The relics of Cardinal John Henry Newman (what few of them there are) have been on display over the past few days, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor celebrated a special Mass in his honor yesterday. There’s been plenty of buzz about his cause lately. (Click on his name under my “Categories” for a taste of it.)
Cool video, with a look at the actual relics, here.
Here’s a very interesting interview, published Wednesday, with Fr. Ian Ker about Cardinal John Henry Newman. Fr. Ker, a renowned Newman scholar, addresses the ways Newman anticipated the work of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth century’s theological ressourcement that undergirded it by a hundred years; the idea of Newman as a Doctor of the Church; and the development of his canonization cause. Among much else, Fr. Ker comments:
So, although known locally to be a holy man, there was never the kind of popular cult that a less intellectual figure — working, for example, among the poor or the sick or on the foreign missions — would have inspired.
The momentum for his canonization in fact began some years before the present pontificate. Previously, the people interested in Newman were mainly scholars and theologians, the kind of people who are not necessarily particularly committed to intercessory prayer.
But once the cause was fully launched — and there had been long delays — it was possible to undertake a formal examination of his life and writings and conclude that he was indeed a man of heroic sanctity and worthy of being raised to the altars of the Church.
With this verdict the Holy See concurred and in 1991 Pope John Paul II declared Newman to be “Venerable,”’ the first step toward canonization. That development has led more and more people to ask Newman for his intercession and — assuming Newman is a saint — was bound sooner or later to lead to a miracle.
I was talking with Brian Patrick again this morning, on his Son Rise morning show on Sacred Heart Radio. We’re chatting on the first Tuesday of every month on the topic of up-and-coming sainthood causes — who’s on the road to sainthood, why, and how it’s going, that kind of thing. Always an interesting topic.
This morning, 
Brian and I talked about:
Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran (1832-1869), whose sainthood is about to become reality. She will become one of the Church’s newest saints in just a few days, when she is canonized by Pope Benedict XVI this Sunday, October 12 (alongside three other new saints: Sr. Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, Verena Butler, and Gaetano Errico). But for many people, especially in her native Ecuador, this only confirms what they already knew.
Blessed Narcisa has long been venerated there, especially at her tomb, which is a popular pilgrimage site. Especially notable is her apparent incorruptibility — her remains are still in remarkably good condition and visible to pilgrims daily.
After the death of Narcisa’s parents when she was a child, she worked as a seamstress to support her siblings. She lived her entire life as a single laywoman, conserating her virginity to Christ and devoting many hours to prayer. She also engaged in a lot of the severe mortifications that were, at the time, seen as an admirable aspect of an intense Catholic spirituality. Toward the end of her life, she moved to Lima, Peru, where she worked in a Dominican convent, and that’s where she died, of an illness (which I’ve yet to see identified), at the age of 37.
Note: Vatican Television will be airing the canonizations on October 10 at 10:00 am Rome time, which is 4:00 am Eastern Time in the USA. You should be able to watch it via the internet here. It will also be aired live on EWTN.
Cardinal Terrence Cooke (1921-1983), who served as Archbishop of New York from 1968 (his appointment came, the New York Times reported at the time, as ”a total surprise”) until his death in 1983. Though he was an excellent adminstrator throughout his priestly career, which suited him in many important ways for one of the most prominent pastoral leadership positions in America, if not the entire Church, he is more remembered today for his personal holiness, which was expressed mainly th
rough his wisdom, prudence, gentleness, defense of the sacredness of life, and his prayer life. There’s a nice summary of his life and ministry here.
His cause for canonization was opened in the late 1980’s, with Fr. Benedict Groeschel heading the effort, and in 1992, the Vatican granted him the title “Servant of God”.
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Cardinal Cooke’s death, which came after a long, serene, and courageous battle with leukemia for several years. Cardinal Egan, present archbishop of New York, presided at a special Mass marking the occasion at St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 11:30 am yesterday.
To me, Cardinal Cooke’s holiness is a concrete reminder that sanctity does not come in one particular form — there is no one particular personality suited to it. That’s because he was succeeded by a man who was also uniquely holy, and who may also one day be officially recognized as a saint: Cardinal John O’Connor. But their personalities and leadership styles could not have been more different. Cooke was quiet, humble, avoided the spotlight and hated conflict. O’Connor, on the other hand, was gregarious, funny, comfortable in front of cameras, and sometimes seemed to think conflict could be good thing, appeared at moments even to welcome it. Two very different men, two very different personalities and styles, two saints. (By the way, on his recent visit to New York City, speaking at a Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Pope Benedict mentioned both of them by name, pointing to “the heroic witness to the Gospel of life borne by the late Cardinals Cooke and O’Connor.” No question, they deserved the nod.)
Audrey Santo (1983-2007) is another young woman whom some already consider a saint, and she’s an American. Her story is a controversial one — it includes bleeding hosts, oil seeping from images, and even claims of telekenisis (!). She died at the age of 24 in 2007, after a childhood of severe disability and some popular devotion. I can’t claim to be able to make any kind of helpful judgment about this, except to say that it’s certainly out of the ordinary. Make of this what you will; skeptics abound. She is by no means a saint yet, or even on a clear path to canonization.
The news is that Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester (Santo’s home diocese) has officially recognized a group called the Little Audrey Santo Foundation as a “private association of the faithful.” This group will be pursuing Santo’s cause for canonization.
I’m not a canon lawyer, but in my opinion, this is not necessarily a strong indicator of the cause’s stong chances of success. Ordinarily, it’s the diocese in which the person lived (or the order of which he was a part) that officially backs the cause. If the Little Audrey Santo Foundation is going to be the official supporters of this cause, that means her diocese is not. Note, too, that this is not the official opening of the cause. It is, rather, the official recognition of a private organization who wants to convince the diocese and/or the Vatican (my understanding is that the diocese must agree to it first, before the Vatican even considers it) to open the cause.
Two other notes…
During our chat last month, we’d mentioned the fact that the exhumation of Cardinal John Henry Newman’s remains was eminent. His tomb was opened last Thursday, October 2, but the surprise was that there wasn’t much to exhume. The presumption that Newman has been buried in a lead-lined coffin was mistaken, it was only wooden, and so, while they did find “brass, wooden, and cloth artefacts,” there were “no remains.”
Finally, we mentioned this morning another American, Thomas Vander Woude, who died just a month ago tomorrow. After a life of great faith and love, particularly in his roles as husband and father, Vander Woude died while trying to save his son from drowning in a septic tank. The story was everywhere on the Catholic blogosphere for a while, and was even covered by the Washington Post. Many people, including one bishop, spoke of Vander Woude’s obvious “saintliness,” and talked of praying to him as well as for him immediately following his death. His funeral (presided by his son the priest, and concelebrated by Bishop Paul Loverde and 70 other priests) was standing-room-only in the 1200 seat parish where it was held.
A future American saint in the making? Personally, I hope so. We American men could use lessons in fatherhood such as that.
Welcome to any visitors who have found their way here today through Sacred Heart Radio or its blog. This morning, I talked with Brian Patrick on his Son Rise morning show about developments in the canonization causes of three important figures in Church history. (As I noted last week here, I’ll be chatting with Brian once a month on the topic of up-and-coming-saints’ causes.)
Here’s a summary, with some additional resources for you:
1. The remains of Cardinal John Henry Newman (that’s him in the photo) 
will soon be moved from its cemetery plot to a special tomb inside Birmingham Oratory, a strong indicator of Vatican interest in a beatification that happens sooner rather than later. My most personal connection to him is that his The Idea of a University was required reading in one of my college courses. It was tough-going, but taught me a lot about thinking, learning, education, and being a person in society.
WordPress is being cranky, not letting me embed the video here, but there’s a news clip on Newman from a British station here.
2. In just over a month (on October 12, 2008), Pope Benedict will canonize Sr. Alphonsa Muttathupadathu (also known, thankfully!, as Sr. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception) along with three other blesseds. She is especially noteworthy because most reports are identifying her as the first saint of India. (On the other hand, St. Gonsalo Garcia was the son of an Indian mother and Portugese father, born in India in 1556 and canonized with 25 other martyrs by Pope Pius IX in 1862.) Sr. Alphonsa, a Poor Clare nun who lived most of her life in a sickbed, died at age 36 in 1946. Her tomb is already a well-established pilgrimage site in India.
There’s a news clip on her from an Indian tv station here.
3. The beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin is set for one week later (October 19). Their biggest claim to fame is only that they’re the parents of the one of the most famous and well-loved saints in the entire history of the Church. As a parent of 7, I’ll take this one as, at least implicitly, recognition of the important role of parents in their children’s moral and spiritual formation.
I posted a little video on them about two weeks ago, here.
