After a long period of restriction imposed by the pandemic, the friars of the Provincial Custody of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) were finally able to celebrate their annual Easter Custodial gathering together.

Portrait of John Henry Newman (1801-1890) 1889 (oil on canvas) by Deane, Emmeline (d.1944); National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

Newman as a Critic of Modernity #2

A Catholic sacrifices his (her) opinion to the Word of God, declared through the Church, but from the nature of the case, there is nothing to hinder him from having his own opinion and expressing it, whenever, and so far as, the Church, the oracle of Revelation, does not speak.^[1]
Remembering Forward during the Easter Season recalls that “death and life have contended and the Prince of life who died, reigns immortal.”^[2] In a similar combat, identified as modernity, St. John Henry Newman is a prophet of lamentation and jubilation as Jeremiah and Isaiah. The language of prophecy guides the life of a Christian.^[3] The prophets, the Greek Fathers as Origen, and the Latin Fathers as Augustine, are a backdrop for Newman who never speaks about himself as a prophet while engaging modernity and unearthing the operation of Liberalism in the secular sphere with a prophetic critique. After his conversion “his main interest is the diagnosis and refutation of rationalism in religion which he believes has attenuated and disfigured the genuine Christianity of the early Church.”^[4]
Vatican I, a quarter of a century after his conversion, for various and complex reasons, missed employing Newman as an intellectual resource. Ironically, Newman diagnosed what is deeply felt and the growing operative approach to living as a Christian today:
(a.) the rejection of doctrines and correlative rejection of the felt need to have doctrines regulate the Christian community; (b.) the valorization of private judgment over tradition; (c.) a marked attenuation of the sense of God as the totally Other and a downgrading to a moral lawgiver who is himself subject to morality that he supposedly institutes; (d.) a distaste for the dramatic view of the human being who can attain to the sublime height of sainthood or the abysmal low of incorrigible sinner (C. O’Regan).
Why did the leaders at Vatican I miss such a keen eye? The preparation for the Council, its tonality, refusal to negotiate with modernity, and insistence on scholasticism in its replies, initiated fallout afterward that did not bode well for the Church between 1870 and 1930. Newman had diagnosed modern ideology and its development. Today, ideologies try to rinse and to bleach faith while allowing reason to be the sole referee. Authority is discarded.
After Vatican I, a crisis of modernism arose, advanced by ressourcement research, Nouvelle Théologie, transcendental thomists engaging Kant, and theologians who would become leaders at Vatican II. In supreme irony, Vatican II became Newman’s Council. The narration of his insights properly is as intellectual, prophetic, and apocalyptic as his original observations. His gifts serve ongoing reform and renewal of the Church in the 21st century.
From his Oxford days, Newman analyzes the verbal onslaught against rational Christianity and that they have lost all sense that the visible is not all that is the case. Overboard went the invisible as latent and effective within the visible.^[5] The new social and ideological cultural set was making it impossible to understand what a sacrament is supposed to be. Newman accepted the more traditional view that a sacrament is the presence of the invisible power of God in time, matter, and space. Charles Taylor refers to this burying of historical Christianity and rise of counterfeit Christianity as the new social imaginary. ^[6]
The “surprise of surprises” was Newman’s going over to the Catholic Church as the one Church of Christ acting in the world. The air he breathed was filled with a rationalism, naturalism, and skepticism which sidelines the questions. Is there a God? Does Christ save us? Should we trust Scripture and its interpretation? The ideology protocols and alternative science models crash head on with the Church. A pastiche of Karl Marx is that the kingdom of God is on earth. Marx could tolerate tyranny for a while in order to get to social justice for all. Marxism would become a calamity, tolerating tyranny that has never stopped.^[7]
Newman was named to the cardinalate a decade after Vatican I, and his acceptance speech is synoptic. “Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily.”^[8] His aim was to denounce modern rationalist forms of Christianity which capitulated to secular reason. His style of argument was not from scholasticism about which he knew little. Both the default intellectual position of secular modernity and the new social imaginary was fully established in the 19th century. The refusal of the Catholic Church to negotiate kept it in a defensive posture. Newman’s defense of the Church drew from biblical and patristic sources, and made use of Butler’s^[9] probability. Vatican II employed philosophy’s principles and methods while engaging theology. The Church has no philosophy of her own, nor does she give preference to one.^[10]
Newman saw through the counterfeit of secular Christianity which disguises itself as genuine and immunizes itself against attack as Lockean inspired: “Religion is a private luxury which a man may have if he will; but which of course he must pay for, and which he must not obtrude upon others, or indulge in to their annoyance (which) is a great apostasia.”^[11]

Remembering Forward # 8 will continue this study of Liberalism, as Newman identified the prevailing spirit in England of his day, now so widespread throughout the Western world.

Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conv., Univ. of Notre Dame, Easter Reflection 2, eondrako@alumni.nd.edu

__________________________________________

^[1] J. H. Newman, Letter to Norfolk (London: uniform edition, 1874), 345.
^[2] Sequence for Easter; Victimae paschali laudes.
^[3] “Proof from prophecy is partially about predicting the future and aligns with miracles.” J.C. Cavadini.
^[4] C. O’Regan’s teaching on Newman at Notre Dame pivots on this conviction. I embrace it willingly.
^[5] Pouring of water and words of baptism, bread and wine consecrated by a priest, words of absolution for sin, anointing with oil blessed by the bishop, etc.
^[6] C. Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007).
^[7] E.g., Ukraine and the forced starvation by Stalin in 1931-1932 and the atrocities by Putin in 2022.
^[8] J. H. Newman, Biglietto Speech, 12 May 1879. Given upon his receipt of the cardinalate.
^[9] Bsp. J. Butler, The Analogy of Religion (1736).
^[10] Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio, 1998, no. 49.
^[11] Biglietto Speech. Apostasia is Latin from Greek apostasis, meaning defection.

Fr. Edward J. Ondrako, OFM Conventual
Research Fellow Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome
Visiting Scholar, McGrath Institute for Church Life
University of Notre Dame
Easter Monday ~ April 18, 2022

The Conventual Franciscan Provincial Secretariat for Mission Animation, located in Gdynia, Poland, is supporting and continuing a project to benefit Ukraine which was started by local members of the Militia of the Immaculata (M.I.). The Secretariat belongs to the Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk).

Our own Br. Nick Romeo, OFM Conv. created intercessions for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer based on Laudato Si’.

On Friday, April 22, 2022, during the Syracuse University’s 4:00 p.m. One University Awards, in the University’s Hendricks Chapel, our own Friar Gerry Waterman, OFM Conv. was presented the “Chancellor’s Forever Orange Award (pictured at right), which is conferred on individual students, faculty or staff who – by virtue of extraordinary hard work, good values and commitment to excellence – embody the best of Syracuse University.”

An invitation to the friars with whom Friar Gerry lives in community in the St. Francis Friary, included this announcement:
“We can also take great pride in the many people from across our campus
who do things big and small that make Syracuse thrive.
We will celebrate many of them next week at the One University Awards on
April 22 at 4 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel….
We will also recognize individuals who have made an extraordinary
impact on the University and our broader community.
This will include presenting the Forever Orange Award to
Patricia Burak and Father Gerry Waterman.”

Friars’ ministries take varied forms and can be found in diverse locations, including on several campuses of colleges and universities. Friar Gerry Waterman, OFM Conv. serves as Campus Minister for the Syracuse University (SU) Catholic Campus Ministry. His day to day work provides to the students, faculty, staff and greater community at SU with “dynamic programming that encourages community and faith-building.” The fruits of this ministry are evident in the many photos often shared by SU Catholic, including those of the thirteen RCIA students, international and domestic, who were initiated and fully initiated into our Catholic faith during the Easter Vigil, this year: two were Baptized, two received First Eucharist, and eleven were Confirmed (above).

10:30 a.m. Divine Mercy Sunday Mass, in the SU Catholic Center

In addition, the Most Reverend Douglas J. Lucia, Bishop of Syracuse, was on site at SU to celebrate the two Divine Mercy Masses, on Sunday April 24th, for the campus community (Pictured above during the 10:30 a.m. Mass in the SU Catholic Center, with the video of the 1:00 p.m. Mass in University’s Hendricks Chapel, below).

The friars of our Custódia Provincial Imaculada Conceição (Province’s Immaculate Conception Custody, in Brazil) gathered for two days of fraternity and meetings with Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv. (current Vicar Provincial and Minister Provincial Elect of Our Lady of the Angels Province) and the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. (current Minister Provincial of Our Lady of the Angels Province) in the city of São Lourenço – Minas Gerais, in Southeast Brazil. Depicted above in front of the Basílica Menor de São Lourenço Mártir, (Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence, Martyr), the friars of the Custody made a presentation with special engraved citations, pledging support for the incoming Minister Provincial (Friar Michael) and expressing appreciation to his predecessor (Friar James at right).

Friar Michael and Friar James (above) concelebrated the Mass of the Fifth Joy – “The Encounter of Jesus in the Temple” with the Very Reverend Fr. Ronaldo Gomes da Silva, OFM Conv. (Custos of the Immaculate Conception Custody) the friars of the Custody and the faithful gather at Paróquia São Lourenço Mártir. After the Gospel, proclaimed by Frei Jesus Rodrigues do Amaral, OFM Conv., Fr. James’ greeting & homily (in English) begins at the 38:10 mark in the video below:

Fr. Michael Heine, OFM Conv., Frei Jesus Rodrigues do Amaral, OFM Conv., Very Reverend Fr. Ronaldo Gomes da Silva, OFM Conv. and the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv.

Check out the new FranciscanVoice.org page – Then & Now!