60 LE1YIERS HAVE COME TO LIGHT
SINCE the end of May, when it was announced that the beatification cause of Cardinal Newman was to he formally opened, 60 of the Cardinal's letters have come to light, states Mgr. Francis Davis. vice-postulator of the cause. He hopes that these will counter objections bound to be raised by the "devil's advocate".
Such objections might include charges that Cardinal Newman was over sensitive and given to habitual melancholy. In newly discovered letters, Mgr. Davis has discovered passages revealing the Cardinal's abiding good humour which often resulted in his being the butt of jokes. Great Importance is attached to instances of conversion through reading the Cardinal's writings, says Mgr. Davis. He has received a letter from the daughter of a Protestant clergyman, who said that her father read passages of the Cardinal's works every night and taught her the same love and devotion for his books.
There is hopeful progress towards declaring Cardinal Newman a saint, says Mgr Davis. But he adds that so far no miracles seem to have occurred which testify sufficiently as divine signs of the Cardinal's intercession.