THE P RTAL


March 2012


Page 13


Building upon the Rock: Newman’s visits to Rome


by Brother Sean


THE PILGRIMAGE of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to Rome gives us an apt occasion to reflect on the various occasion in which our patron, Blessed John Henry Newman, visited this most noblest of cities.


Significant mile-stones Newman journeyed to the Eternal City on four


separate occasions, and it is very striking to see how each was charged with very differently contrasting circumstances and emotions. In retrospect we can see how Newman’s “Roman” visits marked significant mile-stones in his life and religious development: his first visit in 1833 was as an Anglican minister, while the second, some thirteen years later, was as a Roman Catholic layman, his third visit to Rome in 1856 was when he was Provost of the Birmingham Oratory, and finally his final stay in 1879 was as Cardinal elect.


Newman once said that “To live is to change and to be


perfect is to have changed oſten.” In this brief overview of Newman’s four visits to the heart of the Church we can see that this principle of constant renewal had indeed become reality in his own life.


College of the Propaganda In 1832 Newman, the young Oxford don, had


undertaken a Mediterranean with his very good friend Hurrell Froude. On a ship via Gibraltar, Malta and Naples, Newman and Froude arrived in Rome in early March 1833, staying there for over a month. Te many letters which Newman wrote from Rome during this first visit give us a very divided picture of his impressions.


Newman was fascinated with the greatness of the


historic empire and its ancient capital, inspired by the city’s beauty which he claimed exceeded that of his Alma Mater of Oxford, and wary of the “Roman Church” which he still held in suspicion. With some criticism he spoke of the seminarians he saw as the “little monks of Rome [...] so innocent and bright [...] poor boys.” Newman leſt Rome for the first time in awe of her glory yet with deep prejudices against her.


Newman’s second visit was under very different circumstances. Aſter


the storm of the Oxford


Movement had passed and just a year aſter his reception into the Church Newman, with Ambrose St


Mgr Keith in the Church of St George in the Marsh - San Georgio Palabro - the titular church of John Henry Cardinal Newman, our Patron


Newman’s final visit was in many ways a returning


to the Rock of Peter, the rock of Truth, which was ever constant pole in the in the his oſten turbulent life. Tis final visit was most certainly also a vindication of all that he had done and a reward for his efforts and trails he had endured.


His Bigletto Speech, given a day before he was created


Cardinal are an eloquent example of his profound humility yet also the conviction he held that with great trials comes great triumphs - and at last peace: “Such an elevation had never come into my thoughts, and seemed to be out of keeping with all my antecedents. I had passed through many trials, but they were over; and now the end of all things had almost come to me, and I was at peace.”


John, found himself in the city again. Newman was to “train” for ordination at the College of the Propaganda. He describes his first day with vivid memory: “We went to say the Apostles’ Creed at St. Peter’s tomb, the first thing – and there was the Pope, at the tomb saying Mass – so that he was the first person I saw in Rome!”


A Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Yet the most notable visit of Newman to the Eternal


City was to be his last in 1879. Would the young Oxford scholar have though that one day he would again leave that most beloved of cities as a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church?


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