by Marie Symington
Rome – Saint John Henry Newman has recently been proclaimed a Doctor of the Church and subsequently been named the Patron Saint of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, part of the Dicastery for Evangelization. As a Doctor of the Church and Patron Saint of such a university, one would naturally expect Newman to have lived up to these titles. Indeed, the pursuit of Truth guided Newman throughout his life — from his years as a devoted Anglican at the University of Oxford to those following his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. The revelation of Truth likewise animates the Church in its mission to proclaim the Gospel. As Newman explained in his discourse The Salvation of the Hearer the Motive of the Preacher “My dear brethren, if we are sure that the Most Holy Redeemer has shed His blood for all men, is it not a very plain and simple consequence that we, His servants, His brethren, His priests, should be unwilling to see that blood shed in vain […] What is so powerful an incentive to preaching as the sure belief that it is the preaching of the truth? […] What so great a persuasive to bring men into the Church, as the conviction that it is the special means by which God effects the salvation of those whom the world trains in sin and unbelief?”
However daunting this may sound to Catholics, the conversion of hearts lies at the very center of the Church’s mission, as showcased by both Tradition and the very meaning of Catholicism itself. In his discourse Prospects of the Catholic Missioner, Newman highlights the great heritage Catholics have inherited since the time of Saint Peter — a history that has endured every trial across the centuries — to encourage the faithful in their vocation: “We are confident, zealous, and unyielding, because we are the heirs of St. Peter, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Gregory Pope, and all other holy and faithful men, who, in their day, by word, deed, or prayer, have furthered the Catholic cause.” Just as the pagan Anglo-Saxons in the time of Pope Gregory I once experienced the joy of the Good News when he sent missionaries to Britain, so too are Catholics today called to share in that same joy in spreading the Word. The proclamation of the Gospel remains the Church’s essential mission. Indeed, the universal call to spread the Word to the whole world befits the very nature of the Catholic Church — kataholos in Greek, meaning “whole” or “universal.” As Newman reminded, “We act according to our name; Catholics are at home in every time and place, in every state of society, in every class of the community, in every stage of cultivation.”.
That being said, the great zeal that drives Catholic missionaries in the defense of Truth should never tread on the gentleness and compassion with which they are called to preach. Love of God embraces love for His creation — for humanity, even at its weakest. Newman reflected on this virtue of sympathy in his sermon St. Paul’s Gift of Sympathy, describing it as a gift possessed by the Saints, grounded “on an intimate experience of what human nature actually is, in its irritability and sensitiveness, its despondency and changeableness, its sickliness, its blindness, and its impotence.” Such love for humanity seeks to mirror God’s own boundless love for His people. As Newman explained, “As Almighty God Himself has the compassion of a father on his children, for He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust; so, after His pattern, we are called upon to cherish the virtue of humanity, as it may be called, a virtue which comes of His supernatural grace, and is cultivated for His sake, though its object is human nature viewed in itself, in its intellect, its affections, and its history.” Thus, the defense of Truth must never be marked by arrogance or judgment, but founded in humility and compassion — in recognition of our shared, flawed human nature. Newman observed that one can look to the Apostle Paul as an example, the latter having “full consciousness that he is a man […] he is to himself merely a frail man speaking to frail men, and he is tender towards the weak from a sense of his own weakness.” Catholic missionaries can do the same, all while placing their faith in God’s grace as a source for strength.
In addition to understanding the weaknesses common to all human beings, Newman acknowledged that each person is shaped by a unique past and distinct dispositions. While the proclamation of the Gospel remains the Church’s universal mission, it is first and foremost rooted in a personal relationship with God that encompasses the individuality of each person. Newman was deeply aware of this intimate dimension. In his lecture Logical Inconsistency of the Protestant View, he emphasized that the Church spreads “by means of individual conversions, by the exercise of private judgment, by the communication of mind with mind by the conflict of opinion, by the zeal of converts, and in the midst of persecution; not by any general plan of operation, or by political movement”. Furthermore, just as receiving the Gospel is a profoundly personal act, so too is proclaiming it. Every Catholic’s mission is shaped by their own history and character; no two callings are the same. In his Meditations on Christian Doctrine, Newman reflects on his unique vocation entrusted by God, suggesting that each person is likewise called by God to a mission uniquely their own: “I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name […] God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.”
Saint John Henry Newman’s episcopal motto, Cor ad cor loquitur , beautifully captures the essence of the Catholic mission: before all else, conversion begins with a heartfelt encounter between two persons. It is through this encounter that God can touch and convert the hearts of His creation.
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