Heart Speaking to Heart | A Catholic World Report Interview with Father C. John McCloskey on the influence of the Venerable John Henry Newman | By Matthew A. Rarey
Father C. John McCloskey, a fellow at the Faith and Research Institute in Washington, DC, currently resides in Chicago. In 2000, he hosted a television series on EWTN about Cardinal John Henry Newman that played a role in the miracle necessary for his elevation from venerable to blessed. Deacon John Sullivan, whose miraculous recovery from chronic back pain has been attributed to Newman, credits the show with prompting his intercessory prayers to the 19th-century English cardinal. On March 16 it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI will beatify Newman during his visit to the United Kingdom in September.
CWR spoke to Father McCloskey about Cardinal Newman.
Why did you host a television series on Cardinal Newman?
Father McCloskey: I wanted to help viewers appreciate the greatness of this seminal figure of English-speaking Catholicism, a man who was, simply put, a religious genius.
The series consisted of interviews and discussions with Newman experts about various facets of his life as well as his work.
Newman wasn’t a new subject of interest for you, isn’t that right?
Father McCloskey: Not by a long shot. He’s like a dear friend whom I want to introduce to others. I’d written my doctoral thesis and other scholarly works on the Venerable John Henry. But my aim in the series wasn’t merely to inform viewers. I also wanted to inspire devotion to Newman by encouraging viewers to go to his intercession for their particular needs with the hope that he might also be raised to the altars. At the end of every episode, I placed a prayer card on-screen and encouraged viewers to pray to him for his intercession.
So the end of a show was the beginning of a beatification. When did you learn about the miracle attributed to the intercession you encouraged?
Father McCloskey: Sometime in 2002-2003, I received a letter at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, DC, where I was then the director, from a Mr. Jack Sullivan, a deacon from the South Shore of Boston. He told me he’d been cured of a chronic spinal illness due to having watched my series and having recourse to the intercession of Venerable John Henry. He asked me what the next step was. As I remember, I wrote back encouraging him to contact the Very Reverend Paul Chavasse, the head of the Birmingham Oratory and postulator of the cause of Cardinal Newman’s canonization.
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