After the statements of Peter Tatchell reproduced by Ecumenical News International affirming Card. Newman was a homosexual, and other sources stating his "great love" for another man, the English press is putting more wood on the fire.

According to The Independent, in an article posted online August 25, 2008 sent to us by readers, Card. Newman and Fr. Ambrose St. John lived as "husband and wife" for a long time. The newspaper implies that they were homosexuals.

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster and the highest Catholic authority in England, sent his spokesman to refute those statements. He admitted that Newman had an 'intense and passionate love' for Fr. Ambrose St. John and had "a grief comparable to a wife losing a husband" when the latter passed away. According to the spokesman, however, their love was "totally celibate."

Taking into account the very strange statements attributed to Newman and accepted as authentic by both sides, we believe that a serious person has grounds to harbor a strong suspicion that he was homosexual - but nothing beyond a suspicion, unless more evidence enters the picture. We reproduce the arguments of the polemic for the information of TIA readers.

Further down, another reader draws a broader picture of Card. Newman's relations with Fr. Ambrose St. John.

Below is the text from The Independent.

The Editor



Plan To Exhume Cardinal Is 'Homophobic'
Robert Verkaik (Original in The Independent)
The Catholic Church is under growing pressure to abandon the "homophobic" exhumation and reburial of the body of one its most famous cardinals, in defiance of his wish to lie for eternity next to the man he loved.

Gay rights campaigners have accused the Vatican ' which has ordered the disinterment in the first step towards beatification - of attempting to cover up the sexuality of Cardinal John Henry Newman, who died in 1890.

Opposition to the reburial among some British Roman Catholics has been bolstered by a new poll organised by The Church Times which shows that a majority of Anglicans are now against the separation of Cardinal Newman, a former Anglican clergyman, and Father Ambrose St. John who lived together as "husband and wife" for most of their late adult lives.

Yesterday, the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell told The Independent: "The Vatican's decision to move Cardinal Newman's body from its resting place is an act of grave robbery and religious desecration. It violates Newman's repeated wish to be buried for eternity with his life-long partner Ambrose St John.

"They have been together for more than 100 years and the Vatican wants to disturb that peace to cover up the fact that Cardinal Newman loved a man. It's shameful, dishonorable betrayal of Newman by the gay-hating Catholic Church."

The Church Times' poll found that 80 per cent of responders were opposed to the Vatican's decision to move Newman's body.

But Austen Ivereigh, former advisor to Cardinal Cormac-Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, told BBC Radio 4's Sunday program yesterday that Mr. Tatchell's criticism was a nonsense. Mr. Ivereigh said the reburial was "part of the process to the journey towards canonization" so his remains can be taken to a suitable city to allow pilgrims "to venerate the saint to be".

He added: "I don't think anyone disputes that Cardinal Newman deeply loved Ambrose St John. He did say after St. John died that the grief is comparable to a husband losing a wife or wife losing a husband, but he did not mean that the relationship with Ambrose St. John was a marriage like a gay relationship. It is simply wrong to read back from today's categories into the Victorian periods when these very intense, passionate, but totally celibate relationships in Oxford and among the Anglo-Catholic community were very common."

Cardinal Newman and Ambrose St. John share a memorial stone and are buried side by side in the same grave in Rednal, Worcestershire. Cardinal Newman wrote shortly before his death: "I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Father Ambrose St John's grave - and I give this as my last, my imperative will."

On their gravestone is a Latin inscription, "there from the shadow and images into the truth", which many people believe is a posthumous coming out.

The Ministry of Justice has granted a license for the removal of the Cardinal's remains into a sarcophagus to stand opposite the Holy Souls Altar in the Birmingham Oratory. Pope Benedict is likely to declare Cardinal Newman as blessed in November, which could lead to canonization.

Hello TIA correspondence desk,

Here is more information about Cardinal Newman, some of it by his contemporaries. While I realize Wikipedia is not an authority, it bears looking into their references, especially as this article defends Newman's celibacy.

"The sexuality of Newman and his circle has long been a subject for conjecture. Much of the evidence is ambiguous. Charles Kingsley's famous attack on Newman in 1864, which spurred Newman to write his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, contains much of Kingley's sexualized language; this attack may be interpreted as a conflict over meanings of masculinity. Others wrote of Newman's lack of virility and his "characteristically feminine nature."[7]

"The idea that the Oxford Movement contained a significant stream of homoeroticism was popularized by Geoffrey Faber in Oxford Apostles (1933)[8], in which he portrayed Newman as a sublimated homosexual with feminine characteristics. Certainly the Oxford Movement attracted a number of fervent young men and produced some intense masculine friendships, although in the self-contained male world of Oxford University this was hardly surprising.[9]

"Newman did not shun friendships with women, but these were invariably at a distance. There is no evidence that he was ever drawn to a heterosexual union. From the age of 15 he was convinced that it was the will of God that he should lead a single life. In Oxford he taught that celibacy, for the priesthood, was "a high state of life, to which the multitude of men cannot aspire." His deepest emotional relationships were with younger men who were his disciples. The most significant of these were the flamboyant Richard Hurrell Froude, who died in 1836, and Ambrose St John, who lived with Newman from 1843.[10] He preceded Newman into the Roman Catholic Church and became a member of the Birmingham Oratory, where he lived until his death in 1875. [11]

"Newman was profoundly affected by the loss of these intimate friends. Newman wrote after the death of Ambrose St John in 1875: 'I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than mine.' At his own request, he was buried in the same grave as St. John.[12]" (Original source: Wikipedia)

7. S. Gilley, Newman and his Age, London, 1990
8. G. Faber, Oxford Apostles: A Character Study of the Oxford Movement, London, 1933
9. D. Hilliard, UnEnglish and Unmanly: Anglo-Catholicism and Homosexuality, Victorian Studies, 25, 2 (1982)
10. J. H. Rigg, Oxford High Anglicanism and its Chief Leaders, London, 1895
11. I. Ker, John Henry Newman: A Biography, Oxford, 1988
12. R. Aldrich & G. Wotherspoon (Eds.), Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History, London, 2001
13. Vatican orders Cardinal Newman to be parted from priest friend in shared grave - Telegraph

     Cordially,

     V.N.

Hi,

I received an email about the discoveries of the tilma of the Virgin of Guadalupe which said it had been translated from Spanish to English by you.

I was wondering if you could provide me with the original Spanish version, or a link to it, as I would like to share it with Spanish-speaking friends.

     R.M.



TIA responds:

Hello R.M.,

We are sorry for a typo that we accidentally made. The original slide show on Our Lady of Guadalupe we translated was in Portuguese, not in Spanish. We are correcting the mistake online.

We hope your Spanish friends will understand the Portuguese text since the two languages are quite similar. You can find the Portuguese version here.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

Sir/Madam,

It could well be of some truth that the feminization of society has resulted in a huge increase in homosexuality and pedophilia, a cowardly escape route taken by some men.

Another escape route for European and American men is to seek spouses from Asiatic communities, in the belief that women from these communities are docile and " manageable."

     F.S.

TIA readers,

To those of you who consider that EWTN has a shred of Catholic sensibility, take care as to what you imbibe. I certainly take exception to their daily broadcasted "mass," which gives many outward appearances of being solemn, traditional, even Catholic. However, upon close examination, you will see it is a "hybrid" and essentially factual Novus Ordo service.

If you look closely, you will hear the words of consecration as speaking for all, not for many. The words "mystery of faith" are removed from their proper place (referring to the miracle taking place), and stated later to relate a known fact that Christ has died, has risen and will come again.

Also take note that the words of consecration are now sung by the priest, which seems to be further proof that their actions are to be a narrative of what happened a long time ago, not a specific act happening at that moment on the altar. Also look and see the obvious ... a table versus the altar to which the priest has his back turned.

Don't be fooled folks - this "mass" in all of its crafty solemnity is an abomination!

May Our Blessed Lady cradle all of you in Her loving arms,

     J.P.

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