Rome (Friday, November 30, 2018, Gaudium Press) Blessed John Henry Newman may be canonised as early as next year, the Herald has learned.

Blessed John Henry Newman could be canonised as early as next year after a second miracle was approved, the Catholic Herald has learned.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth said in an email newsletter last week that it “looks now as if Newman might be canonised, all being well, later next year.”

Fr Ignatius Harrison, the Postulator of the Cause, confirmed to the Catholic Herald that there were now just “two more hoops” for the Cause to jump through before Newman is canonised – approval from a commission of bishops, and a declaration by Pope Francis.

“I am praying for next year, but there’s no way of knowing,” he said.

Another source with knowledge of the Cause told the Herald that panels of both the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had judged the healing of a woman to be miraculous. The canonisation is likely to take place after Easter 2019.

The Archdiocese of Chicago had investigated the inexplicable healing of a woman who prayed for Newman’s intercession after suffering with with a “life-threatening pregnancy”. Doctors who treated her reported that they had no explanation for her sudden recovery.

Blessed John Henry Newman was one of the most prominent converts to Catholicism from Anglicanism of the 19th century.

He was already an esteemed Anglican theologian when he founded the Oxford Movement to return the Church of England to its Catholic roots, before converting to the Catholic faith.
He was renowned as a brilliant thinker and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII.

He died in Birmingham in 1890, aged 89, after founding the Birmingham Oratory.

His prolific and original writings have led to many to call for him to be declared a Doctor of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI beatified Newman in Birmingham in 2010 after the Vatican approved the first miracle, the inexplicable healing of Deacon Jack Sullivan, an American who recovered from a crippling spinal condition.

Source Catholic Herald