Newman’s Dream Come True

By Msgr. Vincent Krische
Petrus Development

In the Spring of 2010, we will be running a series of 3 articles about the life and work of John Henry Cardinal Newman.

Part One

In Genesis 37, we read the story of Joseph, called by his brothers “the master dreamer.”  Like Joseph, all true dreamers are able to look forward and see great possibilities. A dreamer often causes agitation among those who, unable to see so clearly, call him ‘irresponsible.’ But I sometimes wonder if anything great ever happened without starting out as a dream. History shows how many of such dreams have come true!

The 19th century dreamer, John Henry Cardinal Newman, was an intellectual genius with a stalwart faith.  A man of courage, conviction, and charity who lived within the atmosphere of higher education, he knew the relationship between faith and reason. He believed that an institution that dealt only with reason and ignored the faith dimension undermined its own mission, and as a response purposed to advance the importance of theological study within the increasingly secular University.

He argued that “the omission of any one branch of study impairs the wholeness of knowledge which a university exists to communicate.” He went so far as to say that if a university did not include Theology in its studies, it was not truly a university.  The omission of Theology’s truth and rationality would deprive students of a comprehensive education. He went to great lengths to prove that Theology was a true science.  To deny any student theology was to undermine the wholeness, the universality, of his entire course of study.

While Newman lived and worked in an atmosphere which was just beginning to deal with secularization of society, we minister within an extremely secularized society. In the coming months, we will be taking a look at his thoughts about ministering within a society which either ignores or denies the authenticity of Theology as a valid and valuable science.

Part Two

By the time John Henry Cardinal Newman built the first ‘House of Catholic Studies’, Catholics had been legally excluded from Oxford and Cambridge for two centuries. “Their faith survived, but their intellectual and social development suffered. They were in no position to make any impact on England’s cultural life or to cope intelligently with the new developments and theories affecting religious thought.” In the England of Newman’s time, if you did not have a higher degree from either Oxford or Cambridge, you could not advance in the social structures of law, commerce, finance, etc.  Newman’s solution was the beginning of and the inspiration for ‘Campus Ministry’ as we know it today. He would enable Catholic students to attend Oxford or Cambridge, receive their Theological Studies at the Catholic House, and thus advance in both faith and in the social culture of their day.

With 90% of today’s Catholic students in non-Catholic universities, Cardinal Newman’s model is the best one for us to follow.  If we could build a “School of Catholic Theology” at all of our Catholic Centers, we would see tremendous results. It takes those who can “dream of a better future for Church and Society” to take on this challenge.  I personally am convinced that it will work! Newman’s “Idea of a University” is vitally important for us today, because his was a struggle against a way of thinking which proposed the view that “there was no substantive truth in religion”. His goal was, as ours must be, to educate Catholics professionals to manifest Christian ideals and defend reasonable faith in service to an unbelieving world.

We have been blessed by God with all of the gifts necessary to achieve this ideal for our Church in Higher Education today!  Our next newsletter will focus on the Beatification of Newman.

Part Three

Three years after I began my journey in campus ministry, I visited the “International Center of Newman Friends” in Rome.  I was surprised that the people there directed all their efforts toward the goal of Cardinal Newman’s Beatification. They prayed daily that this might happen. They were conscious of all that he suffered, through illness, rejection by close friends, pain on leaving the Anglican Church, and through rigorous intellectual application to the search for Truth.  Their dreams will come true when, in Fall 2010, he is proclaimed “Blessed”.  Their painstaking examination of his prolific writings convinces us of the great value of all he taught, preached, and argued. His solid case for the necessity of the study of Theology is a legacy to all who are involved in Catholic Ministry in Higher Education.

This is a significant time for us to examine our ministry and search for ways to follow his leadership.  It is time to take a serious look at his book, “The Idea of a University.”  His ideals for a Catholic University apply to us as we aspire to establish “Catholic Houses” next to the Universities we serve.  We are uniquely placed to become major players in the transmission of the Church’s heritage in Higher Education – blessed with the opportunity to answer the Church’s call to integrate faith and reason in the formation of the laity!  We should make ten- to fifteen-year plans to raise the financial resources to build a Theology program, gradually hire staff with graduate degrees in Theology, Scripture, Moral Teachings, etc., and design a curriculum wherein a student could take one non-credit class each semester.

Theology is the science which unites all other learning, provides the goal for all study and satisfies the deepest desires of the heart.  My students say Theology makes the rest of their education make sense.

Now is our time to make Newman’s dream come true!