Newman scholar rejects claim that cardinal was gay

By SIMON CALDWELL
THE VATICAN has hit back at claims that the man likely to become Britain's next saint was a closet homosexual.
The cause for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman is progressing in Rome and the Vatican wants his remains transferred to the J3imiingham Oratory Church where they can be better venerated by pilgrims.
Last month the Government granted a licence for the cardinal to be exhumed from a grave he has shared with fellow priest Fr Ambrose St John in a small cemetery in Rednal, Worcestershire, since 1890.
But gay rights activists, led by Peter Tatchell of Outrage!, claim that the cardinal was gay and should not be exhumed because he "repeatedly expressed wishes to remain buried in the same grave as the man he loved".
Mr Tatchell on Tuesday wrote to the Justice Secretary Jack Straw asking for the licence to be revoked.
The claims have received such publicity around the world, that Fr Ian Ker, a theologian at Oxford University and the world's leading Newman scholar, was asked by the Holy See to rebut the allegations in an article for the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
Fr Ker, the author of the definitive biography of Newman, said there was no evidence to suggest that the cardinal was gay other than the grief at the death of his closest friend and the request to be buried in the same grave.
"If wanting to be buried in the same gave as someone the indicates some kind of sexual feelings for the other person, then C S Lewis's brother Wamie, who is buried in the same grave in accordance with both brothers' wishes, must have had incestuous feelings for his brother which were mutual," wrote Fr Ker.
"Or again, G K Chesterton's devoted secretary, Dorothy Coffins, whom he and his wife regarded as a daughter, while thinking it presumptuous to ask to be buried in the same grave as the Chestertons, nevertheless directed that she be cremated and that her ashes should be buried in the same grave. Does this mean that she had more than filial feelings for one or both of her employers?"
He said that Newman, in his writings, said that he felt called to virginity and celibacy at an early age. But the cardinal also said he admitted sometimes missing the emotional intimacy of marriage.
"There were no civil partnerships between men then in what was still a Christian country where homosexual activity was punishable by imprisonment and was universally regarded as immoral," wrote Fr Ker. "Newman, of course, is talking about marriage with a woman and the sacrifice that celibacy involved. The only reason it could have been a sacrifice was because like any normal man Newman wished to get married. "But, although not belonging to a church where celibacy was the rule or even the ideal, Newman, steeped in SCriptUre as he was, knew the words of our Lord: 'There are eunuchs who have male themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven'."
Fr Ker added: "Finally, what should be said to those who think Newman's wishes should be honoured and that Ambrose St John's remains should be removed with his?
"Throughout his life as a Catholic, Newman always insisted that whatever he wrote he wrote under the correction of Holy Mother Church. That was his constant refrain. If the Church decrees that he should be beatified and his remains removed to a place of veneration and pilgrimage, then Newman's undoubted response would be that his last testament, like everything else he wrote, he wrote under correction of higher authority.
"And if that higher authority decrees that his body be removed and that of his friend left, then Newman would say without hesitation, 'so be it'."
Cardinal Newman's Cause took a step forward in April when Vatican medical consultants ruled that an inexplicable healing in August 2001 of a man with a crippling spinal condition was a result of his intercession. The Cause is now being studied by theological consultors. If they decide that the healing was a miracle it will mean that Cardinal Newman can be beatified and declared "blessed".