The Cause of the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman

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The 150th Anniversary of Newman’s Oratory School: reflecting on a rich history, looking forward to their founder’s Beatification

Categorised as News and published Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Bishop Gilles Cazabon at Alcester Street, Birmingham, England: “Cardinal Newman, faithful servant of the Church”
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Archbishop Vincent Nichols celebrates Mass for the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the Oratory School, Reading

More than 1300 past and present students, parents, and friends of the Oratory School, Reading, were present on Saturday 2 May for a Mass in Westminster Cathedral in London, England, where Archbishop Vincent Nichols was joined by Bishop Philip Boyce, Father Paul Chavasse, and other clergy to celebrate the School’s 150th anniversary of foundation. The Oratory School was founded by Newman near the Oratory in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 1859, with just nine pupils. The school moved to its present site, near Reading, Berkshire, in 1942.

The anniversary Mass  – celebrated on the feast of St Athanasius, whose influence was central to Newman’s life and writings – concluded with the reading of a special Papal Blessing.

Archbishop Nichols was celebrating Mass in the Cathedral for the first time since his announcement as the new Archbishop of Westminster, and asked those present for their prayers as he prepared to take up his new office. He began the Mass by noting that “today we celebrate not only this important anniversary of the Oratory School, but also Cardinal Newman’s entire vision of education.”

Bishop Philip Boyce, preacher at the Mass (behind: left, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, right, Father Anthony Conlon)

In his sermon, Bishop Philip Boyce, of Raphoe in Ireland, and a Newman scholar, concentrated on the origins of the school and their meaning for its mission today. Newman’s vision, Bishop Boyce stressed, was that the school should “form the whole person … a pupil’s character”.

Bishop Boyce highlighted the varied curriculum that Newman encouraged: music, which he saw as “an important part of education”, sport, which he promoted in the school, and also theatre, through the plays of the great Latin authors.

The Bishop, ordained a Carmelite priest in 1966 and consecrated bishop in 1995, also emphasised the spiritual aspect of Newman’s work: Newman himself gave catechesis in the Catholic Faith to the older boys and preached to them on Sundays.

Strikingly, Bishop Boyce quoted words of Newman about St Athanasius, the defender of the “sacred truth denied by the heretic Arius, namely the truth of the Divinity of Christ, the Son of God”. Athanasius, said Newman, was one of those “highly-endowed men [who] will rescue the world for centuries to come.” According to school’s founder, such a person “receives and transmits the sacred flame … fully purposed to send it on as bright as it has reached him.”

This same fire, Newman goes on: “though seeming at intervals to fail, has at length reached us in safety, and will in like manner, as we trust, be carried forward even to the end.”

According to the Bishop of Raphoe, Newman himself was one of these  great “educationalists and defenders of the faith who received the sacred flame of truth and passed it on”.

This flame guides the Christian amidst the many difficulties of the modern world: the Bishop noted that the boys are being prepared to enter a world in which “truth is often ridiculed and faith ignored”. Newman, he said, was “keenly aware of the dangers that face them”.

The Bishop also drew attention to the personalistic and positive stamp of Newman’s approach, quoting Newman’s description of a “guiding principle” – Newman wrote that “the young for the most part cannot be driven, but on the other hand, are open to persuasion and the influence of kindness and personal attachment.” In consequence, Newman goes on, “they are to be kept straight by indirect contrivances rather than by authoritative enactments and naked prohibitions”.

The Bishop quoted extensively from the letter that Pope Benedict XVI sent last year to the Diocese and City of Rome ‘On the urgent task of educating young people’, drawing attention to the similarities between Newman’s vision and that of the Pope.

Bishop Boyce also cited a famous meditation of Newman, which he said was relevant for today’s pupils of the School as they look to the future: “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. … He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.”

After the Mass, Clive Dytor, the Head Master, a former Church of England clergyman who, like John Henry Newman, converted to Roman Catholicism, said: “Cardinal Newman is a great inspiration to the Oratory School and we hope and pray for his early beatification so that his vision for Catholic education will become better known and understood.”

Present at the Mass were Father Robert Byrne, Provost of the Oxford Oratory, a Governor of the School, and the theologian Father John Saward, formerly Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the International Theological Institute, Gaming, Austria. Monsignor Anthony Conlon, Chaplain to the School, was among other clergy concelebrating at the Mass.

The School, which is the only all-boys Catholic senior school in the UK, received a Papal Blessing to mark the anniversary of Newman’s foundation. It read: “The Holy Father Benedict XVI, on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the Oratory School by John Henry Cardinal Newman cordially imparts the requested Apostolic Blessing to Staff and Students and through the intercession of the servant of God, entrusts the life and the spirit of the school which he founded and invokes an abundance of heavenly graces and the continued protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

Father Paul Chavasse, Provost of the Birmingham Oratory, and Actor of the Cause for Newman’s Canonisation, commented on the Papal Blessing: “I would like to echo these words, and ask Newman’s prayers for the mission and well-being of this school.”

Father Chavasse went on: “I hope that in due time we may be able to invoke Newman’s name among the Blessed, and that his teaching and life will continue to influence, ever more profoundly, the whole Church.”

To read the full text of Bishop Philip Boyce’s sermon, click here

To visit the Oratory School website click here