Catholic convert on path to sainthood

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 22:20

THE Pope has placed Cardinal John Henry Newman on the path to possible sainthood by approving a miracle attributed to his intercession.

Newman, an influential 19th-century Anglican convert, can now be beatified. A second miracle is necessary for him to be declared a saint – making him the first English-born saint since the Reformation.

The miracle approved yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI concerns the medically inexplicable cure of an American, John Sullivan, who suffered from debilitating back pain for years, but was cured after praying to Cardinal Newman.

In 1841, Cardinal Newman published a paper demonstrating that the doctrinal statements of the Church of England were consistent with Catholicism. Amid outcry from Anglicans, he retired and in 1845 joined the Roman Catholic Church. A year later he was ordained as a priest.

Monsignor Mark Langham, the Vatican official in charge of relations with Anglicans, said the cardinal was a "key figure" for both Churches, responsible for having revived the rich tradition of Anglicanism that stressed the continuity with the old Church.

Mgr Langham added: "(Cardinal Newman] is seen as something of a trailblazer."