yet he made an exception for John Henry Newman, deciding to travel to Birmingham personally for the occasion.

The 2010 visit to Great Britain was important for three key reasons which unite the figures of Newman and Benedict: the importance of history, the importance of seeking the truth and the importance of civil public discourse. All of which are just as relevant in 2020.

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