Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Pope will preside at Newman's Sept. beatification

Cardinal John Henry Newman

LONDON - Pope Benedict will preside at the beatification ceremony of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Coventry, England, during a four-day visit to the United Kingdom Sept. 16-19, British Catholic leaders said.

The step is unusual because under Pope Benedict's own rules, a beatification is to be performed by a cardinal in the diocese where the candidate for sainthood died.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, told a March 16 press conference in London that to see Newman "declared 'blessed' - a step toward sainthood - will be a very, very important moment."

Nichols called Newman "a towering figure in English history over the last 200 years."

"Pope Benedict has a particular attentiveness to the writings of Cardinal Newman," he added. "He is making an exception to his own rules to do this."

Newman was an Anglican cleric who founded the Oxford Movement to bring the Anglican Church back to its Catholic roots. He became Catholic at the age of 44 after a succession of clashes with Anglican bishops and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. He died in 1890 at age 89.

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