Newman as a Local Doctor of the Church

Today is the Octave Day of St. John Henry Newman, father of the Oratory in England. Last Tuesday, on the eve of his feast day, one of our Chorus Breviarii members met with some recently-graduated students of JPCatholic University in Escondido to chant First Vespers in honor of the famous Cardinal who converted to the Church from Anglicanism.

Despite leaving the Church of England for the true Church, the Anglican calendar still commemorates St. John Henry Newman in their liturgical calendar on his dies natalis of August 11, one of the bizarre consequences of the Anglicans shifting their ecumenism into high gear. Since the 1970 General Roman Calendar commemorates St. Clare of Assisi upon August 11, the Catholic commemoration of Cardinal Newman occurs on October 9, the date of his formal reception into the Church. We ourselves have sung the Traditional Mass for this great Oratorian Saint in the past, even when he had just been declared a beatus.

Last year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to support the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales in their petition to declare Newman a Doctor of the Church. While the process toward universal recognition as a Doctor moves along, there could be a case for both the Oratorians and the English to honor Cardinal Newman as a Doctor sooner using local calendar permissions. 

While searching for liturgical texts related to the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, our poster designer Martin found a PDF of the Supplementum pro Hispaniae Dioecesibus (Supplement for the Dioceses of Spain) published by Solesmes Abbey in 1927. Pages 10 and 11 of the Supplement list St. Fulgentius and St. Leander (San Leandro) as Doctors of the Church, despite not being recognized as such in the universal list of Doctors. A certain edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia mentions that certain Saints, including those eventually made universal Doctors of the Church, were allowed to be celebrated as Doctors in specific localities (e.g., the Venerable Bede in England, St. Fulgentius and St. Leander in Spain) or within specific orders (e.g., St. Peter Damian for the Camaldolese, the Venerable Bede and St. Leander for the Benedictines). 

(See Note 1 for more details).

Considering these past permissions, it would be fitting for the English dioceses and the Oratorians to pursue an indult to celebrate the Feast of St. John Henry Newman as that of a Doctor of the Church, even if he still isn't recognized as such universally. Perhaps even the Personal Ordinariates for former Anglicans could follow suit. Of course, the situation of the traditional Roman Rite being frowned upon by the Vatican combined with a contemporary lack of understanding of how the Breviary and the old Lectionary work would probably complicate the process of pursuing an indult. Cardinal Newman may already be named a Doctor of the Church by the time liturgical freedoms allow for such indults to be pursued easily.

If Cardinal Newman were bestowed the honor of Doctor of the Church, then his Magnificat antiphon variant would probably be as written above, since the Collect for the Memorial of St. John Henry Newman refers to the Saint as "John Henry" in the Latin. If "Henrice" were not to be used, then it would make Cardinal Newman's Magnificat antiphon identical to those of at least three other Doctors of the Church: St. John Damascene, St. John of the Cross, and St. John of Avila (Note 2).

Aside from the use of O Doctor optime at Vespers and the Mass In medio Ecclesiae, Cardinal Newman's feast is observed as that of a Confessor-not-a-Bishop, as despite his elevation to the College of Cardinals, he was never consecrated a bishop (Note 3) For this reason, the booklets we created for Cardinal Newman's Vespers began with the antiphon Domine, quinque talenta rather than Ecce sacerdos magnus. Despite the fact we were chanting Vespers in a living room rather than inside a chapel or in an outdoor setup (as we did in Escondido, El Centro, and the Presidio), we still included processional and recession hymns in our booklets. "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" was used for our entrance, and the Nashotah House version of "Firmly I Believe and Truly", a favorite of our friends in the Ordinariate, was used as the recessional following Compline. "Lead, Kindly Light" was also included in the booklets.

We will continue to pray for the cause to recognize St. John Henry Newman's contributions to the Church. Hopefully we will be able to sing Vespers for a Doctor in his honor someday!

Note 1. These honors are recognized in the Catholic Encyclopedia article "Doctors of the Church" as found on Wikisource (Wikimedia Foundation) and Catholic Answers, but the paragraph mentioning them is absent from the New Advent version. The article as found on Wikisource is labeled as a 1997 edit, and this version is also found on Catholic.org, the Mary Foundation, and e-Catholic 2000, with the Catholic.org version labeling the 1997 edits as "web editor's notes"; even a PDF version of the Encyclopedia found on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library appears to be the 1997 edition. The Catholic Answers version of the article omits the obvious 1997 edits, such as the mentions of John Paul II's selection, but the paragraph mentioning the indults given to Spain and various religious orders is still present. My conjecture is that either Mr. Kevin Knight, editor of the New Advent version of the Encyclopedia; or Mr. Gerard Haffner, who transcribed the article for New Advent, intentionally omitted this final paragraph due to its mention of the number of Doctors of the Church, which would explain a strange gap between the text of the article and the footer not seen on other New Advent articles. For context, the 1997 edit begins the paragraph in question with: "There are therefore now [1997] thirty-three Doctors of the Church," while the Catholic Answers version begins with: "There are therefore now twenty-three Doctors of the Church." Thus, I conclude that the useful information about St. Leander and other Doctors granted by indult was set aside to avoid mentioning a dynamic number that has become controversial in Traditional Catholic circles, whether due to Paul VI's decision to give the honor of Doctor of the Church to women, or due to Francis' elevation of Gregory of Narek.

The peculiar gap

Note 2. Despite St. John Chrysostom being another "John" recognized as a Doctor of the Church, his variant of O Doctor optime uses "Joannes Chrysostome" rather than the generic “Joannes” variant shared by St. John Damascene and St. John of the Cross. The reasoning for this is likely the same that can be found in Foley's "The Name Game of the Orations" published on New Liturgical Movement earlier this year, which elaborates on a footnote found in a work by Fr. Nicholas Gihr. While not explicitly mentioning O Doctor optime, the article also sheds light on why St. Alphonsus' variant of the antiphon uses "Alphonse Maria" rather than just his first name. The use of double names in the orations of St. Alphonsus and St. Margaret Mary therefore justifies the decision to refer to Cardinal Newman as "John Henry" in his version of the antiphon. St. John of the Avila's antiphon is likely identical to those of St. John Damascene and St. John of the Cross since he lacks a double name, but I cannot find an actual transcription of his antiphon due to the difficulty of navigating the Liturgy of the Hours. 

Note 3. The situation of cardinals not made bishops was much more common before Vatican II. John XXIII ruled in 1962 that cardinals without a dispensation must be members of the episcopate, and John Paul II's 1983 Code of Canon Law codified this ruling, slowing the creation of cardinals who are only priests and making the position of "lay cardinal" extinct.