It was a truly memorable and emotional evening. The Dream was a particularly appropriate and enormously popular choice of music for the start of this world-renowned annual festival.
Thursday August 11 was the 121st anniversary of the death of Blessed John Henry Newman. The great English cardinal died in his room at the Birmingham Oratory in Edgbaston in 1890, aged 89.
Besides this, the first anniversary of Cardinal Newman’s beatification by Pope Benedict XVI, at Cofton Park, Birmingham on Sunday September 19 2010 is a few weeks away. The event will be celebrated in England and in Rome.

The Dean of Worcester, the Very Rev Peter Atkinson, told the audience that he would say a short prayer as is the custom before concerts held in the Cathedral. In the quietness he said: “Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise!” This is the first line of Cardinal Newman’s most famous hymn.

Worcestershire-born Sir Edward Elgar received a copy of Blessed John Henry Newman’s poem as a wedding present when he married Alice Roberts on May 8 1889 at Brompton Oratory in London. Newman, a literary figure of great note, had written the poem during 1865.

The Committee of the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival of 1990 commissioned Edward Elgar to set part of Cardinal Newman’s poem to music for soloists, chorus and orchestra.

The first performance took place in Birmingham Town Hall on October 3 but it was a year later in Germany that the work received the international recognition and attention that it so richly deserved.

Sir Edward Elgar was assistant organist to his father William Elgar, who held the post of organist at St George’s Catholic Church in Worcester from 1846 to 1885, and succeeded him for four years, from 1885 to 1889.

Self-denial of some kind or other is involved, as is evident, in the very notion of renewal and holy obedience. To change our hearts is to learn to love things which we do not naturally love – to unlearn the love of this world; but this involves, of course, a thwarting of our natural wishes and tastes. To be righteous and obedient implies self-command; but to possess power we must have gained it; nor can we gain it without a vigorous struggle, a persevering warfare against ourselves. The very notion of being religious implies self-denial, because by nature we do not love religion.
 
Self-denial, then, is a subject never out of place in Christian teaching; still more appropriate is it at a time like this, when we have entered upon the 40 days of Lent, the season of the year set apart for fasting and humiliation.

Newman is right, of course: but knowing that doesn’t make the notion of self-denial any easier, or the taking of concrete decisions as to what it will involve in one’s own case. People have, in all sincerity, thought up schemes of supposed self-denial, some of which look pretty fishy to me. Consider the scheme by one chap in Iowa, who intends to give up all solid food for Lent, replacing it by a certain kind of Bavarian beer (doppelbock): this is supposedly what Bavarian Paulaner monks (who invented this calorie- and carbohydrate-laden beverage in the 17th century) used to do during Lent. The monks (a species of hermit friar) are supposed to have abstained from all forms of solid food, using this doppelbock as a substitute. These members of the Order of Minims (which was founded by St Francis of Paola in 1435) maintained this tradition until quite recently, but it came to an end when their Bavarian house finally closed down: so it doesn’t seem to have done them much good in the end. Self-denial, says Newman, “involves, of course, a thwarting of our natural wishes and tastes”: consuming nothing but doppelbock doesn’t sound much like any kind of thwarting. 
 
So my problem remains. Giving up drink would be an obvious thwarting of my own personal wishes and tastes: but will I stick to it? The idea, I have to say, fills me with a certain gloom. So maybe that’s what I should deny myself. As for what I will actually positively do rather than abstain from– among other things, like many others no doubt, I will certainly be reading the Pope’s book Jesus of Nazareth: Part Two, which focuses on the events of Holy Week, no doubt with the Holy Father’s usual combination of lucidity, scholarship and spiritual depth.
 
But what shall I give up? I’m still not sure. What about you?

In a statement issued after their plenary meeting this week, they said the papal visit in September gave them “fresh impetus to our identity as Catholics”.

They said that central to Pope Benedict’s message was “the insistence that religion has a key part to play in our society”.

They thanked the Holy Father for speaking out about priestly sex abuse and for meeting the victims of such abuse during his visit.

The bishops also thanked him “for giving us Blessed John Henry Newman as a special model of faithful discipleship for the United Kingdom”.

They said: “The richness of his life and witness is still to be explored by many. We know that in him we have a person whose integrity was beyond reproach, whose search for truth continues to inspire many and whose commitment to the practical, pastoral care of the poor remains a hallmark for us all.”

‘HEART SPEAKS UNTO HEART’

The Response of the Catholic Bishops’ of England and Wales to the Visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom

At our meeting we have reflected deeply on the recent Apostolic Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom. We offer our thanks to God who blessed the days of the Visit in answer to countless prayers. For so many people these were days of joy, of celebration and of the public expression of faith in God, especially the Christian faith.

We are profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for all he said and did, indeed for his very presence, here in our countries. We express our thanks to Her Majesty the Queen for the invitation extended to His Holiness and for the gracious and personal welcome she gave to him. We thank all who helped to ensure that the Apostolic Visit unfolded smoothly, especially HM Government and Local Authorities, members of the Civil Service, the Police and all other public services. We are most grateful to Lord Patten of Barnes who led this effort as the personal representative of the Prime Minister. We thank all who worked so hard from within the Catholic community, especially the staff of the Bishops’ Conference and the diocesan Papal Visit teams.

Central to the message of Pope Benedict was the insistence that religion has a key part to play in our society and that all people of faith have an important and necessary contribution to make to the common good. We have reflected on this and are taking steps to act on the encouragement we have been given.

We also make our own and echo the Holy Father’s heartfelt expressions of shame, sorrow and apology with regard to “the immense suffering caused by the abuse of children especially within the Church and by her ministers”. We willingly repeat our own apologies and renew our dedication to the work of care towards the young and of safeguarding them and vulnerable adults.

We are grateful to the Holy Father for the time he spent meeting survivors of abuse. This emphasises again for us the importance of the response and care we offer to those who have suffered abuse as children. Through our National Catholic Safeguarding Commission we are working with survivors to fashion a ‘Care Pathway’ to guide the Church in this task.

We are also grateful to the Holy Father for meeting with a representative group of safeguarding professionals from within the Catholic community. He acknowledged that we “have taken serious steps to remedy this situation, to ensure that children are effectively protected from harm and to deal properly and transparently with allegations when they arise”. We thank him for this encouragement and for the invitation to share the lessons we have learned with the wider community.

We have also reflected on the situation of our priests who have often borne the brunt of public criticism and scorn. We thank them for their perseverance and rejoice that the Visit of Pope Benedict has been a source of such joy and affirmation for them.

This Visit has given us new confidence. It has also helped to give fresh impetus to our identity as Catholics, as experienced by ourselves and as seen by others. We wish to strengthen this identity, which is rooted in the gift of faith and which is the well-spring of so much generosity.
We thank the Holy Father for encouraging us to continue working for the full visible unity of the Church while preparing for the establishment of an Ordinariate.

We thank also the Holy Father for his emphasis on the immense value of Catholic education. We appreciate the achievements of our schools and colleges and share their commitment to the constant search for excellence. We will celebrate this in the ‘Year of Catholic Education’.

At the heart of this endeavour is the person of Jesus Christ, for in Him we glimpse the fullness of life and love for which we strive. In relationship with Him we receive the love, strength and forgiveness we need.

The Holy Father’s constant call to holiness continues to echo loudly within us. It is a call we will continue to explore and expound in the months to come. Indeed this is the heart of faith to be lived in every home, in every marriage, in every true friendship, in every school, place of work, and through the dedicated lives of Religious men and women.

We gladly acknowledge the call of the Holy Father that we are “to proclaim the Gospel afresh in a highly secularised environment”, and renew our dedication to our prophetic mission, highlighting the needs of the poor and disadvantaged throughout the world. We are grateful to all who respond generously to these needs, especially through our agencies CAFOD and Missio. We commit ourselves to this work and to the care of the earth’s fragile environments.

We are taking action to strengthen our role and contribution in working against poverty here at home and the role the Catholic Church can play in creating a culture of social responsibility in our society.

Finally, we thank the Holy Father for giving us Blessed John Henry Newman as a special model of faithful discipleship for the United Kingdom. The richness of his life and witness is still to be explored by many. We know that in him we have a person whose integrity was beyond reproach, whose search for truth continues to inspire many and whose commitment to the practical, pastoral care of the poor remains a hallmark for us all.

Pilgrim leader Desmond Gaynor said: “The massed choirs were thrilling, particularly in Newman’s ‘Praise to the Holiest’.
“And the Pope’s homily, like all his homilies on the visit, was beautiful and will need more reflection and prayer later. The whole event was thoroughly uplifting.”

The group included Audrey Hamilton, Rose Layson, Dee Williams, Desmond Gaynor, pilgrim leader, Eamonn Hamilton and Miguel De Sousa.

They attended the papal Mass in Birmingham for the beatification of John Henry Newman, the founder of their school.

Newman founded the Oratory School in 1859 in Edgbaston which later, due to expansion, moved to south Oxfordshire. The pupils played a major role in the day’s events with more than 100 in the choir and 18-year-old Rob McKay, the Oratory School captain and head sacristan, leading the main procession as the cross bearer.

Standing alongside the Pope while he read the prayers for the Mass was Oratory sacristan Ade Olopade, also 18, who was the book bearer responsible for holding the Missal from which the Pope read.

Watched by millions of people around the world and an estimated 60,000 in Cofton Park, Ade said: “I didn’t have even an ounce of fear or nerves but afterwards my hands began to shake – and I generally have a steady hand. I had to be careful that my fingers holding the page did not cover up the words as the Pope read.”

As a young person Ade felt excited and happy to be there but as a Catholic he said that he had a strong sense of pride being among so many other young Catholics who had turned out for the Mass, with so many banners, in support of the Holy Father.

He added: “It was my proudest moment as an Oratorian, and I think the boys at school feel the same way.
“It’s an honour to hold our heads high and say that our school is the first school to have been founded by a Blessed person and one that was such a prolific writer.”

And on October 9, we will keep his feast. On the same day, I shall be speaking at a conference organised by a group called Chesterton in the Chilterns on Chesterton and Newman. The date was chosen for this conference (for details go to the Chesterton Society website) before the announcement of the date of Newman’s feast day: but the happy coincidence leads me to suggest that it might now be time seriously to start thinking about an unavoidable question: after John Henry Newman, who next? My answer is that it can only be Gilbert Keith Chesterton.  

The obvious objection to this is that Chesterton was nothing like our idea of how a saint should look or behave. He was greatly given to the pleasures of the table; he was enormously, sometimes riotously funny; he was the opposite of Newman in so many respects (though Newman also had a brilliant sense of humour). The late Cardinal Emmet Carter described him on the 50th anniversary of his death as one of those “holy lay persons” who “have exercised a truly prophetic role within the Church and the world”, but he did not then believe that it would be possible to introduce a Cause for his ultimate canonisation, since he did “not think that we are sufficiently emancipated from certain concepts of sanctity” – though later he change his mind.

The distinguished historian J J Scarisbrick, however, thought that his sanctity was so clear that the opening of his Cause should indeed be seriously contemplated. “We all know,” he responded, “that he was an enormously good man as well as an enormous one. My point is that he was more than that. There was a special integrity and blamelessness about him, a special devotion to the good and to justice … Above all, there was that breathtaking, intuitive (almost angelic) possession of the Truth and awareness of the supernatural which only a truly holy person can enjoy. This was the gift of heroic intelligence and understanding – and of heroic prophecy. He was a giant, spiritually as well as physically. Has there ever been anyone quite like him in Catholic history?”

I agree; and this is what I and a distinguished group of theologians will be arguing in a book entitled The Holiness of G K Chesterton, to be published before the end of the year. Meanwhile, why not go to the Beaconsfield conference on October 9? Maybe I’ll see you there.

We also wrote daily summaries of the events. Here are the main headlines you need to know from this momentous occasion:

Day One: Arrival
Thursday, 16 September: Edinburgh and Bellahouston Park, Glasgow

On his flight to Edinburgh, Pope Benedict XVI told journalists that the Church had not been sufficiently vigilant over clerical child abuse. (Here’s the full text of the mid-flight press conference.) He said:

First, I must say that these revelations have been a shock for me, not only a great sadness. It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible. [...] It is a great sadness, a sadness that even the authority of the Church has not been sufficiently vigilant and not fast or decided enough in taking the necessary measures.

In his address to the Queen at the Palace of Holyrood, Benedict XVI praised Britain’s Christian heritage, saying that throughout its lost history faith had been a “mighty force” for good. He noted Britain’s stand against Nazi tyranny, saying:

Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. [...] Let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a reductive vision of the person and his destiny.

In his homily at Bellahouston Park, the Pope urged Scotland not to exclude believers from public life. He also invoked his much-quoted phrase, the “dictatorship of relativism”.

There are some who now seek to exclude religious belief from public discourse, to privatise it or even to paint it as a threat to equality and liberty. Yet religion is in fact a guarantee of authentic liberty and respect, leading us to look upon every person as a brother or sister.

He saved his strongest words for young people, urging them to lead lives worthy of God and of themselves.

There are many temptations placed before you every day – drugs, money, sex, pornography, alcohol. Which the world tells you will bring you happiness, yet these things are destructive and divisive.

Day Two: Young People
Friday, 17 September: St Mary’s, Twickenham

During a morning devoted to Catholic education, Pope Benedict told 3,000 Catholic school children from across Britain to strive to become saints. He warned them not to be absorbed by the culture of celebrity, offering Christ as an alternative.

We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others.

The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

In what was probably the most highly anticipated speech of the papal visit, Benedict XVI addressed leaders of civil society at Westminster Hall, calling them to allow religion a place in the public square. (Here is the full text.)

Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation. In this light, I cannot but voice my concern at the increasing marginalization of religion, particularly of Christianity. [...] There are those who would advocate that the voice of religion be silenced, or at least relegated to the purely private sphere.

He also urged those present to show stronger solidarity to the poor, reminding them that “the world has witnessed the vast resources that governments can draw upon to save financial institutions deemed too big to fail”.

And in a tour-de-force completing the day’s ongoing focus on Christian unity, Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury took part in ecumenical vespers at Westminster Abbey. The Holy Father’s address to the assembled members of the Christian community was described as a “strong challenge that complemented what the Pope said in Westminster Hall”, while Dr Williams gave a dignified and elegant speech honouring the shared Christian heritage and Benedict’s role as the Bishop of Rome.

Finally, police arrested six men in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to harm the Pope. They were later released when the threat was deemed “not credible”.

Day Three: The Prayer Vigil
Saturday, 18 September: Westminster Cathedral, Vauxhall, Hyde Park

After meeting David Cameron and other political leaders, the Pope celebrated Mass in the Mother Church of England and Wales. He again expressed his deep sorrow over the “unspeakable crimes” of clerical sex abuse. His homily also spoke of the reality of the Eucharist, especially for British Catholics.

The reality of the Eucharistic sacrifice has always been at the heart of Catholic faith; called into question in the 16th century, it was solemnly reaffirmed at the Council of Trent against the backdrop of our justification in Christ. Here in England, as we know, there were many who staunchly defended the Mass, often at great cost, giving rise to that devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist which has been the hallmark of Catholicism in these lands.

Afterwards, he met 2,500 young people in the piazza outside, advising them to make space for silence every day.

In the afternoon, Pope Benedict had a private meeting with victims of clergy abuse. He prayed with them and gave them the assurances that the Church was “continuing to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people, and that it is doing all in its power to investigate allegations, to collaborate with civil authorities, and to bring to justice clergy and religious accused of these egregious crimes”.

Pope Benedict told residents of a care home in Vauxhall that he had not come just as a father, but also as “a brother who knows well the joys and the struggles that come with age”.

As the normal span of our lives increases, our physical capacities are often diminished; and yet these times may well be among the most spiritually fruitful years of our lives. These years are an opportunity to remember in affectionate prayer all those whom we have cherished in this life, and to place all that we have personally been and done before the mercy and tenderness of God.

After switching from a limousine into the Popemobile at the Treasury, the Holy Father was cheered along on his way to Hyde Park, where he told a crowd of 80,000 people that the Gospel had to be lived as well as believed.

No one who looks realistically at our world today could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith which has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society.

Each of us has a mission, each of us is called to change the world, to work for a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the dignity of each human person. As our Lord tells us in the Gospel we have just heard, our light must shine in the sight of all, so that, on seeing our good works, they may give praise to our heavenly Father.

Day Four: Beatification of John Henry Newman
Sunday, 19 September: Cofton Park, Birmingham

Pope Benedict beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman in a historic Mass at Cofton Park, Birmingham – the first beatification ever to take place on British soil. In his homily, the Pope placed Cardinal Newman in a tradition of English martyrs and saintly scholars, and praised the “warmth and humanity” of his priestly ministry.

He also noted that it was the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and paid tribute to English men and women who resisted the “evil ideology” of Nazism. He said:

For me as one who lived and suffered through the dark days of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is deeply moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to recall how many of your fellow citizens sacrificed their lives, courageously resisting the forces of that evil ideology. [...] My thoughts go in particular to nearby Coventry, which suffered such heavy bombardment and massive loss of life in November 1940.

He explained Newman was the latest in a “long line” of saintly British scholars, including St Bede, St Hilda, St Aelred, and Blessed Duns Scotus. It was a tradition, he said, “of gentle scholarship, deep human wisdom and profound love for the Lord”.

The Pope then visited the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Edgbaston privately, before sitting down to lunch with the bishops of England, Scotland and Wales. After a lunch of Welsh lamb and treacle sponge, Cardinal Keith O’Brien described the Pope’s effect on Britain as the “Benedict Bounce”.

Then Pope Benedict addressed the Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland in the room where Blessed John Henry Newman made the famous Second Spring speech at the first synod of Westminster in 1852. In his speech he touched on three key points for his bishops.

He spoke again about the “shameful abuse of children” and said he knew the British bishops “have taken serious steps to remedy this situation” but added:

Your growing awareness of the extent of child abuse in society in devastating effects, and the need to provide proper victim support should serve as incentive to share to lessons you have learned with the wider community. Indeed, what better way could there be of making reparation for these sins than by reaching out, in a humble spirit of compassion, towards children who continue to suffer abuse elsewhere? Our duty of care towards the young demands nothing less.

The Holy Father then said there were “two specific matters that affect your Episcopal ministry at this time”. The first, he said was the new translation of the Roman Missal, which he said was an “opportunity for in-depth catechesis on the Eucharist and renewed devotion in the manner of its celebration”.

He then reminded the bishops that he had asked them “to be generous in implementing the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. This should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics”.

It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all. Let us continue to pray and work unceasingly in order to hasten the joyful day when the goal can be accomplished.

The Holy Father departed from Birmingham International Airport after giving a farewell speech to David Cameron.

Best of the Web

The Telegraph ran an excellent and very well-informed live blog (here are that newspaper’s versions of day one, day two, day three and day four) as well as some very thorough news stories. For information about the rumoured plot to assassinate the Pope and the various protests, head to the BBC and Guardian respectively. Sky News also had superlative coverage of the entire visit, anchored by the great Colin Brazier.

We hope that the collected papal visit tweets of Martin Beckford (@martinbeckford) and Riazat Butt (@riazat_butt) will be published as a book.

You can read the full texts of every speech, homily and address by Pope Benedict right here on CatholicHerald.co.uk. And here are our live blogs from every event, which give you a minute-by-minute account of what happened:

• Recap: Edinburgh live blog
• Recap: Bellahouston live blog
• Recap: Twickenham live blog
• Recap: Central London
• Recap: Westminster Cathedral
• Recap: Hyde Park
• Recap: Birmingham

We’ve also got a copy of the itinerary for the trip and here’s a link to everything we’ve ever published on the subject.

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Team Catholic Herald (minus our deputy editor, Mark Greaves) and a special guest!

If you’ve enjoyed our coverage of the Papal Visit, please consider taking out a subscription to The Catholic Herald.

In Westminster Hall, the Holy Father asked searching questions that exposed the emptiness of secularism. In Westminster Abbey, his presence seemed to revitalise that ancient building – and his Anglican listeners, too, as they realised how much their Christian witness is valued by the successor of St Peter. In Westminster Cathedral, the Pope acknowledged clearly and with shame the dreadful acts committed by clergy and religious against children; he had done so before, but his decision to do so in the context of a solemn liturgy underlined the abominable insult to the sacrifice of Christ represented by those crimes. In Hyde Park, the Pope literally exposed the heart of the Catholic faith to crowds of thousands and a television audience of millions: very deliberately, he directed our attention away from himself and towards the Blessed Sacrament. In Birmingham, he beatified John Henry Newman, personally raising to the altars a son of the Church for the first time in his pontificate. In doing so, he quoted Blessed Cardinal Newman: “I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.”

By this visit Benedict XVI equipped us to become that laity. He was an example to priests, too, in showing how the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite can be gloriously celebrated. How fitting it would be if, from now on, priests everywhere were to follow the Holy Father’s example of facing a crucifix at Mass, thus properly orientating the celebrant towards Calvary. And, crucially, the Pope set a further example to non-believers, of a great religious leader who radiated love, communicated by his winning little smile as well as by his words. From now on, militant secularists will find it very hard to sustain their odious caricature of Joseph Ratzinger: these were a terrible four days for anti-Catholicism.

We offer our heartfelt thanks to the Catholic organisers of the visit, and also to the Queen and her Government for their hospitality: given the immense difficulties that threatened to derail everything, truly we can say that victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat. But the person who deserves our deepest gratitude is Pope Benedict, who ensured that this visit was – albeit in a very different way – as great a success as that of Pope John Paul II in 1982. Holy Father, we are missing you already.

As we listen to the scriptures proclaimed at the beatification Mass, they might, at first sight, seem far removed from an eminent churchman whose life was lived in Oxford and Birmingham during the Victorian era.

The words of the prophet Amos, the Old Testament reading at the beatification Mass, are a fierce diatribe against the exploitation that was the dark side of Israel’s prosperity in the eighth century before Christ. Amos condemned those who trampled on the needy and suppressed the poor people of the country. During his life Newman witnessed the rapid industrialisation of our country. He lived through the wonders of industrial progress and witnessed the degradation of its poverty. Throughout his life, both as an Anglican in Oxford and as a Catholic in Birmingham, his ministry always reached out to those most in need. Newman lived the concern for the poor proclaimed by Amos. The Oratory that he established in Birmingham was dedicated to St Philip Neri, a Roman saint who rejoiced to live among the poor. In like manner Newman lived his life in Birmingham at the service of the poor who came daily to the doors of the Oratory.

The parable of the dishonest steward, dismissed from his master’s service, is, to say the least, confusing. Unfolding events brought the steward to a crisis that demanded he use the goods at his disposal in a radically different way. What the steward had previously enjoyed for his own use was now surrendered to assist his master’s debtors. The parable praised the steward for his choice. Jesus went on to exhort his disciples to use money, and indeed the many gifts entrusted to us in this life, to win friends that will welcome us into eternity.

John Henry Newman, scholar, poet, theologian and philosopher, was among the most gifted minds of his generation. The development of his faith and theology brought him to a painful choice.

Like the steward who could no longer remain in the employ of the rich man, Newman could no longer remain in the world that had formed him and brought him to prominence. We should not underestimate the human cost of Newman’s decision to be received into the Catholic Church. Like the steward in the parable he was forced to abandon all that had been the ground of his security. He was willing to make the sacrifice that God’s truth demands of us. This painful crossroads was for Newman, as it was for the steward in the parable, a further step in the purification of the heart.

The Gospel concludes that no servant can be the slave of two masters. On Sunday we shall hear Newman declared Blessed. John Henry Newman’s life, in the complexity of the established Church and Oxford academic life, was a struggle to discern where his Master was to be found. It is a journey that we cannot escape.