Monday 10th October 2011
For immediate release:
The teachings of Blessed John Henry Newman can help Catholics to better understand the ideological crisis of their age, and give the assurance that it will eventually pass, according to the Rt Rev. Mark Davies, the Bishop of Shrewsbury.
During a homily at a Mass at the Birmingham Oratory on Saturday 8th October, the Bishop paid tribute to Blessed John Henry’s ability to read the signs of the times and for his courage to uphold and defend revealed truth. Pope Benedict XVI had pointed to this “remarkable prophetic clarity” with which he had foreseen the challenges now facing British and western societies.
The Mass was celebrated to mark the October 9th Feast Day of Blessed John Henry, who was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Cofton Park, Birmingham, on 19th September 2010, and to install his relics at a shrine in the main church where they may be venerated by pilgrims.
Bishop Davies said that Blessed John Henry had diagnosed the first symptoms of the ideology of moral relativism, which he described as “the disease that now ails our times”.
But although the Victorian Cardinal had predicted that relativism may create “centuries of confusion to come” he also offered the encouragement that the Church, by standing firm and faithful would see “this present ordeal overcome”, Bishop Davies explained.
This, the Bishop of Shrewsbury suggested, would be the witness of both his writings and his shrine at the Birmingham Oratory for generations to come.
“Scholars will long ponder the prophetic writings of Cardinal Newman but he would surely wish his memory and shrine to declare in a way both kindly and insistent that the truth can, indeed, be truly known,” Bishop Davies said.
“The relics of Blessed John Henry Newman’s shrine will silently allow his heart to continue to speak such encouragement to so many hearts: assuring us of victory in this struggle which we are now engaged in,” he added.
The relics include a fragment of bone “the size of a thumb-nail” which was recovered from the grave of Blessed John Henry following attempts to exhume his body in 2008.
This has been placed in a specially-made silver reliquary which has been encased in a larger wooden reliquary made partly from the handles of the Cardinal’s coffin.
The chief celebrant of the Mass was Father Ignatius Harrison, the Provost of the Birmingham Oratory and actor and vice-postulator of the Cause for Canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman.
Father Paul Chavasse, a spokesman for the Birmingham Oratory, said: “The Fathers of the Oratory were delighted to welcome the Bishop of Shrewsbury for the Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman. We are thrilled to be able to install the new reliquary and hope it will be the focus of the prayers and devotion of many people.”