United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

40 • Part I. The Creed: The Faith Professed

FAITH REQUIRES SUBMISSION

St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890) often wrote about faith and its implications. He was born and raised in England. As a child, he was exposed to Protestant Christianity in a very general sense. Around the age of fifteen, he had a conversion experience that led him ultimately to seek ordination as an Anglican priest. Even before his ordination, which took place when he was twenty three, Newman served as a fellow at Oxford, where his teaching, preaching, and writing caused him to reassess his strong anti Catholic position. He entered the Catholic Church in 1845, was ordained a priest in 1847, and eventually was named a cardinal in 1879. He spent much of the rest of his life teaching and writing about the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church. His influence at the university level drew many others to follow him into the Catholic Church. Because of Newman’s university work and the success of his efforts to teach the faith, centers of Catholic faith and worship at secular colleges and universities are often called Newman Centers. In 1849, the then-Fr. Newman published an essay in which he wrote of the necessity of trusting in God’s Word and submitting in faith to the teaching authority of the Church. Newman’s words can be read and reflected upon in light of contemporary trends towards deciding for oneself what to believe: [In the time of the Apostles] . . . A Christian was bound to take without doubting all that the Apostles declared to be revealed; if the Apostles spoke, he had to yield an inter nal assent of his mind. . . . Immediate, implicit submission of the mind was, in the lifetime of the Apostles, the only, the necessary token of faith. . . No one could say: “I will choose my religion for myself, I will believe this, I will not believe that; I will pledge myself to nothing; I will believe