Debate: Will Cardinal Newman inspire the faithful?

I think Newman would inspire the faithful if more prominence was given to his welcoming of Darwin's ideas on evolution. In his time the Catholic Church was not ready for such ideas and Newman's acceptance of Darwinism would probably have shattered his reputation – had it been better known! The decades leading to Vatican 2 saw evolution gradually gaining respectability in the Catholic Church. One suggested way this happened is that Newman's writings influenced the French Jesuits in exile at Ore Place in Hastings. For example, Teilhard de Chardin who was at Hastings (1908-12) took on Newman's evolutionary and other ideas in writings throughout the first half of the 20th Century. Although banned during his lifetime Teilhard's writings were rehabilitated, published and certainly inspired the lay faithful in the 1960s. 40+ years on, a vision of how we see the creator God and humanity in the evolutionary process is needed more than ever. Perhaps Newman might even now inspire the faithful to an outward looking evolutionary/ecological/incarnational faith relevant to the needs of humanity and the whole creation. Such a faith would be rather less obsessed with narrow sexual ethics, clericalism, legalism etc. ? It might reach out to lapsed catholics, other Christians, other faiths and even secularists. But then would this attract the faithful ?!

Pope Benedict XVI, who was a Newman scholar for years before he became Pope and who is performing the beatification himself partly from his own devotion to the to-be-Blessed, might disagree with you on that.

And as for choosing a religion because it feels better… Newman chose, after a long and agonizing struggle involving fervent prayer and rigorous fasting, a religion which lost him an assured income for life, made him an outcast in his own society, and made friends and family cut him off .