John Henry Newman English 19thc. Cardinal Huge Effects

John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman was born on February 21, 1801, and died on August 11, 1890. John Henry Newman was a convert to the Catholic church for the Anglican church, who became a cardinal. He had a huge effect on the Catholic church in America, as the Newman Centers on college campuses were inspired by him and named for him. John Henry Newman was a theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century and was known nationally by the mid-1830s. He was canonised as a Catholic saint in 2019. It always seems like converts to Catholicism have a more ardent faith. Do you believe this?

John Henry Newman Biography

The Emperor of Gladness
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John Henry Newman was born on February 21, 1801, in London. He was the oldest sibling of a family of three sons and three daughters. When he was seven years old, he was sent to Great Ealing School, where George Nicholas was the headmaster. When he was fifteen, during his last year at school, Newman converted to Evangelical Christianity, which was popular in England at the time.

For college, he went to Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied widely. On June 13, 1824, John Henry Newman was made an Anglican deacon. On May 29, 1825, he was ordained a priest at Christ Church Cathedral by the Bishop of Oxford. In 1825, he became vice-principal of St Alban Hall, but he held this post for only one year. He held various other positions in England on in 1832, he sailed the Mediterranean. After the cruise, he held various positions in England, but it became clear to family and friends that he was growing dissatisfied with the Anglican church.

He became Catholic on October 9, 1845. The consequences for Newman of his conversion were gigantic: he suffered broken relationships with family and friends, and attitudes toward him within his Oxford circle became polarised. In October 1846, John Henry Newman went to Rome, where he was ordained priest by Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni and awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Pope Pius IX.

He returned to England and gave a series of nine lectures there protesting the rampant anti-catholicism. Newman was an educator. In 1854, he went to Dublin as rector of the newly established Catholic University of Ireland, now University College Dublin. The very first Newman society was begun at Oxford in 1859. Newman spent the rest of his life writing and in 1862 published his opus, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, a religious autobiography.

John Henry Newman was a prolific writer: his major books include the Tracts for the Times (1833–1841), his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864), the Grammar of Assent (1870), and he also wrote the poem The Dream of Gerontius in 1865, which was set to music in 1900 by Edward Elgar. He also wrote hymns like  “Lead, Kindly Light”, “Firmly I Believe, and Truly”, and “Praise to the Holiest in the Height.”

College Newman Centers

Newman Centers, Newman Houses, Newman Clubs, or Newman Communities are Catholic campus ministry centers at secular universities. The movement was inspired by the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, encouraging societies for Catholic students attending secular universities. These centers may include residential living space or may be actual houses close to the campus with or without a chapel.

The “Newman Movement” in the United States started in 1883 at the University of Wisconsin when Catholic students formed the Melvin Club, named after their hosts, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Melvin. The first Newman Club in the United States was established in 1893 at the University of Pennsylvania by Timothy Harrington, a graduate medical student and former member of the Wisconsin group, with John Gilbride, James, and Joseph Walsh with the assistance of Father P. J. Garvey, Pastor of the local St. James Catholic Church. These Newman Centers are now worldwide, and the largest one is in Campaign. Illinois. It was blessed by Saint Pope John Paul II.

Conclusion

Now, virtually every college campus in the United States and beyond has a Newman Center. This is thanks to the great and learned Cardinal John Henry Newman. Newman was a convert to Catholicism, and it does seem like these individuals have an outsized effect on the Catholic church. That was the case for this guy.

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