• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Caitie Willet, a junior from Southern Maryland, was among those celebrating the canonization of St. John Henry Newman Oct. 13. (Edward O’N. Hoyt/Special to the Review)

Towson’s Newman Center celebrates its namesake’s canonization

October 14, 2019
By Edward O'N. Hoyt
Filed Under: #IamCatholic, Feature, Local News, News, Saints

An Oct. 13 celebration of the canonization of St. John Henry Newman at the Newman Center of Towson University included a candlelight vigil of special intentions. (Edward O’N. Hoyt/Special to the Review)

TOWSON – The Cardinal Newman Center at Towson University is one of hundreds at colleges and universities in the United States and overseas. The centers serve as campus ministries and gathering places for Catholic students and staff at secular educational institutions.

Father Matthew Buening, chaplain for Towson’s Newman Center, is now confronted with the challenge all of these centers are facing – changing the institution’s name on all its signage and literature.

On Oct. 13, Father Buening and the Catholic community of Towson U. celebrated as Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonized a saint in Rome. With the canonization came the rededication of the archdiocese’s first St. John Henry Newman Chapel, and a daylong celebration of students, alums and others from the wider community.

St. John Henry Newman was an Anglican priest before he was received into the Catholic Church. He was a British theologian, poet and academician. It is in that last role that the influential cardinal retains his relevance in campus life today.

Because St. Newman believed in the pursuit of truth, he was at odds with a Christian world that was shrinking away from the thinkers of the enlightenment.  Ultimately his quest for truth led him to abandon his native Anglicanism for the Catholic Church.

Back when he was studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Father Buening’s thesis had been on St. Newman, so his work at the Newman Center has been more than just another assignment.

“He lived his whole life in academic work,” Father Buening said. “He was an Oxford man through and through, until his conversion to Catholicism when he was ostracized by many of his dear friends, which was very painful to him, of course, but he was pursuing the truth, and that’s what, really, anyone who is studying is meant to be doing.

“He had this sense of loving to learn for its own sake.”

Towson wasn’t alone in its celebration of the new saint. Mount Calvary Catholic Church in Baltimore, a former Anglican parish that was received into the Catholic Church in 2012, dedicated an icon to St. John Newman on the day of his canonization. St. Newman had been familiar with Mount Calvary since the church was the first U.S. Anglican parish to embrace his Oxford movement that sought a renewal of the Anglican Church through a return to its Catholic roots.

The love of learning, of course, doesn’t preclude the love of fellowship and fun that fills Newman centers, and so the Towson celebration included bands, games and face-painting, along with prayerful reflection and a Mass to culminate the day.

Caitie Willet, a junior from Southern Maryland studying family human services and psychology, discovered the Newman Center in her freshman year, before she had committed to her ambitious major. Asked what gets her up in the morning and continue to shine the light of her faith, she says, “Knowing the truth, knowing about Jesus and having a relationship with him.”

Asked where she sees faith flourishing in a time of secularization and crisis for the church, she didn’t have to look far.

Jeremy Smith attends a celebration of the canonization of St. John Henry Newman at Towson University’s Newman Center. (Edward O’N. Hoyt/Special to the Review)

“I think here on campus,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of outreach and getting so many people to all of our events.  I think Newman is somebody to look up to. He reminds you to be hardworking in your studies, in pursuit of truth.”

Jeremy Smith is a second-generation visitor to the center, following his mother, Cathy, who also attended the celebration. A recent grad with a computer science degree, he has also supported the activities of FOCUS – the Fellowship of Catholic University Students – which sends missionaries to spread the faith and bring life to the faith on university campuses.

The troubles with the church, rather than leading him to shrink from his faith, have led him to redouble his commitment.

“When my family’s on fire, it’s not time to run away,” he said. “It’s time to run into the thick of it.”

As the festival concluded with Mass, Father Buening celebrated four women who also were recognized as saints on the same day, including St. Marquerite Bays, whose vocation was not one of consecration or marriage, but who lived her faith in the vocation of single life, something deeply relatable to the students in his center. Her holiness was so great that she received the gift of the stigmata, bearing the wounds of Christ on her own person.

But the day for these students was largely focused on St. Cardinal Newman.

“He always said to be led by the ‘kindly light of truth,’ ” Father Buening said, “and that was his whole thing, and eventually it led to Catholicism. But that’s what these students are doing, hopefully pursuing truth and discovering ways to find it themselves.”

Also see:

Prince Charles praises St. Newman; others promote him as ‘doctor of the church’

This article was updated Oct. 15 at  1:54 p.m. to correct the spelling of Caitie Willet’s name

George Matysek contributed to this story. 

 

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Edward O'N. Hoyt

Edward O'N. Hoyt is a writer and editor living in Baltimore. In addition to Catholic Review, he has written for The Baltimore Sun, Catholic Relief Services, and America. He can be reached at eohoyt@yahoo.com.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day
  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • Trainor to retire from post as Mount St. Mary’s president in 2024
  • Movie Review: ’65’
  • Sister Mary Kathleen Marie Saffa dies at 86

| Latest Local News |

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

| Latest World News |

Pro-life groups seek commitments on federal abortion limits from 2024 GOP contenders

Pope: Without power of Holy Spirit, evangelization is empty advertising

West Virginia parishes, people help Ukrainians find safe haven in Mountain State

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pro-life groups seek commitments on federal abortion limits from 2024 GOP contenders
  • Pope: Without power of Holy Spirit, evangelization is empty advertising
  • West Virginia parishes, people help Ukrainians find safe haven in Mountain State
  • Rosary project supplies ‘long-range, heart-changing weapons’ to Ukraine
  • Bishop calls ‘reproductive justice’ lecture series with abortion doula ‘scandal,’ ‘unworthy’ of Notre Dame university
  • Movie Review: ‘In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis’
  • Church calls for ‘international protection of holy sites’ after attack on church at Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem
  • Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94
  • Papal message to focus on people’s right not to migrate

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED