Deacon visits Cardinal Newman library in gratitude

On November 11, the American deacon miraculously healed by John Henry Cardinal Newman’s intercession, a 19th-century convert and champion of faithful Catholic higher education, visited Newman’s private library and the likely site of Newman’s beatification in Birmingham, England.

Unofficial news reports have indicated that Newman may be beatified in late 2010 in Birmingham, the site of Newman’s former home and library, where local priests hope to build an archive of Newman’s work available to scholars from around the world. The Cardinal Newman Society in Manassas, Virginia, is working with the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory of St. Philip Neri to identify American support for the beatification ceremony and archive project.

Deacon Jack Sullivan of the Boston Archdiocese, whose miraculous healing was confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI last summer, is in England from November 8 to 14.

Father Paul Chavasse, Actor of Cardinal Newman’s Cause and Postulator-General of the Oratorian Confederation, described Deacon Sullivan’s visit as “a special opportunity for English Catholics to discover more about the fascinating figure of Newman, to learn that he is an intercessor in their needs, and to renew devotion to the Vicar of Christ, whose anticipated visit to the U.K. will be a powerful affirmation of the universal value of Newman’s path to the Catholic religion.”

On November 11 and 12, Deacon Sullivan was at the Birmingham Oratory, where he visited Cardinal Newman’s room, assisted at Mass in his private chapel and visited his library, which the Oratory describes as “a collection of international importance.” During his stay in Birmingham, Deacon Sullivan also assisted at Mass in the Oratory Church and visited the site of Newman’s burial in 1890.

On Monday, Deacon Sullivan visited London, England, the birthplace of Cardinal Newman in 1801. After assisting Mass at Westminster Cathedral in London, Deacon Sullivan joined Archbishop Vincent Nichols at a press conference and spoke for the first time in England about his 2000 healing through Newman’s intercession from a serious spinal cord condition.

Asked by a reporter if he had any reflections on why God healed him when he did, and chose now as the time for Newman to be beatified, Sullivan said, “There couldn’t be a better time… People today want to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. They want to be self-sufficient, rather than attribute to God what is His. This kind of self-sufficiency can lead to great evil. So the beatification is a way of reminding people that God is God, our Creator, and that he wants to draw us to himself.”

On Tuesday, Deacon Sullivan was introduced to the Catholic Truth Society 2009 Lecture at the London Oratory by Father Ian Ker, an internationally renowned Newman scholar and author of Cardinal Newman Society publications including “Newman on Education.”

After Birmingham, Deacon Sullivan will visit Littlemore, England, where Cardinal Newman was received into the Catholic Church in 1845, and the Oxford Oratory, site of the newly founded St. Bede’s Hall according to the model of Newman’s Idea of a University.