Oxford University Newman Society
Encyclopedia
For Newman Centers around North America see Newman Centre
.
The Oxford University Newman Society (est. 1878) is Oxford University's oldest Roman Catholic organisation, named as a tribute to Cardinal Newman, who advanced the cause of Catholicism at Oxford both as an Anglican striving to recover Anglicanism's Catholic roots
and subsequently as a convert to Catholicism. It exists to promote Catholic faith and culture within the University, and has served as the model for Catholic student societies throughout the English-speaking world
.
was amongst those involved in the changing of the name, counselled him to be careful. Owen Chadwick
describes his letter of advice thus:
Meetings of the society originally took place at the parish church of St Aloysius Gonzaga
or in members' rooms. Speakers were frequently undergraduates, as records show, and topics were wide-ranging. Quoting from surviving minute books, Walter Drumm notes:
When the Catholic Chaplaincy to the University was established in 1896 the society found a natural home there, often meeting in the Chaplain's rooms. The same year also saw the society's hundredth meeting, which took the form - on 18 June 1896 - of "a dinner at the Clarendon Hotel. Bishop Ilsley of Birmingham
, the Duke of Norfolk
and thirty-two others, which was practically the whole membership, consumed at 10/- per head: lobster bisque, sole
dauphinoise, poussin
(method of cooking unstated), gateaux
and fromage
." The New York Times reported the dinner, observing that "the real point of the festivity... was not its apparent occasion. The main topic was the final settlement... of the long-contested question of the recognition by the Roman Church of the education of Catholics... at Oxford and Cambridge."
The minutes for the period 1898 to 1907 have been lost; "the records of the Newman Society are very sparse until the 1940s, from which period society cards have survived." However, as Drumm has emphasised, what records do remain all point to the fact of the Newman's being central to Catholic life in Oxford:
By 1926, when Ronald Knox
became chaplain to Oxford, the society's speakers were no longer predominantly drawn from the ranks of students. Meeting in the long room on the first floor of the Old Palace - then known as the Newman Room - the society frequently attracted important figures. Such was the Newman's importance that it even laid claim to some of the Old Palace's furniture; Knox records that the Newman Room's "larger sofa
... was presented to the Society by Mgr Barnes, who assured me that it was the sofa on which his father proposed marriage
to his mother".
Meetings during Knox's period as chaplain were generally held on Sunday evenings. In a description of a typical Sunday, Knox wrote:
When Knox finally retired from the role of chaplain in 1939, his impact on the Newman Society and Catholic life in Oxford generally had been such that his farewell included "a dinner at the Randolph Hotel
at which the Newman Society presented him with an early folio of the Douay Bible, a silver
mug, a water-colour
of the Old Palace, and £50." His involvement with the society was not over, however. Women had been admitted to Oxford in 1920, and became members of the Newman Society and of the congregation at the Old Palace in 1941, having previously been cared for by a separate chaplaincy. Knox - who had been called on to return to Oxford but was unenthusiastic - proposed the merger to the Archbishop of Birmingham
as a solution to the unexpected vacancy he was being asked to fill; as a confident Evelyn Waugh
would later put it, Knox "was the author of the temporary amalgamation, which persists to this day."
In 1945 the Newman was sufficiently established to merit two mentions in Waugh's "Oxford novel", Brideshead Revisited
. The first reference comes in the course of Lady Marchmain's comments to Charles Ryder about her son, Sebastian:
The society participated in the refurbishing of the Chaplaincy which followed the Second World War; with Newman funds purchase was made of 'a new wireless set and an electrically operated gramophone'. Socially, the Newman continued to reflect the character of Catholicism among Oxford students; Baroness Williams of Crosby has recorded that while she "went occasionally to the Newman Society", she "was never part of the exclusive Catholic groups, usually young men and women from distinguished recusant families." Francis Muir
has written of being introduced (by then-chaplain Mgr Valentine Elwes) to Elizabeth Jennings
at a "Newman Society bun-fight" during this period.
The academic year 1956-7 saw the society hosting a disputation
conducted by Oxford's Dominicans
. In 1959 the society held a dinner at which the Vice-Chancellor was represented, and which was attended by Archbishop of Westminster
William Godfrey, who had become a cardinal
in the previous year. The latter took the opportunity to announce the resignation of Mgr Elwes.
in the 1960s, the 1970s proved a turbulent decade in the life of the Church. Karl Rahner
, who loomed large in the theological battles of the period, was one of several high-profile speakers at the Newman whose presence served to underline the era's changes. The situation at the Chaplaincy, then under the authority of Crispian Hollis
, was bleak, as the system of catechetical Sunday sermons - established in the time of Ronald Knox for the purpose of promoting students' doctrinal and spiritual formation - collapsed:
In the midst of widespread ignorance, doctrinal confusion, and moral rebellion, the Newman staked out its position in 1973, hosting an address by Elizabeth Anscombe titled "Contraception
, Sin
and Natural Law
" - a philosophical defence of Pope Paul VI
's encyclical on artificial birth control (Humanae Vitae
). Yet the society was not so inflexible as to refuse to accommodate some new social realities; a 1972 termcard expressed the hope "that activists, gnomes, raver
s and potential saints will be inspired by this... term's programme."
By 1982 fashions had changed again, so that the year of Pope John Paul II
's apostolic voyage to Britain
also saw the Newman organising a "Boater
s and Bloomers
" event - a prize being offered for the "best Brideshead dress". The Pope's visit was itself advertised by one enterprising president as a Newman Society event: Oxonians were informed that "His Holiness the Pope will address Newman Society members and others in Coventry
."
In 1985, in an episode which would end up in the pages of the Society of St Pius X's Angelus newsletter, the Newman arranged a talk on the legacy of Vatican II. Michael Davies
was one of the scheduled speakers. Controversy over the choice of speaker led to a change of location, but the lecture was, he reported, "well received - too well received as there were hostile questions from only one person, which made it rather dull." Similar tendencies were on display five years later, when one talk went so far as to ask in its title, "Archbishop Lefebvre
: Saint or Sinner?" The speaker was Fr Edward Black, now District Superior of the SSPX in Australia
. Writing later that decade, a Usenet
commentator would observe of this period that "the Newman Society... always appeared to be in 'right-wing' hands".
cause. By this point the Newman had ceased to be the University's sole Catholic society, following the creation by the University chaplains of the Oxford University Catholic Society in 1990 to "counter-act the overt conservatism
of the Newman Society." In 1996, the society organised a Sarum Rite
Mass for the feast of the Translation
of St Frideswide
. Another such Mass was organised by members of the Newman at Merton College in 1997, for the feast of Candlemas. Videos of this latter Mass can be viewed on YouTube
.
The society marked the end of the 20th century with a number of events, culminating in a visit by George Pell
, then Archbishop of Melbourne
and not yet a cardinal
. The Catholic Chaplaincy’s Annual Review records that:
, mentions of the Newman Society and its events appeared in the Catholic and secular press on a number of occasions. During the Regensburg affair of 2006
, the society's voice was heard with the publication of a letter in The Daily Telegraph
from the then-President:
In November 2007, following Pope Benedict's motu proprio
Summorum Pontificum
, the Society attracted attention within the Catholic blogosphere
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2007/11/solemn-high-mass-for-oxford-university.htmlhttp://oxfordgregorianchant.blogspot.com/2007/11/newman-society-mass.htmlhttp://www.summorumpontificum.net/2007/11/sp-november-27-2007.htmlhttp://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2007/11/newman-society-mass.html after organising a High Mass
in the 1962 extraordinary form of the Roman Rite
to mark the centenary of co-founder Hartwell de la Garde Grissell
's death. The incumbent President was quoted in a press release on the subject of the Mass:
2009 saw a visit to Oxford by Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue. Speaking on the subject of his document Fit for Mission? Church, Bishop O'Donoghue implored students to recover those elements of Catholicism obscured in recent decades in the United Kingdom:
Bishop O'Donoghue went on to call on students to "embrace obedience to the teachings of the Church... [t]o
counter the infiltration of secular ideas such as relativism
, utilitarianism
, and hedonism
into the Church".
The same term saw the society addressed by its Patron, Cardinal Pell, on the subject of religious and secular intolerance
, and their implications for contemporary Christian witness. Giving the inaugural Thomas More
Lecture in the University's Divinity School
, the Cardinal spoke of the totalitarian tendencies of modern liberalism
, and the dangers for the Church posed by the rise of "anti-discrimination legislation" and "human rights tribunals". He concluded his address with a call to arms for contemporary believers:
During his week-long visit to the Newman Society the Cardinal presided at a Solemn Latin Mass organised by the society in intercession for Newman’s beatification
, and Solemn Vespers
in the 1962 form. He also attended further functions at Campion Hall, Blackfriars, St Benet's Hall, Exeter College, Merton College, Keble College, the University's Catholic Chaplaincy, the Birmingham Oratory, and Newman's College in Littlemore.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
was a founding member, and in the Newman's early years both he and author Robert Hugh Benson
- also a member - gave papers. Maurice Baring
's Punch and Judy was written for the occasion of his addressing the society, and it was at a meeting of the Newman that Christopher Dawson
heard Newman biographer Wilfrid Ward speak. A biographer has argued that the experience was an influence in Dawson's conversion.
Evelyn Waugh
, Hilaire Belloc
and G. K. Chesterton
all spoke to the Newman; it was while attending a talk by Chesterton that Waugh first met Harold Acton
, to whom he would later dedicate Decline and Fall. The 17th Duke of Norfolk would later in life speak of his "vivid recollections of meeting G. K. Chesterton when I... attended some of his lectures to the Newman Society, which I will never forget." When Waugh himself addressed members in 1956, it was with an apocalyptic tone: "Our whole literary world is sinking into black disaster... I am sure that those who live for the next thirty years will see the art of literature dying."
Other distinguished speakers who addressed the society in the course of the 20th century include Baron Friedrich von Hügel
, Fr Ronald Knox, Fr Martin d'Arcy, Sir Alec Guinness
, Arthur Michael Ramsey, HRH The Princess Royal
, Rowan Williams
, John Finnis
, Malcolm Muggeridge
, Lord Longford, Immanuel Jakobovits
, Viscount Monckton, Maurice Wiles
, Terry Eagleton
, William Rees-Mogg
, Hans Adolf Krebs
, Basil Mitchell
, Dorothy Hodgkin, Auberon Waugh
, Richard Southern
, F.R. Leavis, Ninian Smart
, Dan Berrigan, Herbert McCabe
and Martin Gilbert
.
on the reality of Hell
; Fr Timothy Finigan on 'Humanae Vitae
'; Fr Thomas Weinandy
on the Incarnation
; Fr John Saward
on the character of Heaven
, and, separately, on the motu proprio
Summorum Pontificum
; Fr Aidan Nichols
on the centenary of Pope St Pius X
's condemnation of Modernism
; Professor Geza Vermes
(in debate with Dom Henry Wansbrough
) on the historicity of the Gospels; Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe MP
on being a Catholic politician; Sir Anthony Kenny
on the Oxford Movement
; and Baroness Williams of Crosby on the relationship between God and Caesar
.
The society often hosts prominent speakers at its termly dinners. In Hilary Term 2004 the Duke of Norfolk
spoke on Catholicism in England. The Michaelmas 2006 after-dinner speaker was Fr Paul Chavasse, actor causae of Cardinal Newman's cause for canonization
and Provost of the Birmingham Oratory
. As part of the society's 130th anniversary celebrations in 2008 a dinner was held in Trinity College
attended by HRH The Duchess of Kent and 150 students. More recently Baroness Scotland
, Attorney General for England and Wales, spoke on the role faith can play in informing public conscience.
.
The society has as its patrons Cardinal George Pell
(Archbishop of Sydney), The Duchess of Kent, Arthur Roche
(Bishop of Leeds), Peter Elliott (Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne) and Paul Chavasse (of the Birmingham Oratory
).
and dinner with guest speaker; the specific form of any given term is, however, ultimately determined by the society's President. The President is assisted in his duties by a committee which includes a Senior Treasurer (Senior Member), Past-Presidents in residence, President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and such other persons as are determined by the society's rules. In recent years, members have been afforded the opportunity to dine with speakers before meetings; such dinners have generally either taken place in members' colleges or in the University Catholic Chaplaincy.
In Trinity terms, the Newman has revived the practice of organising sporting events. A recent term saw the attempted assembly of a rowing
Newman VIII, and although football was once the society's main sport, it is now more usual for termcards to feature punting and other leisurely pursuits.
, Prof. John Finnis
, and Fr. John Saward
.
In 2009 Cardinal George Pell launched the foundation's 'Faith in Oxford' appeal, which is intended to raise an endowment for the Newman Society.
controversy), and subsequently adopted by Cardinal Newman: "Securus judicat orbis terrarum" ("the world's verdict is secure"). The Society tie features stripes of papal
gold
, cardinal red
, and Oxford blue
; it can be bought at Walters of Oxford. On 13 May 2007 the Newman tie appeared in the Oxford section of the Channel 4
documentary Make Me a Tory. It was also featured in the 24 February 2010 edition of Country Life
, in a piece titled, 'Are You in the Club?'.
Newman Centre
Named in honour of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Newman Centers are residence and Catholic ministry centers at non-Catholic universities throughout the world. They were inspired by Newman's writings encouraging societies for Catholic students attending secular universities.In 1888 the...
.
The Oxford University Newman Society (est. 1878) is Oxford University's oldest Roman Catholic organisation, named as a tribute to Cardinal Newman, who advanced the cause of Catholicism at Oxford both as an Anglican striving to recover Anglicanism's Catholic roots
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
and subsequently as a convert to Catholicism. It exists to promote Catholic faith and culture within the University, and has served as the model for Catholic student societies throughout the English-speaking world
English-speaking world
The English-speaking world consists of those countries or regions that use the English language to one degree or another. For more information, please see:Lists:* List of countries by English-speaking population...
.
Foundation: 1878-96
Founded as the Catholic Club in 1878, it was not until 1888 that the club was renamed the Newman Society. At the time, the renaming of the society was not uncontroversial; Lord Acton, whose son DickRichard Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 2nd Baron Acton
Richard Maximilian Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 2nd Baron Acton, KCVO, JP, DL was a British Peer and diplomat. Despite his British roots and long service, having been born abroad, he was not formally a British subject, until he was naturalised by Act of Parliament in 1911...
was amongst those involved in the changing of the name, counselled him to be careful. Owen Chadwick
Owen Chadwick
William Owen Chadwick, OM, KBE, FBA, FRSE is a British professor, writer and prominent historian of Christianity. He was also a rugby union player.-Early life and education:Chadwick was born in Bromley in 1916...
describes his letter of advice thus:
[He] felt it to be awkward. On one side was the pride of Trinity CollegeTrinity College, OxfordThe College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
in Newman as one of its eminent graduates; and of Oriel too, connected as it was ‘with the period of his fame’. But on the other side Newman still had enemies in Oxford and they no small men – Max MüllerMax MüllerFriedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...
‘probably’ his worst, but perhaps JowettBenjamin JowettBenjamin Jowett was renowned as an influential tutor and administrative reformer in the University of Oxford, a theologian and translator of Plato. He was Master of Balliol College, Oxford.-Early career:...
also, and then several secular minds. [Acton’s] advice to Dick on this matter was ‘Do nothing too conspicuously.’
Meetings of the society originally took place at the parish church of St Aloysius Gonzaga
Aloysius Gonzaga
- Early life :Aloysius Gonzaga was born at his family's castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere, between Brescia and Mantova in northern Italy in what was then part of the Papal States. He was a member of the illustrious House of Gonzaga...
or in members' rooms. Speakers were frequently undergraduates, as records show, and topics were wide-ranging. Quoting from surviving minute books, Walter Drumm notes:
At the twenty-fourth meeting, on 2 November 1890, Mr. Parry (University CollegeUniversity College, Oxford.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
) read a paper on ‘Lake Dwellings in SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
’. ‘A desultory discussion followed, most of the speakers professing ignorance of the subject’. Mr. Urquhart read a paper on ‘Christian Socialists in France’ and Lord Westmeath on ‘De Quincy and OpiumOpiumOpium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
Eating’. Hilaire BellocHilaire BellocJoseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
was probably the best known of the early members of the Newman; on 11 June 1893, when he was still an undergratuate at BalliolBalliol College, OxfordBalliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, he spoke on ‘The Church and the RepublicRepublicA republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
’. In the following year, the Society fielded a football XI, although the title ‘Newman Football Team’ was not approved by all members.
When the Catholic Chaplaincy to the University was established in 1896 the society found a natural home there, often meeting in the Chaplain's rooms. The same year also saw the society's hundredth meeting, which took the form - on 18 June 1896 - of "a dinner at the Clarendon Hotel. Bishop Ilsley of Birmingham
Edward Ilsley
Edward Ilsley became the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham on 27 November 1911, having previously been the third Bishop of Birmingham since 17 November 1888. The correct spelling is Ilsley, not Illsley.He was born in Stafford on 11 May 1838. He was ordained priest on 29 June 1861...
, the Duke of Norfolk
Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk
Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, , styled Baron Maltravers until 1856 and Earl of Arundel and Surrey between 1856 and 1860, was a British Unionist politician and philanthropist...
and thirty-two others, which was practically the whole membership, consumed at 10/- per head: lobster bisque, sole
Sole (fish)
Sole is a group of flatfish belonging to several families. Generally speaking, they are members of the family Soleidae, but, outside Europe, the name sole is also applied to various other similar flatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder...
dauphinoise, poussin
Poussin (chicken)
In Commonwealth countries, poussin is a butcher's term for a young chicken, less than 28 days old at slaughter and usually weighing 400-450 grammes but not above 750g...
(method of cooking unstated), gateaux
Cake
Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
and fromage
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
." The New York Times reported the dinner, observing that "the real point of the festivity... was not its apparent occasion. The main topic was the final settlement... of the long-contested question of the recognition by the Roman Church of the education of Catholics... at Oxford and Cambridge."
Twentieth century: pre-1960s
...we can see from the earliest records that the newly arrived undergraduate at the turn of the century would have been welcomed not only by his chaplain... but by his fellows who met at the Newman.
By 1926, when Ronald Knox
Ronald Knox
Ronald Arbuthnott Knox was an English priest, theologian and writer.-Life:Ronald Knox was born in Kibworth, Leicestershire, England into an Anglican family and was educated at Eton College, where he took the first scholarship in 1900 and Balliol College, Oxford, where again...
became chaplain to Oxford, the society's speakers were no longer predominantly drawn from the ranks of students. Meeting in the long room on the first floor of the Old Palace - then known as the Newman Room - the society frequently attracted important figures. Such was the Newman's importance that it even laid claim to some of the Old Palace's furniture; Knox records that the Newman Room's "larger sofa
Couch
A couch, also called a sofa, is an item of furniture designed to seat more than one person, and providing support for the back and arms. Typically, it will have an armrest on either side. In homes couches are normally found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge...
... was presented to the Society by Mgr Barnes, who assured me that it was the sofa on which his father proposed marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
to his mother".
Meetings during Knox's period as chaplain were generally held on Sunday evenings. In a description of a typical Sunday, Knox wrote:
At five or ten minutes to seven the Newman speaker, duly washed, must be taken off to whatever clubGentlemen's clubA gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...
the Committee is dining at. He and the Committee must be lugged back to the Old Palace about 8.10 and given port in the chaplain's room. The chaplain will keep a look-out to see when the members have mostly arrived (he may even send an S.O.S.SOSSOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
to CampionCampion Hall, OxfordCampion Hall is one of the Permanent Private Halls of the University of Oxford in England. It is one of the smallest constituent institutions of the university, consisting of under forty members....
to ask if a few people will turn up and conceal the sparsity of attendance); then he will take the Committee down to the Newman Room... and come to roost in a comfortable chair if he can still find one. During the five minute interval after the paper, the chaplain invites one or two of the more distinguished people present... to come up after the meeting. During question-time he tries to keep things going... The visitors probably retire at eleven or soon after and the chaplain (unless he has the speaker to entertain) can now enjoy his own company.
When Knox finally retired from the role of chaplain in 1939, his impact on the Newman Society and Catholic life in Oxford generally had been such that his farewell included "a dinner at the Randolph Hotel
Macdonald Randolph Hotel
Macdonald Randolph Hotel is a hotel in Oxford, England. It is in central Oxford on the south side of Beaumont Street, at the corner with Magdalen Street, opposite the Ashmolean Museum and close to the Oxford Playhouse...
at which the Newman Society presented him with an early folio of the Douay Bible, a silver
Silver (household)
Household silver or silverware includes dishware, cutlery and other household items made of sterling, Britannia or Sheffield plate silver. The term is often extended to items made of stainless steel...
mug, a water-colour
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
of the Old Palace, and £50." His involvement with the society was not over, however. Women had been admitted to Oxford in 1920, and became members of the Newman Society and of the congregation at the Old Palace in 1941, having previously been cared for by a separate chaplaincy. Knox - who had been called on to return to Oxford but was unenthusiastic - proposed the merger to the Archbishop of Birmingham
Archbishop of Birmingham
The Archbishop of Birmingham heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham in England. As such he is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Birmingham....
as a solution to the unexpected vacancy he was being asked to fill; as a confident Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
would later put it, Knox "was the author of the temporary amalgamation, which persists to this day."
In 1945 the Newman was sufficiently established to merit two mentions in Waugh's "Oxford novel", Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
. The first reference comes in the course of Lady Marchmain's comments to Charles Ryder about her son, Sebastian:
The society participated in the refurbishing of the Chaplaincy which followed the Second World War; with Newman funds purchase was made of 'a new wireless set and an electrically operated gramophone'. Socially, the Newman continued to reflect the character of Catholicism among Oxford students; Baroness Williams of Crosby has recorded that while she "went occasionally to the Newman Society", she "was never part of the exclusive Catholic groups, usually young men and women from distinguished recusant families." Francis Muir
Francis Muir
Francis Muir , also known as fido, ffoulkes, fideaux, or our beloved phydeaux, is a former Research Associate at the Geophysics Department of Stanford University, and a notable Usenetter who mainly contributed to the newsgroup rec.arts.books...
has written of being introduced (by then-chaplain Mgr Valentine Elwes) to Elizabeth Jennings
Elizabeth Jennings
Elizabeth Jennings was an English poet.-Life and career:Jennings was born in Boston, Lincolnshire. When she was six, her family moved to Oxford, where she remained for the rest of her life. Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, pp. 98-100. There she later attended St Anne's College...
at a "Newman Society bun-fight" during this period.
The academic year 1956-7 saw the society hosting a disputation
Disputation
In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences...
conducted by Oxford's Dominicans
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
. In 1959 the society held a dinner at which the Vice-Chancellor was represented, and which was attended by Archbishop of Westminster
Archbishop of Westminster
The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the Metropolitan of the Province of Westminster and, as a matter of custom, is elected President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and therefore de facto spokesman...
William Godfrey, who had become a cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
in the previous year. The latter took the opportunity to announce the resignation of Mgr Elwes.
Twentieth century: 1960-1990
Following the reforms of the Second Vatican CouncilSecond Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
in the 1960s, the 1970s proved a turbulent decade in the life of the Church. Karl Rahner
Karl Rahner
Karl Rahner, SJ was a German Jesuit and theologian who, alongside Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar, is considered one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century...
, who loomed large in the theological battles of the period, was one of several high-profile speakers at the Newman whose presence served to underline the era's changes. The situation at the Chaplaincy, then under the authority of Crispian Hollis
Crispian Hollis
Roger Francis Crispian Hollis is the Bishop of Portsmouth for the Catholic Church. His parents were Christopher Hollis , the author and parliamentarian, and Madeleine Hollis .-Family life:...
, was bleak, as the system of catechetical Sunday sermons - established in the time of Ronald Knox for the purpose of promoting students' doctrinal and spiritual formation - collapsed:
Many regularly practising Catholics seldom or never went to the Mass at which the sermon was preached. If they did, they were as likely to be regaled with jokes and anecdotes and a little moral exhortation as with solid doctrine. There was no intelligible link between one Sunday's sermon and the next; an undergraduate who was vague about doctrine and totally ignorant of theology would be no better off in these respects at the end of the year than at the beginning... Father Hollis' reports in these years sound an anxious note, unparalleled in earlier or later years.
In the midst of widespread ignorance, doctrinal confusion, and moral rebellion, the Newman staked out its position in 1973, hosting an address by Elizabeth Anscombe titled "Contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
, Sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
and Natural Law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
" - a philosophical defence of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
's encyclical on artificial birth control (Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae is an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI and issued on 25 July 1968. Subtitled On the Regulation of Birth, it re-affirms the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and the continuing proscription of most forms of birth...
). Yet the society was not so inflexible as to refuse to accommodate some new social realities; a 1972 termcard expressed the hope "that activists, gnomes, raver
Raver
Raver or ravers may refer to:* Raver, Maharashtra, a city in India* Raver, a party-goer: in the 1960s and 1970s, a "party animal"; since the 1980s, more specifically an aficionado of raves...
s and potential saints will be inspired by this... term's programme."
By 1982 fashions had changed again, so that the year of Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
's apostolic voyage to Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
also saw the Newman organising a "Boater
Boater
Boater may refer to:*Boater, a type of hat*Boater, one of the first disposable diapers*Someone involved in boating...
s and Bloomers
Bloomers (clothing)
Bloomers is a word which has been applied to several types of divided women's garments for the lower body at various times.-Fashion bloomers :...
" event - a prize being offered for the "best Brideshead dress". The Pope's visit was itself advertised by one enterprising president as a Newman Society event: Oxonians were informed that "His Holiness the Pope will address Newman Society members and others in Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
."
In 1985, in an episode which would end up in the pages of the Society of St Pius X's Angelus newsletter, the Newman arranged a talk on the legacy of Vatican II. Michael Davies
Michael Davies (Catholic writer)
Michael Treharne Davies was a British teacher, and traditionalist Catholic writer of many books about the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council...
was one of the scheduled speakers. Controversy over the choice of speaker led to a change of location, but the lecture was, he reported, "well received - too well received as there were hostile questions from only one person, which made it rather dull." Similar tendencies were on display five years later, when one talk went so far as to ask in its title, "Archbishop Lefebvre
Marcel Lefebvre
Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre was a French Roman Catholic archbishop. Following a career as an Apostolic Delegate for West Africa and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, he took the lead in opposing the changes within the Church associated with the Second Vatican Council.In 1970,...
: Saint or Sinner?" The speaker was Fr Edward Black, now District Superior of the SSPX in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Writing later that decade, a Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
commentator would observe of this period that "the Newman Society... always appeared to be in 'right-wing' hands".
Twentieth century: 1990-2000
A minor controversy was generated by the invitation of traditionalist apologist Gerry Matatics in 1995, though his speech predated his adoption of the sedevacantistSedevacantism
Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of Traditionalist Catholics who hold that the present occupant of the papal see is not truly Pope and that, for lack of a valid Pope, the see has been vacant since the death of either Pope Pius XII in 1958 or Pope John XXIII in 1963.Sedevacantists...
cause. By this point the Newman had ceased to be the University's sole Catholic society, following the creation by the University chaplains of the Oxford University Catholic Society in 1990 to "counter-act the overt conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
of the Newman Society." In 1996, the society organised a Sarum Rite
Sarum Rite
The Sarum Rite was a variant of the Roman Rite widely used for the ordering of Christian public worship, including the Mass and the Divine Office...
Mass for the feast of the Translation
Translation (relics)
In Christianity, the translation of relics is the removal of holy objects from one locality to another ; usually only the movement of the remains of the saint's body would be treated so formally, with secondary relics such as items of clothing treated with less ceremony...
of St Frideswide
Frideswide
Saint Frithuswith was an English princess and abbess who is credited with establishing Christ Church in Oxford.-Life:...
. Another such Mass was organised by members of the Newman at Merton College in 1997, for the feast of Candlemas. Videos of this latter Mass can be viewed on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
The society marked the end of the 20th century with a number of events, culminating in a visit by George Pell
George Pell
George Pell AC is an Australian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001. He previously served as auxiliary bishop and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne...
, then Archbishop of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and not yet a cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
. The Catholic Chaplaincy’s Annual Review records that:
[H]e was the chief celebrant at the termly Mass for the Newman Society, which took place at St. Aloysius... [and] was followed by lunch in MertonMerton College, OxfordMerton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
... the Archbishop later spoke on the need for educated Catholic lay people to promote the Gospel in public life.
Twenty-first century: Benedict XVI's reign
Following the election of Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, mentions of the Newman Society and its events appeared in the Catholic and secular press on a number of occasions. During the Regensburg affair of 2006
Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy
The Regensburg lecture was delivered on 12 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he had once served as a professor of theology. It was entitled "Glaube, Vernunft und Universität — Erinnerungen und Reflexionen"...
, the society's voice was heard with the publication of a letter in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
from the then-President:
I understand that the Pope's words prompted some IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Muslims to protest by burning an effigy of the Pontiff. How extraordinary that this old English custom should appear there so many years after the EmpireBritish EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
fell. I assumed the eccentrics in LewesLewesLewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
, East Sussex, were practically peerless in the practice of pope-burning... [M]arvellous that, even if they failed to read the context of the Pope's remarks, these people still managed to wheel out a centuries-old English tradition.
Motu proprio
A motu proprio is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him....
Summorum Pontificum
Summorum Pontificum
Summorum Pontificum is an Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued "motu proprio" . The document specified the rules, for the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, for celebrating Mass according to the "Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962" , and for administering most of the sacraments in...
, the Society attracted attention within the Catholic blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2007/11/solemn-high-mass-for-oxford-university.htmlhttp://oxfordgregorianchant.blogspot.com/2007/11/newman-society-mass.htmlhttp://www.summorumpontificum.net/2007/11/sp-november-27-2007.htmlhttp://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2007/11/newman-society-mass.html after organising a High Mass
High Mass
High Mass may mean:*Solemn Mass, a Tridentine Mass celebrated with deacon and subdeacon *Missa Cantata, a sung Tridentine Mass without deacon and subdeacon...
in the 1962 extraordinary form of the Roman Rite
Extraordinary form of the Roman Rite
"An extraordinary form of the Roman Rite" is a phrase used in Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum to describe the liturgy of the 1962 Roman Missal, widely referred to as the "Tridentine Mass"...
to mark the centenary of co-founder Hartwell de la Garde Grissell
Hartwell de la Garde Grissell
Hartwell de la Garde Grissell was born in 1839 as the son of Thomas Grissell, a prosperous public works contractor. He was educated at Harrow School and in 1859 matriculated to Oxford University as a commoner of Brasenose College....
's death. The incumbent President was quoted in a press release on the subject of the Mass:
In his recent document the Holy Father said ‘young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy EucharistEucharistThe Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
.’ This is certainly true of a large number of students here at Oxford. We were delighted to be able to hold this Mass and are praying that God give us many blessings through it.
2009 saw a visit to Oxford by Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue. Speaking on the subject of his document Fit for Mission? Church, Bishop O'Donoghue implored students to recover those elements of Catholicism obscured in recent decades in the United Kingdom:
Embrace the TraditionTraditionA tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
of the Church. To counter the rejection of the past, I want you to sacrifice the modern compulsion for novelty and fashion through embracing the Tradition of the Church, which is nothing more than the source of God’s revelation, along with Scripture... I want you to re-discover the devotions of the Church, such as praying the rosaryRosaryThe rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
, the Stations of the CrossStations of the CrossStations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
, BenedictionBenediction of the Blessed SacramentBenediction of the Blessed Sacrament is a devotional ceremony celebrated within the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in some Anglican and Lutheran Churches, Liberal Catholic churches, Western Rite Orthodox churches, and Latinised Eastern Catholic Churches.Benediction of the...
. I want you to embrace the discipline of praying the daily Office of the ChurchLiturgy of the hoursThe Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
; the practice of regular confessionConfessionThis article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
.
Bishop O'Donoghue went on to call on students to "embrace obedience to the teachings of the Church... [t]o
counter the infiltration of secular ideas such as relativism
Relativism
Relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity, having only relative, subjective value according to differences in perception and consideration....
, utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
, and hedonism
Hedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....
into the Church".
The same term saw the society addressed by its Patron, Cardinal Pell, on the subject of religious and secular intolerance
Toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
, and their implications for contemporary Christian witness. Giving the inaugural Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
Lecture in the University's Divinity School
Divinity School, Oxford
The Divinity School is a medieval building and room in the Perpendicular style in Oxford, England, part of the University of Oxford. Built 1427–83, it is the oldest surviving purpose-built building for university use, specifically for lectures and discussions on theology...
, the Cardinal spoke of the totalitarian tendencies of modern liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, and the dangers for the Church posed by the rise of "anti-discrimination legislation" and "human rights tribunals". He concluded his address with a call to arms for contemporary believers:
Christians have to recover their genius for showing that there are better ways to live and to build a good society; ways which respect freedom, empower individuals, and transform communities. They also have to recover their self-confidence and courage. The secular and religious intolerance of our day needs to be confronted regularly and publicly. Believers need to call the bluff of what is, even in most parts of EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, a small minority with disproportionate influence in the mediaMass mediaMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. This is one of the crucial tasks for Christians in the twenty-first century.
During his week-long visit to the Newman Society the Cardinal presided at a Solemn Latin Mass organised by the society in intercession for Newman’s beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
, and Solemn Vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
in the 1962 form. He also attended further functions at Campion Hall, Blackfriars, St Benet's Hall, Exeter College, Merton College, Keble College, the University's Catholic Chaplaincy, the Birmingham Oratory, and Newman's College in Littlemore.
Previous generations
The society has been addressed by prominent and influential Catholics - as well as non-Catholics of interest to a Catholic audience - throughout its history. Jesuit poetPoet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
was a founding member, and in the Newman's early years both he and author Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson
Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson and his wife, Mary...
- also a member - gave papers. Maurice Baring
Maurice Baring
Maurice Baring was an English man of letters, known as a dramatist, poet, novelist, translator and essayist, and also as a travel writer and war correspondent...
's Punch and Judy was written for the occasion of his addressing the society, and it was at a meeting of the Newman that Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Henry Dawson was a British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Christopher H. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century".-Life:...
heard Newman biographer Wilfrid Ward speak. A biographer has argued that the experience was an influence in Dawson's conversion.
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
, Hilaire Belloc
Hilaire Belloc
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
and G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
all spoke to the Newman; it was while attending a talk by Chesterton that Waugh first met Harold Acton
Harold Acton
Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton CBE was a British writer, scholar and dilettante perhaps most famous for being wrongly believed to have inspired the character of "Anthony Blanche" in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited...
, to whom he would later dedicate Decline and Fall. The 17th Duke of Norfolk would later in life speak of his "vivid recollections of meeting G. K. Chesterton when I... attended some of his lectures to the Newman Society, which I will never forget." When Waugh himself addressed members in 1956, it was with an apocalyptic tone: "Our whole literary world is sinking into black disaster... I am sure that those who live for the next thirty years will see the art of literature dying."
Other distinguished speakers who addressed the society in the course of the 20th century include Baron Friedrich von Hügel
Friedrich von Hügel
Friedrich von Hügel was an influential Austrian Roman Catholic layman, religious writer, Modernist theologian and Christian apologist....
, Fr Ronald Knox, Fr Martin d'Arcy, Sir Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...
, Arthur Michael Ramsey, HRH The Princess Royal
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
, Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams FRSL, FBA, FLSW is an Anglican bishop, poet and theologian. He is the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England, offices he has held since early 2003.Williams was previously Bishop of Monmouth and...
, John Finnis
John Finnis
John Finnis , is an Australian legal scholar and philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of law. He is Professor of Law at University College, Oxford and at the University of Notre Dame, teaching jurisprudence, political theory, and constitutional law...
, Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...
, Lord Longford, Immanuel Jakobovits
Immanuel Jakobovits
Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits, Kt was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. His successor is the present Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks.-Biography:...
, Viscount Monckton, Maurice Wiles
Maurice Wiles
Maurice Frank Wiles was a Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University for 21 years, from 1970 to 1991.-Miracles:...
, Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...
, William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg is an English journalist and life peer.-Education:Rees-Mogg was educated at Clifton College Preparatory School in Bristol and Charterhouse School in Godalming, followed by Balliol College, Oxford...
, Hans Adolf Krebs
Hans Adolf Krebs
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs was a German-born British physician and biochemist. Krebs is best known for his identification of two important metabolic cycles: the urea cycle and the citric acid cycle...
, Basil Mitchell
Basil Mitchell (academic)
Basil George Mitchell, D.D., FBA was a British philosopher and one-time Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at the University of Oxford...
, Dorothy Hodgkin, Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
, Richard Southern
Richard Southern
Sir Richard William Southern , who published under the name R. W. Southern, was a noted English medieval historian, based at the University of Oxford.-Biography:...
, F.R. Leavis, Ninian Smart
Ninian Smart
Professor Roderick Ninian Smart was a Scottish writer and university educator. He was a pioneer in the field of secular religious studies...
, Dan Berrigan, Herbert McCabe
Herbert McCabe
Herbert McCabe was an English Dominican priest, theologian and philosopher, who was born in Middlesbrough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. After studying chemistry and philosophy at Manchester University, he joined the Dominicans in 1949, where under Victor White he began his life-long study of...
and Martin Gilbert
Martin Gilbert
Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...
.
Recent terms
Recent terms' speakers of note have included Piers Paul ReadPiers Paul Read
Piers Paul Read, FRSL is a British novelist and non-fiction writer.-Background:Read was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire...
on the reality of Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
; Fr Timothy Finigan on 'Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae
Humanae Vitae is an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI and issued on 25 July 1968. Subtitled On the Regulation of Birth, it re-affirms the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and the continuing proscription of most forms of birth...
'; Fr Thomas Weinandy
Thomas Weinandy
Father Thomas G. Weinandy is a Catholic priest and a leading scholar in the Roman Catholic Church. He is a prolific writer in both academic and popular works, including articles, books, and study courses....
on the Incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
; Fr John Saward
John Saward
John Saward is a Roman Catholic priest and a fellow of both Greyfriars and associate lecturer at Blackfriars at the University of Oxford in England...
on the character of Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, and, separately, on the motu proprio
Motu proprio
A motu proprio is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him....
Summorum Pontificum
Summorum Pontificum
Summorum Pontificum is an Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI, issued "motu proprio" . The document specified the rules, for the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, for celebrating Mass according to the "Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962" , and for administering most of the sacraments in...
; Fr Aidan Nichols
Aidan Nichols
John Christopher "Aidan" Nichols OP is an academic and Catholic priest.Nichols served as the first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at the University of Oxford for 2006 to 2008, the first lectureship of Catholic theology at that university since the Reformation...
on the centenary of Pope St Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
's condemnation of Modernism
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
; Professor Geza Vermes
Geza Vermes
Géza Vermes or Vermès is a British scholar of Jewish Hungarian origin and writer on religious history, particularly Jewish and Christian. He is a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient works in Aramaic, and on the life and religion of Jesus...
(in debate with Dom Henry Wansbrough
Henry Wansbrough
The Very Reverend Dom Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA , STL , LSS , is a biblical scholar and a monk of Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire, England....
) on the historicity of the Gospels; Rt Hon Ann Widdecombe MP
Ann Widdecombe
Ann Noreen Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010. She was a social conservative and a member of...
on being a Catholic politician; Sir Anthony Kenny
Anthony Kenny
Sir Anthony John Patrick Kenny FBA is an English philosopher whose interests lie in the philosophy of mind, ancient and scholastic philosophy, the philosophy of Wittgenstein and the philosophy of religion...
on the Oxford Movement
Oxford Movement
The Oxford Movement was a movement of High Church Anglicans, eventually developing into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose members were often associated with the University of Oxford, argued for the reinstatement of lost Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy...
; and Baroness Williams of Crosby on the relationship between God and Caesar
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
.
The society often hosts prominent speakers at its termly dinners. In Hilary Term 2004 the Duke of Norfolk
Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk
Edward William Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, is the son of Miles Stapleton-Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk and his wife Anne Mary Teresa Constable-Maxwell. The principal seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle....
spoke on Catholicism in England. The Michaelmas 2006 after-dinner speaker was Fr Paul Chavasse, actor causae of Cardinal Newman's cause for canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
and Provost of the Birmingham Oratory
Birmingham Oratory
The Birmingham Oratory is a Catholic oratory and church, on the Hagley Road, in the Birmingham suburb of Edgbaston in England.-History:The church was constructed between 1907 and 1910 in the Baroque style as a memorial to Cardinal Newman, founder of the English Oratory...
. As part of the society's 130th anniversary celebrations in 2008 a dinner was held in Trinity College
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
attended by HRH The Duchess of Kent and 150 students. More recently Baroness Scotland
Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal
Patricia Janet, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, PC, QC is a British barrister, and served in many ministerial positions within the UK Government, most notably as the Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland.-Early life and career:Baroness Scotland was born in...
, Attorney General for England and Wales, spoke on the role faith can play in informing public conscience.
Current ethos
Today the society continues to provide a place for Oxford's Catholics who, in the words of Waugh's fictional Lady Marchmain, "must know some" of their co-religionists, while also promoting Catholic faith, learning and culture within the broader University. At least once a year the society tends to hold a talk on some aspect of Newman's life or work, seeking also to inform Oxford students of the ongoing cause for his canonizationCanonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
.
George Pell
George Pell AC is an Australian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Archbishop of Sydney, serving since 2001. He previously served as auxiliary bishop and archbishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne...
(Archbishop of Sydney), The Duchess of Kent, Arthur Roche
Arthur Roche
Arthur Roche is an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the ninth and current Bishop of Leeds.-Early life and ministry:...
(Bishop of Leeds), Peter Elliott (Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne) and Paul Chavasse (of the Birmingham Oratory
Birmingham Oratory
The Birmingham Oratory is a Catholic oratory and church, on the Hagley Road, in the Birmingham suburb of Edgbaston in England.-History:The church was constructed between 1907 and 1910 in the Baroque style as a memorial to Cardinal Newman, founder of the English Oratory...
).
Term structure
The average term involves a drinks party, five weeks of weekly speaker meetings, a trip or other event on a Saturday afternoon and an end-of-term MassMass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
and dinner with guest speaker; the specific form of any given term is, however, ultimately determined by the society's President. The President is assisted in his duties by a committee which includes a Senior Treasurer (Senior Member), Past-Presidents in residence, President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and such other persons as are determined by the society's rules. In recent years, members have been afforded the opportunity to dine with speakers before meetings; such dinners have generally either taken place in members' colleges or in the University Catholic Chaplaincy.
In Trinity terms, the Newman has revived the practice of organising sporting events. A recent term saw the attempted assembly of a rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
Newman VIII, and although football was once the society's main sport, it is now more usual for termcards to feature punting and other leisurely pursuits.
The Newman Foundation
The Newman Foundation was established in 2007 and exists to support the activities of the society. Since its creation the foundation has incepted the 'Thomas More Lectures', an annual series of lectures examining the relationship between religion and society. The foundation is assisted by an Academic Board composed of Oxford academics. The members of the board include, among others, Fr. Richard FinnRichard Finn
The Very Reverend Richard Damian Finn, OP is Regent of Blackfriars, Oxford.Richard Finn was educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge...
, Prof. John Finnis
John Finnis
John Finnis , is an Australian legal scholar and philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of law. He is Professor of Law at University College, Oxford and at the University of Notre Dame, teaching jurisprudence, political theory, and constitutional law...
, and Fr. John Saward
John Saward
John Saward is a Roman Catholic priest and a fellow of both Greyfriars and associate lecturer at Blackfriars at the University of Oxford in England...
.
In 2009 Cardinal George Pell launched the foundation's 'Faith in Oxford' appeal, which is intended to raise an endowment for the Newman Society.
Motto and tie
The Society's motto is the phrase first used by St Augustine of Hippo (in the DonatistDonatist
Donatism was a Christian sect within the Roman province of Africa that flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries. It had its roots in the social pressures among the long-established Christian community of Roman North Africa , during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian...
controversy), and subsequently adopted by Cardinal Newman: "Securus judicat orbis terrarum" ("the world's verdict is secure"). The Society tie features stripes of papal
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, cardinal red
Cardinal (color)
Cardinal is a vivid red, which gets its name from the cassocks worn by Catholic cardinals...
, and Oxford blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
; it can be bought at Walters of Oxford. On 13 May 2007 the Newman tie appeared in the Oxford section of the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary Make Me a Tory. It was also featured in the 24 February 2010 edition of Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
, in a piece titled, 'Are You in the Club?'.
External links
- Oxford University Newman Society – official website
- Newman Society blog
- Newman Society's Faith in Oxford Appeal
- Communigate: Newman Society
- OU Newman Society Catalogue of Papers – Bodleian Library