English Catholics rejoice over Cardinal Newman’s canonisation

HE WAS A towering intellectual, a friend of the poor, a stickler for religious dogma and a hero, at least posthumously, of the gay-rights movement. With the canonisation on October 13th of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890), English Catholicism has acquired its first saint who lived any more recently than the 17th century. For tens of thousands of compatriots who have campaigned for his spiritual and intellectual gifts to be recognised, this was one of the sweetest moments since the Reformation, when England’s monarchy and ruling institutions broke with Rome and established a new church, leaving Catholics a somewhat embattled minority.

As behoves an unusual cleric from an ever more diverse land, the ceremony in Rome was full of peculiarities. The British state was personified by Prince Charles, who would lose his entitlement to the throne, and hence his future status as ceremonial head of the Church of England, if he were to become a Catholic. The cardinal’s home town of Birmingham was represented by the lord mayor, Mohammed Azim, an adherent of the Muslim faith in which a plurality of the city’s youngsters are being raised. All that may be apt. During his lifetime, Newman won friends, as well as adversaries, in a wide variety of circles.