HEAVENLY HOSTING
Cardinal Newman’s vast archives digitized
Devotees of the late Cardinal John Henry Newman believe he has a spot in heaven, and they’re hoping the pope soon formally declares him a saint.
In the meantime, the 19th century English Catholic priest has already achieved a durable perch in another ethereal location: cyberspace. A national gathering of priests, scholars and other devotees of Cardinal Newman convened at Duquesne University on Monday to learn of the completed digitization of just about anything that could be photographed in Newman’s vast archives.
The effort, in which Pittsburgh institutions had a central role, involved more than 200,000 individual items — sermons, scholarly works, letters, diary entries, even the dried leaves that a curious young Newman collected from the playground of his primary school.
It’s a monumental achievement in the scholarship surrounding Newman — one of those English luminaries who has resonated at least as much in the United States as in his home country. Newman was a Catholic convert, theologian, educational philosopher, poet and writer of hymns such as “Lead, Kindly Light.”
Newman’s work “The Idea of a University” remains a classic in educational theory. He wrote influentially on the “development of doctrine,” in which Catholic teachings are fleshed out from one generation to the next,
There are no major scoops to be found in the archives, said Daniel Joyce, archivist for the Newman Archive at the Birmingham Oratory in England, where Newman spent his final years.
If anybody is “looking for their eureka moment, they will be disappointed,” said Mr. Joyce, who delivered the annual Fall Newman Lecture at Duquesne.
But the archives “reveal much about Newman the man, the priest and the scholar,” he said. “They put flesh on the bones of the man whom many have come to
revere.”
The four-year digitization project drew on the work of multiple institutions.
Documents were transported between the Birmingham archive and an imaging company in Manchester, England.
Scholars from the National Institute for Newman Studies — itself an archive of Newman-related documents based in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood — helped to fund and provide scholars for the project.
The Crivella West technology company in Pittsburgh processed and cataloged the images for research use.
In 2010, then-Pope Benedict XVI presided at the beatification of Cardinal Newman, and Mr. Joyce said the Vatican is considering a petition to have him declared a saint.
Newman was “one of the pivotal theologians of the modern era,” said Kenneth Parker, who holds the Ryan endowed chair for Newman studies at Duquesne.
The Monday event at Duquesne attracted an unprecedented gathering of about 30 priests from throughout the United States and beyond who are Oratorians of St. Philip Neri. Oratorians live in community, but they do not take permanent, formal vows.
Newman himself was an Oratorian who helped bring that tradition into the English-speaking world.
“Oratorians are ferociously autonomous,” said the Rev. Drew Morgan, priest of the Pittsburgh Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Oakland. But “there was an overwhelming response” to the invitation, he said.
Among them was the Rev. Michael Palud, an Oratorian from Jamaica. “For Newman, friendship was very important,” he said. Now, “people will befriend him through modern technology.”
Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith.