Newman squared


For those of us Catholics who go to church at a public university in the United States, an important day is coming, although the date isn't set yet. All the preparation is in place for Pope Benedict to declare John Henry Newman Blessed. This is the last step before he could officially be declared a saint. Word is that Benedict is anxious to make this happen.

Newman was an Anglican priest and professor at Oxford University when he converted to Roman Catholicism. A voluminous writer (one of the problems with declaring Newman a saint has been that all of his writings have to be thoroughly reviewed and he wrote A LOT) one of his works is The Idea of a University. Early in the last century the movement of campus ministry at public universities in the US named itself for Newman. Often the campus ministry at a public university is referred to as a Newman Center.

The campus ministry at UofL joined the Newman movement back in the 1930's. There's an official signed certificate attesting to that in Sarah's office. But so far as we can tell the UofL Newman Center never adopted a saint as a patron. So maybe if we wait a few months we could adopt Blessed John Newman as our patron, and officially become the Blessed John Henry Newman Newman Center. After all it makes sense. In 1879 the pope made Newman a Cardinal.

3 comments:

Parris said...

That would be pretty sweet!

If he does become canonized, would the title then automatically become St. John Henry Newman Neuman Center or would the title be stuck in the beatified state?

U of L Catholic Campus Ministry said...

It would automatically change. St Elizabeth Seton parish started as Blessed, I think. But it would still be a Newman Center. John Nuemann was a bishop from Philadelphia and is already a saint.

Sarah Fellows said...

You can find something in my office?

 
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