Heart Speaks to Heart
Gary Chamberland, CSC
Preparing to leave Dublin after 5 and a half years at the Notre Dame–Newman Centre, there are so many people here whom I will dearly miss. There is one, however, that I little expected to get to know, much less find myself spending time with regularly. John Henry Newman – Catholic priest, university rector, essayist, public intellectual and devoted brother, mentor and friend to many – has become my guide and frequent companion.
Across my life as a Holy Cross priest, I have lived-in student residence halls at Notre Dame and the University of Portland. While the history of Holy Cross priests and brothers living in residence with students is rooted in the French boarding school of the 19th century, its theory and articulation was fully Newmanian by the late 20th century. In the The Idea of a University, Newman’s described the university as a “domestic establishment” where students would live and be educated in a disciplined, family-like environment, fostering both intellectual and moral growth. Newman understood the residential community as an integral part of the educative enterprise and essential for the integrated formation of students. As a resident priest, I knew little of Newman and his articulation of residence-based learning, but I had experienced the importance and efficacy of the method.
By July 2020, my knowledge of Newman had grown only slightly. Various professors and priests over the years had spoken to his spiritual and theological insights long before his canonization in 2019. At best, I could only give a thumbnail sketch of Newman’s impact on the Church. Thus, I was bemused when Fr. Bill Dailey, CSC, my predecessor, said that he had become a regular reader of Newman and had come to appreciate his intellect and approach to the life of faith.
Some five years on, John Henry Newman has become my friend, as well. His grief and lifelong sorrow over the death of his sister, Mary, brought solace as I processed the death of my sister Cathy. Though the details of their lives and deaths differed greatly, his insights proved to be universal; his refections brought comfort and hope.
I have also come to appreciate the outsized role Newman has played in helping the modern Church to understand itself and the world around it. Converting from Anglicanism in 1845, he gave up his family, his pulpit, and his teaching at Oxford – all things he loved – in order to pursue truth. In doing so, he brought a unique understanding of scripture and renewed interest in the Church Fathers into a Church dominated by a scholastic theology. He infused linguistic nuance into a system of proofs and brought literature, poetry and apologetics, tempered by humility and charm, into his teaching. Though rational and intellectual, he believed in divine revelation, scriptural authority and the humble submission to the will of God.
Misunderstood, and rejected in his day, Newman’s teachings, undergird much of the important work of Vatican II. His Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845) grounds any modern understanding of a theology of development. On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine (1859) is the seminal work that informs Vatican II’s “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity “and the chapter on the laity in the “Constitution on the Church”. His thinking concerning the formation of conscience forms the basis of our teaching on conscience today.
This fall, the Centre staff was in Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s declaration of Newman as Doctor of the Church and co-patron of education. This completed the recognition of the role he has played in the life of the universal Church. As a Doctor of the Church, Newman will continue to root us in scripture and the Apostolic Church, as we develop new and powerful ways to bring the Truth of the gospel into an ever-evolving world.
This is the same Newman who regarded his newly erected University Church as a living icon of the unity of all creation and the physical manifestation of God’s love for the world. This is the Newman who verbally sparred with the finest minds of the empire, but sat quietly with students guiding them with the gentle hand of a father. This is the Newman who experienced the Divine Presence suffused throughout the world around him and who longed for every human person to experience it as well, that they may soften their hearts, and turn toward God. This is my friend found here in Dublin. I shall carry him with me always.