Page 3, 9th April 2010

9th April 2010

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Page 3, 9th April 2010 — ‘Hitler’s Pope’ author criticises Pope’s view of Newman
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‘Hitler’s Pope’ author criticises Pope’s view of Newman

BY SIMON CALDWELL
POPE BENEDICT XVI has deliberately distorted Cardinal John Henry Newman’s teachings on conscience in an attempt to stamp out liberalism in the Church, a controversial Catholic writer has claimed.
But by ignoring Newman’s true teaching and legacy the Pontiff has left the Church ill-equipped to stop paedophiles from infiltrating the priesthood and abusing children, John Cornwell said.
Moreover, Cardinal Newman would have been opposed to the centralising tendencies of both Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II which, Mr Cornwell argued, have allowed the crisis to engulf the Church and for which both pontiffs must now be held accountable.
He said that Newman would have been a better model for priests than St John Vianney because he had intimate, albeit celibate, friendships with other men.
He also suggested that Newman’s beatification by Benedict XVI this September might be an attempt to sanitise the legacy of a theologian who had “scant regard for the opinion of popes”.
Writing in the New Statesman, Mr Cornwell, author of Hitler’s Pope, said that Joseph Ratzinger was initially a reformer who embraced Cardinal Newman’s teachings. “Then something traumatic, mysterious and never entirely explained happened,” he said. “It coincided with the period of unrest in 1968 when a gang of blaspheming students rampaged through Tübingen University where Ratzinger was teaching. “He felt that he had glimpsed into the abyss of a new dark age. Removing himself to the tranquil environment of the University of Regensburg he prepared to devote himself not to change so much as to conservatism.” Ratzinger began to insist that Newman and the Second Vatican Council had been “widely misunderstood by liberal Catholics”, Mr Cornwell said.
“When, in 1875, Newman wrote that he would drink a toast ‘to conscience first and to the Pope afterwards’ he meant, according to Ratzinger’s revision, the very opposite,” Mr Cornwell said. “Conscience meant an informed conscience, which was obviously a conscience instructed by, and obedient to, papal authority.” He said John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger went on to promote an “exalted notion” of priesthood and saw paedophilia as a spiritual lapse rather than a serious crime.
He said Pope Benedict’s letter to Irish Catholics showed he still sought supernatural solutions to the crisis, including the intercession of St John Vianney, the patron saint of priests. But what was needed was a practical response that properly prepared men for life in the priesthood, he argued.
He said Newman was a better role model than Curé d'Ars because he had successful friendships, most notably with Fr Ambrose St John, with whom he was buried in 1890.
He said that Newman believed priests should train in parishes, eat well, enjoy wine, take frequent holidays and nurture many friendships.
“Such an example of priestly life is far from Benedict’s ideal of a celibate ascetic,” wrote Mr Cornwell, who will bring out a biography next month called Newman’s Unquiet Grave: Portrait of a Reluctant Saint.
“Newman’s legacy hardly sits comfortably with the conservatism of Pope Benedict... no one was more critical than Newman of the Vatican, wrongful assumptions about papal infallibility, and Rome’s over-centralisation.” He said that as the beatification at Coventry Airport approaches he expected to hear more “tidied up versions of Newman’s critical and liberalising views of the Catholic Church”.
Jack Valero, the spokesman for the Newman Cause, said Mr Cornwell’s attempt to create a liberal Newman in opposition to a conser vative Pope “lacks credibility and is unpersuasive”.
Mr Valero said: “As for his allegation that the Pope sees clerical sex abuse as a problem only in the spiritual realm, a quick survey of Cardinal Ratzinger’s actions after he was assigned the task of dealing with child sexual abuse by Pope John Paul in 2001 – including fast-tracking of laicisation and removing the statute of limitations – would show that to be untrue. Both Newman and Pope Benedict XVI deserve better.” Fr Ian Ker, who has written more than 20 books about Newman, including his definitive biography, said he did not recognise the cardinal from Mr Cornwell’s characterisation of him.
He said: “John Cornwell appears as ignorant about Newman as he is virulent about Pope Benedict. His assertions are replete with distortions and errors.” Pope Benedict has noted that Newman made a lifetime study of the role of conscience which he believed was the “echo of the voice of God” that had its roots in the natural moral law.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster rejected the liberal interpretation of Newman’s teaching at a press conference to announce the papal visit last month.
The Archbishop said: “Newman is often quoted about the importance of a person’s conscience but sometimes he is quoted as supporting a liberal subjectivism, that ‘what I think is right is right’, whereas what Newman was saying is that the human conscience is formed when we stand before God.”




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