■ LifeSiteNews ■ Pope Francis approved the canonization of Blessed John Henry Newman on Tuesday as the pope recognized a second miracle attributed to the Anglican convert’s intercession.
After his conversion, the scholarly theologian Newman became a Roman Catholic cardinal and founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him during a visit to Birmingham in 2010. The first miracle attributed to intercession by Newman was the inexplicable healing of a deacon suffering a spinal cord deformity.
The second miracle attributed to Newman’s intercession involved the healing of an American woman facing a life-threatening condition during pregnancy. The woman prayed for the English cardinal’s intercession and was granted a healing that experts have yet to explain.
So far, Vatican authorities have yet to announce a date for the canonization.
Once a priest of the Anglican Communion, Newman joined the Catholic Church in 1845. Newman was ordained to the Catholic priesthood two years later. His writings on theology are thought to be among the most important in recent centuries. Newman died in 1890.
In the midst of the Victorian era, Newman was raised to the cardinalate by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, even though he was never appointed bishop. A founder of two schools for boys, Newman was especially interested in education.
Pope Francis also approved the canonization of Blessed Maria Teresa Chiramel Mankidiyan of India, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family. She died in 1926. In addition, the pope approved the canonization of Fr. Salvatore Vittorio Emilio Moscoso Cardenas, a Jesuit priest who died a martyr in Ecuador in 1897.
He declared Cardinal József Mindszenty, archbishop of Esztergom and primate of Hungary (1892-1975) to be of heroic virtue in the faith. Mindszenty was persecuted by the Soviet-controlled government of Hungary and was sheltered for years within the American embassy in Budapest.