With his canonisation the seal has been put on John Henry Newman’s legacy as the saint who reminds us that to be Catholic is to be both traditional and radical

With his canonisation the seal has been put on John Henry Newman’s legacy as the saint who reminds us that to be Catholic is to be both traditional and radical

John Henry Newman had, in the words of the title of an acclaimed portrait of his life and character, a “mind alive”. His writings have been hotly disputed almost since he first began to publish his sermons and tracts as a young chaplain and tutor in Oxford. His decision to convert to Catholicism in 1845 shocked respectable Victorian society. Mgr George Talbot, the English priest close to Pius IX, would whisper in the Pope’s ear that he was “the most dangerous man in England”.

Last weekend showed that while Newman’s ideas are still argued over, and are as potent as ever, invoked by theologians from all sides, at the same time he is seen as a reconciling figure at a time of increasing polarisation. This subtle, dialectical, self-critical thinker touches people across the spectrum of opinion in the Church and across denominations. He is a saint who, as his motto declares, speaks heart to heart, and who seems able to puncture the toughest ideological armour.

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