Vatican City, Feb 13, 2019 / 03:32 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Wednesday approved the canonization of Bl. John Henry Newman, a Roman Catholic cardinal, scholar, and founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England.
Following a Feb. 12 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope signed off on a second miracle attributed to the intercession of Newman, who was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham, England on Sept. 19, 2010.
The first miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession involved the complete and inexplicable healing of a deacon from a disabling spinal condition.
His second miracle concerned the healing of a pregnant American woman. The woman prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover.
The date of his canonization has not yet been announced.
Bl. John Henry Newman was a 19th century theologian, poet, Catholic priest and cardinal. Originally an Anglican priest, he converted to Catholicism in 1845 and his writings are considered among some of the most important Church-writings in recent centuries.
Ordained a Catholic priest in 1847, he was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, although he was not a bishop. Newman was also particularly dedicated to education and founded two schools for boys.
Sr. Kathleen Dietz, FSO, a Newman scholar, and vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Erie told CNA last November she suspects that Newman could be named the patron of scholars and students.
Pope Francis also green-lighted Feb. 13 the canonization of Bl. Maria Teresa Chiramel Mankidiyan of India, the founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family, who died in 1926 in Kuzhikkattussery.
He also approved the canonization of martyred Jesuit Fr. Salvatore Vittorio Emilio Moscoso Cardenas, who was killed in hatred of the faith in Ecuador in 1897.
Those declared to have lived lives of heroic virtue and to be on the path to beatification are Cardinal József Mindszenty, archbishop of Esztergom and primate of Hungary (1892-1975); Fr. Giovanni Battista Zuaboni, founder of the Secular Institute of the Company of the Holy Family (1880-1939); Jesuit Fr. Manuel Garcia Nieto (1894-1974); Sr. Serafina Formai, foundress of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Glad Message (1876-1954); and Sr. Maria Berenice Duque Hencker, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Annunciation (1898-1993).
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Blessed John Henry Newman’s book Apologia Pro Vita Sua helped lead me into the Catholic Church, as I am sure is the case with millions of other Catholic converts.
His canonization is long overdue.
A correction: Newman did not found two schools for boys. He founded just the one, The Oratory School, in Birmingham in 1859. It moved out into the countryside in the early 20th century and is now at Woodcote, near Reading, in south Oxfordshire. Hilaire Belloc was a pupil, and Tolkien sent his sons there. What may have confused your writer is that it has a separate junior school called The Oratory Preparatory School which split off from the main school to accommodate younger boys. There is also The London Oratory School, but Newman did not found it. Your writer should perhaps have mentioned that Newman was also the founding Rector of the Catholic University in Dublin, now known as University College Dublin.