The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has instructed that Newman's body be exhumed and buried in the Oratory Church - normal, standard procedure after the approval of the miracle required for his beatification. Fr Peter Weatherby has picked up on the consequent revival of the slur about Newman's friendship with Ambrose St John. (Cf. The concept of friendship has died)Newman insisted on being buried in the same grave as Ambrose St John. Martin Pendergast has claimed that the "relationship" slowed Newman's beatification. (Cf. Telegraph: Vatican orders Cardinal Newman to be parted from priest friend in shared grave) Pendergast, of course, has an interest in saying this - a long-time homosexual campaigner, and civil partner of former CAFOD head, Julian Filochowski, the appropriation of Newman as a gay hero. The Pink Paper follows up the story with its own spin ("Cardinal's same-sex resting place upsets Vatican saint makers")
I wrote about this question nearly two years ago when I went to visit the grave at Rednal: Grave of John Henry Newman. Fr Guy Nicholls instructed me to take a photograph not only of Newman's grave but of the two either side.
As I said back then: "On the left is the grave of Edward Caswall who died in 1878: on the right is John Joseph Gordon who died in 1853; Ambrose St John died in 1875. All three of these men worked very closely with Newman and he felt that they had died relatively young in helping to carry forward his own projects. His instruction for his own burial was not a gesture of affection for St John alone but a desire for the mortal remains of the four of them to imitate the cross."As Fr Ian Ker, the renowned Newman scholar, rightly pointed out, the concept of friendship has died. Indeed some customs were only possible on the basis of a general sense of decency. In Newman's time, it was quite common for men to share a bed in a hostel or hotel - if you were of modest means, this might have been with a complete stranger. Moreover, the Victorians were capable of intense friendship without any sexual expression and often spoke in language that seems overly sentimental to us. Nobody in Newman's time would have had the slightest suspicion that his friendship with Ambrose St John was anything other than chaste and celibate.
If the Pink Paper and other gay activists want to hail Newman as their hero, they should bear in mind that he would have considered any such suggestion as a disgusting and outrageous slur on his character. Catholics among them might do well to reflect on what Newman said in his Discourse to Mixed Congregations (IV) on "Purity and Love":
The impure then cannot love God; and those who are without love of God cannot really be pure. Purity prepares the soul for love, and love confirms the soul in purity.
8 comments:
“…the concept of friendship has died.”
Only for those of a prurient mind, both within and without the Church; it is for those of us who still value the distinction, to tread carefully when dealing with “couples”, who are not, what the modern world wants them to be.
Interesting you point out the custom that in the 19th century for one, men would share a bed without necessarily any sexual intent or connotation.
There was a fairly recent book out about Lincoln wherein it was mentioned (and similarly explained) that when young Lincoln was doing the rounds of the circuit court, etc. in Illinois there was a period of his life where he shared a bed in a residence with a fellow lawyer. Both of them had families, and there was absolutely no hackles raised at the time, because as you say, it was not an uncommon practice.
Karen
Newman would 'turn in his grave!'.Since I was only standing by his grave yesterday I am horrified at the lurid suggestions.
Actually Newman had very deep friendships with lots of women so what do the gay rights lobby make of that then?
Again today even if you have very pure relationships with people of the opposite sex people today cast aspersions. Sad!
As a standoffish American, I nonetheless can understand the close friendships between males. Nothing strikes me as more ridiculous than these pathetic attempts to simultaneously undermine the teaching of the Church and support the homosexual agenda. I hear the same rather constantly about Tolkien and Lewis. It's sad.
I think for those whose worldview and personal identity are defined by their aberrant sexual proclivities, the notion that a true friendship between two men would be sexualized is not too much of a stretch.
I recall that actor Ian McKellen who brilliantly portrayed Gandalf the Grey in the LOTR series and is publicly a homosexual intimated that even the friendship between Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins was sexual in nature.
Of course the same has been said of Muppets, Ernie and Bert.
I guess you see what you want to see...
In ICXC,
Fr. Deacon Daniel
As Fr Ian Ker, the renowned Newman scholar, rightly pointed out, the concept of friendship has died.
Moreover, the Victorians were capable of intense friendship without any sexual expression and often spoke in language that seems overly sentimental to us.
This only highlights how much the poorer we moderns have become in our relationships, especially we men. We have become accustomed to live in very shallow pools indeed and to be reluctant to show affection to each other for fear that that affection will be interpreted as sexual attraction. When I read Boswell's Life of Johnson I can only compare our modern friendships unfavourably - there is little tenderness, little genuiune desire for the other's good, and little love. There is a dependent relationship between affection and our displays of affection, the one thrives on the other.
That is why long-lasting friendships seem to have become the exception rather than the rule and we now have more "on-line friends" than real friends. John Henry Newman could teach us a great deal about friendship. Reading Christopher Dawson's The Oxford Movement I was greatly struck by the depth of his feelings for his friend Hurrell Froude and Newman's love and admiration for him.
Surely you all know of the depth of feeling between David and Jonathan and how David wept at the killing of Jonathan.
I quote from 2Kings verse 26:
"I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan: exceedingly beautiful, and amiable to me above the love of women. As the mother loveth her only son, so did I love thee."
And yes, I have shared a bed with a friend with neither of us thinking anything about it. Neither my friend or I had ever come across any homosexuals (that we knew of) at that stage in our lives.
And I don't belong to the 19th century either!
JARay
I think Cardinal Newman must be the most improbable gay icon ever!
Asterix and Obelix? We know what they were into!
Morecombe and Wise? Oo-er, missus!
Laurel and Hardy? Don't get me started!
Prendergast and the Catholic gay rights league are clearly getting pretty desperate.
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