In a recent address to a Vatican conference on mysticism, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, explored the question of whether St. John Henry Newman was a mystic.
“There has always been debate as to whether or not he was a ‘mystic,’” Cardinal Semeraro said. If mysticism is “an intimate feeling of God’s presence, he was certainly a mystic; if, instead, it refers to the presence of extraordinary graces, there is no evidence to support this.”
The prelate added, “Mystical graces do not constitute an indispensable condition for holiness; however, the theme of successive divine callings to holiness allows us to place the Christian life in the movement of continuous growth under the influence of divine grace.”