Addresses to Cardinal Newman with His Replies, etc.
Feb. 21, 1879.
Dear Father Newman,
The good news that reached us yesterday, that the Holy Father has laid at your Reverence’s feet the highest honours of the Church, has caused us so much pleasure that we cannot refrain from sending you a few lines to express our heartfelt joy at the welcome announcement. It is by a happy coincidence that we are able at the same time to convey to you our sincere congratulations on the occasion of your 78th birthday. We rejoice to hear that, at the evening of a long life devoted to the service of God and His Church, the exalted dignity of the Church’s princedom has been offered for your acceptance; we rejoice still more when we look back on the seventy years and more which are today completed, and think of all that you have done and suffered for the cause of Truth.
Your Reverence is not unaware of the deep affection and high esteem in which you are held among us. We are all of us in some way or other indebted to you. Some of us are bound to you by the strong ties of personal gratitude. The best return we can make to you is the prayers we shall tomorrow send up in your behalf to the throne of God. Those of us who have the opportunity of doing so hope to offer for you the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, and we shall all pray God that He may crown the years which still remain to you with the joy of one who has fought the good fight and earned the reward of peace and victory, and that in the Church Triumphant you may wear the crown which is laid up for the Princes of the Kingdom of Heaven.
We recommend ourselves to your Reverence’s Prayers and Holy Sacrifices, and we remain,
Dear Father Newman,
Yours affectionately in Jesus Christ,
Thomas Rigby, S.J.; Victor Frinz, S.J.; Bernard Tepe, S.J.; Paul Rochford, S.J.; Wm. Syrett, S.J.; John Morris, S.J.; Francis Clough, S.J.; Jerome Janin, S.J.; Michael Gavin, S.J.; Bernard Vaughan, S.J.; Thomas P. Brown, S.J.; Peter J. Chandlery, S.J.; Richard Clarke, S.J.; John Rickaby, S.J.; Wm. A. Sutton, S.J.; Wilfrid Mordaunt, S.J.; William Shapter S.J.; Thomas A. Finlay, S.J.; William J. Burns, S.J.; William Hilton, S.J.; Joseph Kenny, S.J.; Parker Joseph Lander, S.J.; Philip J. Brady, S,J.; Joseph Winkebried, S.J.; Patrick Anderson, S.J.; Frederick O’Hare, S.J.; Daniel Quigan, S.J.; Edward Williams, S.J.; Henry S. Hepburne, S.J.; Joseph H. Jerrard, S.J.; Peter M’Laughlin, S.J.; Wm. Philip Edgcome, S.J.; John P. A. Collins, S.J.; John S. Conmer, S.J.; John Charnock, S.J.; Edward Sidgreaves, S.J.; Henri Laventure, S.J.; Henry Parker, S.J.; George Postlewhite, S.J.; Thos. A. Barker, S.J.; Patk. Keating, S.J.; Charles Wilcock, S.J.; John Sardi, S.J.
To the Jesuit Community at St. Beuno’s
The Oratory, Birmingham, Feb. 22, 1879.
My DEAR Very Rev. AND Rev. Fathers AND Brothers,
I am too deeply moved, or rather too much overcome, by your letter to me of yesterday, my birthday, to be able to answer it properly. For such an answer I ought to be more collected than I can be just now.
If I were not writing to Religious Men it would be affectation in me and want of taste, to say, what is the real truth, that at the moment I cannot address to you the thanks due to you for your most loving words, for I am full of the thought of the goodness of God who has led you to send them: Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo.
Do you in your charity, my dear friends, pray for me that I, an old man, may not fail Him who has never failed me; that I may not by my wilfulness and ingratitude lose His Divine presence, His Sovereign protection, His love, and that, having been carried on by His undeserved mercy almost to the brink of eternity, I may be carried on safely into it.
Your humble and affectionate servant in Christ,
J. H. Newman.
From Prior Gasquet for the Benedictines of Downside
St. Gregory’s, Downside, Feb. 23, 1879.
Very Rev. AND DEAR Fr. Newman,
In my own name and that of the community of St. Gregory’s Monastery, I desire to offer you our heartfelt congratulations on the honour our Holy Father has done you.
We can with truth say that there is no one whom we would more gladly see raised to the high dignity of Prince of the Church than yourself, since there is no one we more venerate and admire.
We one and all can recall many signal benefits which you have conferred upon us by your writings; and many of us, in this way, owe you a debt of gratitude which can never be told.
Begging you then, Very Rev. Father, to accept our humble congratulations,
I am,
Yours sincerely and with deep respect,
Francis A. Gasquet,
Prior, O.S.B.