I hope it's official soon ...in my exuberance, I missed the line about this being based on the Birmingham Mail and Report. I thought CNA was quoting the Vatican.

I'm sure it will be ... but there's nothing yet from the Vatican itself.
Gashwin Gomes | Homepage | 04.23.08 - 1:00 pm | #

:-D
Ceitagh | 04.23.08 - 2:15 pm | #

Psalm 122 time.
Edward Peters | Homepage | 04.23.08 - 2:18 pm | #

Surely the Vatican will make it official soon.

English Catholicism could use a public boost--who better than Cardinal Newman?
mj anderson | Homepage | 04.23.08 - 2:27 pm | #

IF Rowan Williams converts, will that count as a miracle?
Teep | 04.23.08 - 3:01 pm | #

It was the wish of Blessed John XXIII to canonize Pius IX and Cardinal Newman together. Maybe it'll actually come true.

Although I'd also like to see Cardinal Manning and Catherine of Aragon canonized with Newman. Great shot in the arm for the English Church and the nation at large while some are calling for the reconversion of the island.
Thomas | 04.23.08 - 4:50 pm | #

It was about time for this great man of faith to be beatified. I hope the canonization follows asap!!! Great good for the Universal Church and for Catholics in Britain.
Antoinette | Homepage | 04.24.08 - 5:22 am | #

Great news about Cardinal Newman's upcoming beatification-something the Catholics of England really need!

I have a priest-friend who is in the Diocese of Salford (Manchester). He was ordained by John Paul II in 1982 at the end of the only Papal visit to England. I'll have to contact him about this....

Thomas...do you mean Isabella of Castile, the mother of Catherine of Aragon? As far as I know, Catherine is not mentioned as a candidate for sainthood. She was a devout and faithful Catholic, to be sure, especially in enduring the humiliations by her husband Henry VIII.

There's another candidate for sainthood who was a contemporary of Newman and a convert like him: Venerable Ignatius[George] Spencer, an ancestor of Princess Diana. He was an Anglican vicar who became friends with Blessed Dominic Barbieri, the Italian Passionist priest who received Newman into the Church, and became a Passionist priest himself. Fr. Ignatius and Fr. Dominic are buried in the Passionist church of St. Anne's, Sutton, very close to where my priest-friend lives.

Soon-to-Blessed Cardinal Newman, pray for the Catholic Church in England!
irishgirl | 04.26.08 - 12:08 pm | #