It appears the Vatican's plan to separate two longtime companions who wanted to be together forever in death has been providentially thwarted.The Venerable John Cardinal Newman was England's most famous convert to Catholicism in the 19th century; he was widely admired by people of all faiths for his tireless work on behalf of improving living conditions for the poor and marginalized of his day.
According to PinkNews,
However, when Newman's grave, near Birmingham, was opened on October 2,The decision to remove his remains from their final resting place was controversial as the Cardinal had stipulated he wanted to be buried with his longtime companion, Father Ambrose St John. . . .
Though Cardinal Newman was a lifelong celibate, and many scholars argue that his love for his fellow priest was merely Platonic, this move by the Catholic Church has fuelled speculation that they are embarrassed by the close nature of the friendship between the two men.
Newman and St John shared a house together and were lifelong friends. They share a tombstone with the inscription "out of shadows and phantasms into the truth" etched across it.
The Catholic Church claims the move is in preparation for his beatification, the third stage of recognition of sainthood.Martin Prendergast, a homosexual campaigner in the Catholic Church, claimed the relationship had caused misgivings in the Vatican: "I don't think they can just pretend the relationship didn't exist," he said.
[T]here were no remains of the body of John Henry Newman. An expectation that Cardinal Newman had been buried in a lead lined coffin proved to be unfounded.Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said,
"In the view of the medical and health professionals in attendance, burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition of the body unsurprising. . . .
The Very Reverend Paul Chavasse, Provost of the Birmingham Oratory and Postulator of the Newman Cause said:
"The lack of substantial physical remains does nothing to diminish our deep reverence for Cardinal Newman. Yesterday's outcome seems to have a Providential significance."
The Vatican wanted to rebury the Cardinal's remains in a marble tomb, separate from St John, to dampen speculation that he might have been gay.
Newman's and St John's bodies have decomposed together, uniting them forever in the same soil. They cannot now be separated, as the Catholic Church planned. Cardinal Newman's wishes have triumphed over the Vatican's homophobia.
2 comments:
It is a bit much to ascribe homophobia as the motive of the Church in this instance. It is standard procedure for the remains of a potential saint to be disinterred and removed to a location that is more suitable for the devotion to the saint. That Newman was buried with his friend is indisputable, and if the Church were really trying to cover this over, it would simply have quietly quashed the process leading toward canonization.
Well, you may be right that homophobia per se is not the primary reason for their wanting to remove Newman's remains from the cemetery to a shrine. But given the long, long history of the Church's policy and practice of homophobia - as exemplified by the recent uproar over the UN resolution to decriminalize homosexuality, opposed by the Vatican - in that light, we can see at least a residuum of homophobia in wanting to remove Newman's remains from proximity to those of his longtime companion.
Fortunately for those of us who like a happy ending, the point is providentially moot now . . . .
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