English cardinal helped popularize movement of Oratories of St. Philip Neri, including one in Midtown Detroit

DETROIT — A theologian, professor and poet, St. John Henry Newman might be the greatest Catholic influence on England of the 19th century.

The former Anglican priest who founded the Oxford Movement that sought to return Anglicanism to its Catholic roots later joined the Church in Rome, becoming a Catholic priest in 1846. In 1879, he was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII after turning down an offer to be made a bishop.

After his death in 1890, Cardinal Newman’s cause for sainthood was opened in 1958. Pope Benedict XVI beatified Cardinal Newman in 2010, and on Oct. 13, 2019, Pope Francis canonized the native Londoner, who follows in the footsteps of Sts. Thomas Becket, Thomas More, Edmund Campion and Polydore Plasden.

St. Newman’s influence extends to this day in the form of Oratories of St. Philip Neri, which he established in London and Birmingham. Eventually, the oratories spread across the English-speaking world, including the United States.

Fr. Daniel Jones is superior of the Detroit Oratory at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Midtown Detroit, which joined with oratories around the world in praying a novena ahead of St. Newman's canonization.

Fr. Jones, who also is associate professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, said the oratories have always looked to St. Newman for inspiration.

“Cardinal Newman is held by many to have been the greatest preacher in the English language and the greatest theologian of the 19th century,” Fr. Jones told Detroit Catholic. “He was a student and then a teacher at Oxford and was instrumental in starting the ‘Oxford movement,’ which sought to renew Christian faith and spiritual life in England by returning to the roots of the Catholic faith and countering the growing secularization of the University of Oxford.”

Fr. Jones said St. Newman’s study of the early Church fathers led to his conversion to Catholicism and publication of pamphlets called “tracts” defending the theological arguments of the early Church leaders.

“These translations were at the beginning of what became known as ‘patristic renewal,’ which eventually strongly influenced the Second Vatican Council,” Fr. Jones said. “Newman’s study of the Church fathers eventually brought him, already an Anglican priest, to his famous decision to enter the Catholic Church, and not long thereafter, to ordination to the Catholic priesthood.”

Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron has a strong personal devotion to Cardinal Newman, often citing him as a great influence on his own faith.

“When I was a sophomore in college, by God’s providence, I started reading Cardinal Newman’s ‘Parochial and Plain Sermons,’” Archbishop Vigneron told Detroit Catholic. “I found in them an exposition of the meaning of the mysteries of the faith that was luminous in its charity and compelling in its reasoning. On account of this, I have never stopped thanking the Lord for giving me (St.) John Henry Newman as a guide into my adult commitment to Christ and his Church.

“In every sense of the word, St. Newman is a ‘father of my faith,’” Archbishop Vigneron added.

After St. Newman's priestly ordination, he reportedly asked Pope Pius IX how best to spend his priesthood. The pope suggested he consider the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a form of life for priests and brothers founded in Rome in which secular — as in, non-religious order — clergy live in communion while taking on parish and diocesan assignments. 

“Newman established the first oratory in the English-speaking world in London, and soon after in Birmingham,” Fr. Jones said. “While the oratory has a long and important history in Europe and then in England, it’s only recently that oratories have begun to spread in the United States. In fact, since Newman’s beatification in 2010, the number of oratories in the United States has doubled.”

The Detroit Oratory is modeled after the designs of St. Philip Neri and St. Newman, where three priests live together in community to focus on how best to spread the Gospel in the world today.

“St. Philip Neri saw such a life together as a means of going back to the apostolic model of life,” Fr. Jones said. “It modeled the life of Jesus and the Apostles, who lived all things in common, and who even as they were scattered, continually worked in apostolic teams rather than alone. These advantages still hold for today, for which reason the oratory is especially apt for the New Evangelization.”

Fr. Jones added St. Newman’s canonization is a chance for Catholics to reflect on what it means to follow God’s will by living “ordinary” lives.

“(St.) John Henry Newman is an enormous inspiration to all ‘ordinary’ people seeking to live the normal Christian life perfectly,” Fr. Jones said. “In his ‘Short Road to Perfection,’ he says: ‘If you ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say, first — do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising; give your first thoughts to God; make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament; say the Angelus devoutly; eat and drink to God’s glory; say the rosary well; be recollected; keep out bad thoughts; make your evening meditation well; examine yourself daily; go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect.”