Why Cardinal Newman is No Saint

The Sunday Times ^ | 5/8/10 | John Cornwell

[marshmallow]

The Catholic Church plans to make Cardinal Newman a saint when the Pope comes to Britain. A private Vatican document supposedly proves he was responsible for a miracle of healing. It shows no such thing

Not so long ago, a rare kind of book came into my hands: a Vatican investigation into an alleged supernatural event. It is sumptuously bound in scarlet cloth, and the gilt- lettered title proclaims in Latin: “Positio Super Miro” (”A Statement on the Miracle”). This volume, running to 240 pages, contains the final judgment of a panel known as the Consulta Medica (more popularly, “the Miracle Police”) into the supernatural claims of one Jack Sullivan, an elderly American deacon, formerly a court official in Massachusetts. Sullivan is convinced that he was cured nine years ago of a severe spinal condition as a result of praying to Cardinal John Henry Newman, a Victorian convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism who died in 1890. Only after the Pope pronounces that a healing is indeed a miracle can a positio be read outside the bureaucratic circles of the saint-makers in Rome. The Pope recently ratified Sullivan’s healing as an authentic supernatural event, so the positio on his case has just been made available to a handful of bona-fide researchers with a specialist interest in Newman. Copies will be kept in the Vatican library and at Newman’s oratory in Birmingham.

This is a story of how the Catholic Church makes saints, how popes authenticate miracles, and how a volatile mix of science and the supernatural could upset an imminent papal visit. Pope Benedict is coming to Britain to perform a religious ceremony known as a beatification. On Saturday, September 18, in the presence of a vast congregation at Coventry airport, he will decree Cardinal Newman to be a “blessed” ...............

[marshmallow]

The latest offering from the author of "Hitler's Pope", which attempted to lay blame for Jewish deaths during the Holocaust at the door of Pius XII.

Note here, that the principal issue is most certainly not Newman. Newman is really just a club of convenience. The issue is Benedict XVI, his upcoming trip to Britain where he will beatify Newman and the ongoing campaign against the present Pope, in which The Times has been and still is, one of the main actors.

[lastchance]

Barf alert please!!!

[Salvation]

Some background the author's may want to consider:

Why Cardinal Newman is No Saint
Pope to visit Queen, beatify Cardinal Newman during England visit
Deacon discusses miracle healings in beatification cause of John Henry Newman [Catholic Caucus]
Pope Benedict clears way for Cardinal John Newman to become first English saint in 40 years
Newman Beatification Expected
Mystery of cardinal's missing bones

No body (found) in exhumed (Cardinal John Henry) Newman's grave
Catholic Officials Seek Permission to Exhume Cardinal Newman's Body
John Henry Cardinal Newman to be beatified
Happy Birthday Cardinal Newman, part 2
Happy Birthday Cardinal Newman, part 1
Newman on Conversion
Cardinal Newman 'to become saint very soon'
Cardinal Newman: sainted after US 'miracle'
Searching For Authority (A Methodist minister, Christopher Dixon finds himself surprised by Truth!) - from Cardinal Newman's writings
Beatification soon for Cardinal Newman?

[Kansas58]

I live in Wichita
Home of Newman University.
Thank you!

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

The Pope himself does not authenticate miracles. There is actually a panel of Vatican clergy who carry out this task, and they have reputation for being demanding and doubting.

[NoRedTape]

Right on!.......

[SuziQ]

There is actually a panel of Vatican clergy who carry out this task, and they have reputation for being demanding and doubting.

And there is always someone who argue the opposite viewpoint vehemently. This person is called the "Devil's Advocate" ;o)

[RobbyS]

Indeed, the name of Cornwell is good enough to stop reading.

[vladimir998]

Cornwell is such a lying distorting sack of ....