Archbishop Martin celebrates Newman beatification in University Church
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will celebrate a special Mass to mark the Beatification of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman in the Catholic University Church in Dublin this evening (Friday 7pm).
Archbishop Martin will be chief celebrant of the Mass, in the presence of Cardinal Seán Brady, and members of the Marist and Jesuit Orders. Music will be provided by children of Catholic University School in St. Stephen’s Green.
The Mass will be attended by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Cllr. Eithne Wynne, Minister Pat Carey, on behalf of the government, representatives from local churches and faith groups and University College Dublin.
Following the Mass, a new booklet to commemorate the occasion and mark Blessed Newman’s establishment of University Church will be launched by Archbishop Martin.
Blessed Newman was beatified by his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham last Sunday. At the beatification ceremony in Cofton Park His Holiness spoke again of how Blessed Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or “Heart speaks unto heart”, gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness”.
In 1851 Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman he accepted an invitation from Cardinal Paul Cullen to come to Dublin to set up a Catholic University. On the establishment of the university, he served as its rector from 1854-1858. The university did not fulfil all expectations. Its main deficit was its failure to achieve appropriate recognition of its degrees, with the exception of those granted by the university’s medical school. However, it was the beginning of the process which ended in the establishment in 1908 of the National University of Ireland with its constituent interdenominational colleges at UCC, UCD and UCG.
While in Ireland, Blessed Newman, with his friend John Hungerford Pallen, the professor of fine arts in the university, planned and designed Catholic University Church in Stephen’s Green. With the view that it would be used as a lecture theatre and graduation hall, as well as a place of worship, Blessed Newman instructed that the church should be large. He entrusted Pollen with the decoration of the Church. It was built in less than two years.
The booklet to be launched this evening was compiled by the current administrator of University Church; Fr. Ciarán O Carroll and it chronicles in pictures and words the tremendous legacy of art and architecture of this beautiful city centre church and the ideas and inspirations behind Blessed Newman’s work there.
A copy of the new booklet will be available at the Church at can be viewed at www.dublindiocese.ie “Celebrating Newman”
The full text of Arcbishop Martin’s homily is available at www.dublindiocese.ie