THE
P RTAL
March 2012
Page 13
Building upon the Rock:
Newman’s visits to Rome
by Brother Sean
The pilgrimage of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham to Rome gives us an apt occasion
to reflect on the various occasion in which our patron, Blessed John Henry Newman, visited this most noblest
of cities.
significant mile-stones
Newman journeyed to the Eternal City on four
separate occasions, and it is very striking to see how
each was charged with very differently contrasting
circumstances and emotions. In retrospect we can
see how Newman’s “Roman” visits marked significant
mile-stones in his life and religious development: his
first visit in 1833 was as an Anglican minister, while
the second, some thirteen years later, was as a Roman
Catholic layman, his third visit to Rome in 1856 was
when he was Provost of the Birmingham Oratory, and
finally his final stay in 1879 was as Cardinal elect.
John, found himself in the city again. Newman was to
“train” for ordination at the College of the Propaganda.
He describes his first day with vivid memory: “We
went to say the Apostles’ Creed at St. Peter’s tomb, the
first thing – and there was the Pope, at the tomb saying
Mass – so that he was the first person I saw in Rome!”
a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church
Yet the most notable visit of Newman to the Eternal
City was to be his last in 1879. Would the young Oxford
scholar have though that one day he would again leave
that most beloved of cities as a Cardinal of the Holy
Roman Church?
Newman once said that “To live is to change and to be
Newman’s final visit was in many ways a returning
perfect is to have changed often.” In this brief overview
of Newman’s four visits to the heart of the Church we to the Rock of Peter, the rock of Truth, which was ever
can see that this principle of constant renewal had constant pole in the in the his often turbulent life. This
final visit was most certainly also a vindication of all
indeed become reality in his own life.
that he had done and a reward for his efforts and trails
College of the Propaganda
he had endured.
In 1832 Newman, the young Oxford don, had
undertaken a Mediterranean with his very good
His Bigletto Speech, given a day before he was created
friend Hurrell Froude. On a ship via Gibraltar, Malta Cardinal are an eloquent example of his profound
and Naples, Newman and Froude arrived in Rome humility yet also the conviction he held that with great
in early March 1833, staying there for over a month. trials comes great triumphs - and at last peace: “Such
The many letters which Newman wrote from Rome an elevation had never come into my thoughts, and
during this first visit give us a very divided picture of seemed to be out of keeping with all my antecedents.
his impressions.
I had passed through many trials, but they were over;
and now the end of all things had almost come to me,
Newman was fascinated with the greatness of the and I was at peace.”
historic empire and its ancient capital, inspired by
the city’s beauty which he claimed exceeded that of
his Alma Mater of Oxford, and wary of the “Roman
Church” which he still held in suspicion. With some
criticism he spoke of the seminarians he saw as the
“little monks of Rome [...] so innocent and bright [...]
poor boys.” Newman left Rome for the first time in awe
of her glory yet with deep prejudices against her.
Newman’s second visit was under very different
circumstances. After the storm of the Oxford
Movement had passed and just a year after his
reception into the Church Newman, with Ambrose St
Mgr Keith in the Church of
St George in the Marsh - San Georgio Palabro - the titular
church of John Henry Cardinal Newman, our Patron