THE P RTAL
October 2017 Page 10
Thoughts on Newman
Converts : Newcomers should remember their station
Or should they ? Asks The Revd Dr Stephen Morgan
Recently the Twittersphere was full of less than charitably expressed opinions concerning converts . Certain high-profile Catholic voices seemed to be implying – if not quite explicitly saying – that converts to Catholicism saw things in too stark a relief , brought with them into the Church the unfortunate habits of conflict , the neuroses and anxieties of their former communions and ought , frankly , to pipe down . The reaction was predictably shrill and , like most storms of this kind , the whole thing quickly blew over . It was all , however , fairly unedifying .
Converts have always been considered suspect : from the attitude of St Peter and the other Apostles to the newly-converted St Paul – an attitude not without good reason given his recent history as persecutor of the Church - through to Ullathorne ’ s celebrated ( and probably apocryphal ) put-down to Manning , “ Remember , I was teaching the catechism with a mitre on my ’ ead when you were still an ‘ eretic ”. 1
In a Church that is supposed to welcome newcomers , it is , however , a pretty strange attitude , all the more so since , in our present age , it is often one expressed by those who seem most anxious to be seen to be as inclusive as possible . Converts themselves are not entirely without blame in this matter : it takes time to learn how to express oneself in new company and neophytes are often unaware of sensitivities or simply bewildered that the truths of the faith or the riches of its tradition should sit so very lightly upon those who have grown up in the household of faith .
It is no surprise to learn that Blessed John Henry Newman often evoked negative responses from socalled cradle-Catholics . His habit of diving in to ecclesiastical controversy , combined with a theological method and apologetic approach learned in the Oxford Divinity School not the Aula Maxima of the Gregorian made him long the object of suspicion in Rome . That he did not follow Manning and Ward into an exaggerated Ultramontanism simply added grist to the mill in the fervid atmosphere of the papacy of Pio Nono .
It would be fair to say that , although a man musical by nature , Newman was also rather tin-eared when it
came to the effect his contributions often had on clergy from old recusant families and the newly arrived Irish urban poor . The former were long-trained in keeping a low-profile , avoiding controversy and the latter often saw Catholicism and Irish Catholicism as one and the same thing .
The confident eloquence of Newman ’ s frequent forays into the public press , a confidence born of Oxford , the Oriel Senior Common Room , the University Pulpit and the eponymous Movement , made Catholics as uncomfortable as it had unsettled Anglicans .
It was against this background that Newman counselled prospective converts , both before and after his own conversion . His correspondence is full of exchanges with those contemplating submitting to the claims of the Catholic Church and throughout his advice remained constant : if one believed that the claims of the Catholic Church were true , conversion should not be delayed ; if one was not sure of those claims , then it should not be contemplated .
What never seemed to have occurred to him was that once within the communion of the Church converts should hold their tongues , for , as St Benedict recognised in his Rule , which did so much to shape the particular character of the English Church , “ God perchance hath sent [ the newcomer ] for this very end ”. 2
1
David Hugh Farmer , Benedict ’ s Disciples , ( Gracewing : Leominster , 1995 ), p . 364 .
2
Rule of St . Benedict , ( trans . Dom Oswald Hunter Blair OSB ), ( Abbey Press : Fort Augustus , 1886 ), chapter LXI , p . 155 .