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Author Topic: Newman's reservations on Devotion to Our Lady  (Read 422 times)

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Offline Incredulous

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Newman's reservations on Devotion to Our Lady
« on: August 03, 2019, 11:44:48 PM »
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    After the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 (see Ineffabilis Deus), there was an enormous increase of devotion to Our Lady throughout Christendom. In that atmosphere, nothing was more normal than that St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, the great apostle of her devotion, should become better known. In England, the translator of St. Louis de Montfort's main work - The Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary - was Fr. Frederick Faber. He also became a strong promoter of this devotion through his sermons and writings.




    Many Anglicans rose up against that new wave of Marian devotion as being foreign to the English spirit. Among them was Edward B. Pusey who wrote a book in 1865 - Eirenicon - ridiculing that devotion.

     Newman, who was good friends of Pusey, was also outraged by many aspects of this new enthusiasm for Our Lady. With the publication of Eirenikon, he found an opportunity to enter the picture to express his opposition for this increase of devotion.

     In his public response to Pusey, Newman declared himself in agreement with him and condemned the "excesses" of Fr. Faber as reported by Pusey. Among those "excesses" that Newman attacked, however, are many of the principles set out by St. Louis de Monfort in his True Devotion.

     Newman's public letter is titled Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching. In it he declared that he would not follow the new wave of devotion to Our Lady, but would remain with the simple devotion to her practiced by the Church Fathers. He praised some beautiful texts of Fathers and Saints in order to appear impartial, and then went on to strongly attack various points of the Monfortian doctrine.

     Below, we reproduced an excerpt of his book intercalated with a summary by Ward of the points Newman indicated in his book. The summary is marked with an orange line at left. In the letter we highlighted in yellow Newman's emphatic expressions of rejection; in the summary, we highlighted the points that are characteristics of True Devotion to Mary.

     These docuмents are in The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman by Wilfrid Ward, vol. II, pp. 106-107.
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    "Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it underfoot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Our Lord Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor but a destroyer."  St. Francis of Assisi

    Offline Cera

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    Re: Newman's reservations on Devotion to Our Lady
    « Reply #1 on: August 04, 2019, 05:16:10 PM »
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    • Quote from: Incredulous on August 03, 2019, 11:44:48 PM
    Newman's public letter is titled Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching. In it he declared that he would not follow the new wave of devotion to Our Lady, but would remain with the simple devotion to her practiced by the Church Fathers.
    The docuмent you cite, Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching, is here:
    http://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/pusey/section5.html
    Read it. It is a strong defense of devotion to Our Lady against the misunderstandings of the Anglicans.
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    Offline Incredulous

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    Re: Newman's reservations on Devotion to Our Lady
    « Reply #2 on: August 04, 2019, 06:31:26 PM »
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    • Quote from: Cera on August 04, 2019, 05:16:10 PM
    The docuмent you cite, Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching, is here:
    http://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/pusey/section5.html
    Read it. It is a strong defense of devotion to Our Lady against the misunderstandings of the Anglicans.
    What Trad granny :confused:
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    "Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it underfoot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Our Lord Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor but a destroyer."  St. Francis of Assisi

    Offline Cera

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    Re: Newman's reservations on Devotion to Our Lady
    « Reply #3 on: August 04, 2019, 07:59:27 PM »
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    • If you cannot read all of Blessed Cardinal Newman's letter, at least read his conclusion.

    That joyful season, joyful for all of us, while it centres in Him who then came on earth, also brings before us in peculiar prominence that Virgin Mother, who bore and nursed Him. Here she is not in the background, as at Easter-tide, but she brings Him to us in her arms. Two great Festivals, dedicated to her honour, tomorrow's and the Purification, mark out and keep the ground, and, like the towers of David, open the way to and fro, for the high holiday season of the Prince of Peace. And all along it her image is upon it, such as we see it in the typical representation of the Catacombs. May the sacred influences of this tide bring us all together in unity! May it destroy all bitterness on your side and ours! May it quench all jealous, sour, proud, fierce antagonism on our side; and dissipate all captious, carping, fastidious refinements of reasoning on yours! May that bright and gentle Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, overcome you with her sweetness, and revenge herself on her foes by interceding effectually for their conversion!
     I am,
     Yours, most affectionately,
     JOHN H. NEWMAN.
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