The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-26 00:00:00

CARDINAL NEWMAN ON RELIGIOUS
EDUCATION.

Cardinal Newman assisted on Sunday for the first
time in full canonicals at a ceremonial high mass, at
the Oratory, Edgbaston, in celebration of his return
home. The church, to which admission was reserved
by ticket, was densely crowded with a congregation
numbering many former pupils and friends of the
Cardinal from all parts of the country, who had taken
this opportunity of paying homage to him on his eleva-
tion to the Cardinalate. Among those present
were Lord Edmund Talbot and the Ladies Howard,
Lord and Lady Alexander Lennox, Lady Simeon and
the Misses Simeon, the Hon. Miss Bertie, the Hon.
Eric North, Mr. H. Blount, Miss Hope Scott, Mrs.
and Miss BelLaois. Mr. Hussey Walsh, Mr. A. Pollen,
and others. The Hon. Monsignor Stonor was the chief
celebrant.

In the course of the service, Cardinal Newman, who
was robed in the cappa magna, ascended the pulpit and
addressed a short discourse to the congregation,
taking for his text a passage from the Sermon on the
Mount, comprised in the Gospel for the day. He dwelt
especially upon the necessary connexion between faith
and praotice, and likened those professing Christianity
whose conduct belied their principles to the false
preachers spoken of in the Gospel.
In the afternoon the Cardinal officiated at the
Benediction, in robes appropriate to the function, with
jewelled mitre and crosier. On the conclusion of the
service his Eminence was presented by the members
of the Oratory School Society with a costly set of
vestments and a brief address was read by Lord Len-
nox of Howard congratulating him on his elevation to
the Cardinalate. In acknowledging the presentation,
Cardinal Newman said :

"I thank you very much for the address of con-
gratulation which you have presented to me on the
great dignity to which the Holy Father has raised me.
Besides the honour, he has done me this great service,
that his condescension has, in God's mercy, been the
means of eliciting on my behalf so much kind sympathy,
so much deep friendliness, so much goodwill of which the
greater part was until now only silently cherished in the
hearts of persons known and unknown to me. Ido
not mean to say that I did not believe in your affection
for me. I have had many instances of it, I have re-
joiced to know it, and I have been grateful for it; but
I could not, till I read your short and simple words,
realize its warmth, its depth, and what I call its
volume. Your letter is the best reward, short of
supernatural, for much weariness and anxiety in time
past. Nothing, indeed is more pleasant than the care
of boys; at the same time nothing involves greater
responsibility. A. school such as ours is a pastoral
charge of the most intimate kind. Most men agree
in judging that boys, instead of remaining at home,
should be under the care of others at a distance. In
order to the due formation of their minds boys need
that moral and intellectual discipline which school
alone can give. Their parents then, make a great
sacrifice, and also make an act of supreme confidence,
in committing their dear ones to strangers. You see,
then, what has made us so anxious, sometimes too
anxious—namely, our sense of the great trust com-
mitted to us by parents and our desire to respond
faithfully to that trust, as well as our love for, our
interest in, and our desire, if so be, to impart a blessing
from above upon their children, No other department
of the pastoral office requires such sustained attention
and such unwearied services. A confessor for the most
part knows his penitents only in the confessional,
and perhaps does not know them by sight. A parish
priest knows, indeed, the members of his flock indi-
vidually, but he sees them only from time to time.
Day schools are not schools except in school hours,
but the superiors in a school such as ours live with
their pupils and see their growth from day to day.
They almost see them grow, and they are ever
tenderly watching over them, that their growth may
be in the right direction. You see now why it is
that the few words of your address are so great a
comfort to me. Yes, they are definite, formal answer
to the questieninge, searchings of heart, and anxieties
of twenty years. Of course, I know that we have
been wonderfully blessed in the set of boys whom we
have had to work for; we have had very good
material. Also, I know when you speak so kindly of
my personal influence and guidance that this is a
reference to more than myself, and that I can only
occupy the second or the third place in any success
which we can claim. However, if to have desired
your beat good, if to have prayed for it, if to have
given much time and thought towards its attainment,
deserves your acknowledgment and has a call on your
lasting attachment, I can, without any misgiving of
conscience, accept in substance your affectionate lan-
guage about me. Before concluding my thanks I
must express my great gratification at your splendid
gifts of vestments, munificent in itself and most wel-
come as a lasting memento of the 20th of July, 1879,
and of the address of congratulation with which that
gift was accompanied."
A second presentation was made by the parents of
the Oratory boys, on whose behalf Lady Alexander
Lennox read a congratulatory address, accompanying
a valuable silver monstrance. In acknowledging this
gift and address, Cardinal Newman said :
"It is very difficult for me in set words to express the
feeling of great gratitude and great gratification
which such an address, from such persons, causes
me. I have spoken in the answer I have just made
to our late scholars, the members of the Oratory
School Society, of the feelings which parents must
have when they commit their children either to
strangers or to those who, at least, cannot be so near
and dear to them as those parents are themselves. I
recollect perfectly well enough of my childhood to know
with what pain a mother loses her children for the first
time, and is separated from them, not knowing for
the time what may happen to them. It is of course,
an enormous gratification and a cause of thankful-
ness, where thanks are due, that I should be, that we
should be, so kindly, considerately, and tenderly
regarded as we are, and as that address which you
have read to me brings out. Concerning our school,
it may he pleasant to you to know that the Holy
Father at Rome seemed to take great interest in it
without my urging it upon him. I brought before
him the outline of the history of the Oratory for the
last thirty years, and he showed great interest in it,
and I may say even mastered all I said, and I could
see that it remained in his mind, for when the time
came for me and my friends (the Fathers) to be pre-
sented to him and take leave of him, then though
what I asked for was a blessing upon this house and
upon the house in London, he added of his own will a
blessing upon the school. It was a thing he singled
out; and, as we have been blessed by the blessing of
the Moly Pope Pius IX, on the commencement of
the Oratory, we may look forward to the Divine
blessing, for being guided and prospered in the time to
come. I hope you will not measure my sense of your
kindness to me by the few words I have spoken, for if
I attempted to express my fell feelings I should have
to detain you a long time before I came to an end;
but, loth as I am to detain you with more words, I
must not conclude without offering you my best
thanks for the monstrance, which you and others as
mothers of our boys have had the kindness to present
me in memory of my elevation to the Sacred College,
or without assuring both you who are here and those
whom you represent how acceptable to us is this token
of the interest you take in the past and present of the
Oratory."
On the previous day the ladies of the Altar Society,
connected with the Oratory church, presented an ad-
dress of welcome, with a handsome throne canopy and
sanctuary furniture, which were graciously acknow-
ledged.