Saturday 9 October 2010

Bl John Henry Newman...


I look forward to a time (after the euphoria dies down) when Bl John Henry Newman is less popular than he is now. Whatever his personal piety and learning I prefer such English saints who herald from a time of less decadance and decay in the Roman Church as Sts Bede and Ethelwold of Winchester. By ''decadance and decay'' I mean, of course, in terms of Liturgy. How many Low Masses did Bl John Henry Newman celebrate I wonder, to the greater detriment of Liturgy?

Alas for the neglect of so many English saints.

5 comments:

  1. I am sure we can have a both-and here. With the prospect of Anglicans joining the Ordinariate, a re-emphasis on pre-Reformation British saints may be about to happen.

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  2. One would hope so. Anglicans of the High Church variety have more to offer the Roman Church than the Lefebvrists. Also there was a ''euphoria'' among the English people when St Thomas of Canterbury was martyred - lots of people flocking to his shrine etc, and then came Henry II himself to be flogged by the monks.

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  3. Henry II being flogged by monks? No-one could accuse pre-Reformation Catholicism of being dull and colourless.

    How did I end up being born in the age of tie-dye pebble worship? :-)

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  4. By ''decadance and decay'' I mean, of course, in terms of Liturgy.

    But this is the only thing you seem to talk about? Rather sad...

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  5. It is a myth that Catholicism upon the eve of the Reformation was unpopular and dying out. Alas for the churches though...

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