Is John Henry Newman the first openly gay saint?

Reflections by Francis DeBernardo* published on the website of the Catholic LGBT association New Ways Ministry (United States) on 13 October 2019, freely translated by Giacomo Tessaro

The blessed John Henry Newman will come [Sunday 13 October 2019] proclaimed saint with a sumptuous ceremony in St. Peter's Square. It can be considered the first openly gay Catholic saint? The answer to the question depends on what you mean by "openly", For "gay" and "first".

Cardinal Newman is probably the most famous Catholic theologian of his era. He was an Anglican priest who taught at Oxford, where he had studied. In 1845, through a path of study and prayer, he converted to Catholicism; he continued to write and teach theology, but thereafter as a defender of the Church of Rome. His most famous works are Apologia pro vita sua (his autobiography, Jaca Book, 1995), Grammar of assent (treatise on logic and faith, Jaca Book, 2005) e The idea of ​​university (a curriculum of the humanities for Catholic universities, Studium, 2005). In addition to his theological acumen and creativity in argument and persuasion, Newman is also known as a first-rate writer in the English language, a master of composing unusually long sentences that nevertheless seem perfectly natural.

In recent years, scholars have begun to examine the intense emotional relationship he cultivated with another priest, Ambrose St. John. The two were inseparable, to the point of living together. Newman called St. John “my earthly light”. They had studied theology and Rome together, and were ordained priests together. Thus Newman reflected on the intensity of their relationship: “He loved me from the first moment, with such intensity that you couldn't tell. Twenty-eight years ago, in Rome, he worked continuously to relieve me of every burden, and because he was young and so Saxon in appearance, the people of Rome called him my Guardian Angel.".

The desire of the two to be buried together is very significant. The epitaph they chose for the tomb was: “From shadows and illusions to truth”. When St. John died, Newman wrote: “I have never thought that any loss was the same as that of a husband or wife, but it seems to me that it is difficult to believe that there could be any greater (or deeper sadness) than mine”.

Many more traditional Newman scholars reject the idea that theirs was a gay relationship. According to one of the leading experts on the subject, Ian Ker, their relationship was not homosexual, because all sources confirm that they lived in celibacy; furthermore, Newman addressed both women and other men in an affectionate manner, and in that era it was quite common for two men to ask to be buried together. For others, defining the two as a gay couple is a transposition of 21st century ideas into 19th century life.

I agree that it is not correct to interpret similar reports from other eras according to our contemporary awareness of homosexuality; we cannot expect things from the past to adapt to today's patterns of values ​​and concepts, which is why we must ask ourselves what we mean by the terms "gay" and "openly". According to Ian Ker, Newman and St. John were not gay, because it is evident that they lived in celibacy, but here it is assumed that "gay" mean “sexually active”, which is obviously and absolutely false. The two men could very well have been gay and had a very strong, affectionate and intimate relationship without being sexually active, like many other gays today, priests and religious, who are faithful to their vow of celibacy or vow of chastity. Many secular gays also choose not to be sexually active, but that doesn't make them any less homosexual.

But Ker is also wrong in another point. Saying that Newman could not have been homosexual because he also showed affection for others, men and women, is a way of denying his love for Ambrose St. John by stating that he behaved like this towards everyone. Here it is assumed that there is something wrong with a man expressing affection for another man. What's wrong with Newman loving St. John? Why can't a man express love for another man?

Some think that homophobia towards gays comes from the revulsion towards sexual acts between men, but I believe that, for many others, seeing men show sensitivity, tenderness and affection towards each other is something even more horrible and scandalous . Of course, kind and intimate behavior between men is only a problem if one of them suffers intensely from homophobia, or strongly believes in gender stereotypes that men should not have emotional reactions, or care for each other. In other words, what's wrong with two men expressing love to each other?

The other problem with Newman's sexuality comes from our contemporary concept of “being openly gay”. In the world of the 21st century, the expectation, not expressed in words, that to be is increasingly gaining ground “openly gay” means having made a statement urbi et orbi on one's orientation and identity. It is something that cannot be applied to other eras. We have no tangible evidence of the sexual identity of the two, but I think that the fact that they lived together for so many years and chose to be buried in the same grave are two public declarations of how intimately connected they were; in my opinion, all this is rather "open".

Finally, if we say that Newman is the first openly gay saint, what do we mean by "first"? Other saints, like Saint Aelred of Rievaulx and Saint Augustine of Hippo, have left us testimonies of affectionate relationships between men, so Newman is perhaps not the first, but I think we can say that he is the “first openly gay Catholic saint” for the simple reason that, unlike the saints before him, we know a lot about Newman and his relationship with St. John, above all because the testimonies from his time are more numerous and accurate. As far as I know (and it's really not much), Newman can rightfully be defined first openly gay saint.

I think there is also another reason for granting him such recognition: he strongly believed in a possible reform of the Catholic Church. I will give just two examples. In 2013 [the archbishop emeritus of Sydney, Australia] Geoffrey Robinson, an authoritative reformist voice, recalled how Newman positioned himself towards the Church: “Cardinal John Henry Newman, before becoming a Catholic, wrote to a friend: 'There is nothing on this earth so bad as the Catholic Church, and nothing so beautiful.' We've all seen the ugliness, and [sexual] abuse is one of the ugliest chapters, but I've also seen the beauty, particularly in all the good people I've worked with all these years. I don't want to go away and leave all this beauty behind, so I want to work hard to defeat the ugliness by any means possible.".

It is good to remember this to all those who commit themselves, and pray, to remain in the Catholic Church, and who work to make it fairer and more welcoming towards LGBTQ people.

Then there is this phrase by Newman, which the two founders of New Ways Ministry, Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent, often quote: “To live means to change, and to be perfect means to be changed often”.

On this day when John Henry Newman is proclaimed a saint, and for all the days to come, may all those who work and pray for the Catholic Church to become a place of justice for LGBTQ people utter this invocation: “Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!”.

* Francis DeBernardo works forNew Ways Ministrysince 1992, first as a volunteer then, starting from 1994, as a member of the staff; he has been executive director since 1996. Proposes initiatives regarding Catholicism and LGBT issues in parishes, dioceses, conference centers, universities and religious communities throughout the United States. He is the author of the bookMarriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach (Homosexual marriage. A positively Catholic point of view). He is the editor and author ofBondings 2.0, blog daily newspaper of news and opinions on LGBT issues in the Catholic Church. His articles have appeared in magazinesThe National Catholic Reporter,Commonweal,The AdvocateisThe American Catholic. He was the keynote speaker at the conference on religion and LGBT issues held at the first World Pride in Rome in 2000; he also spoke at the interfaith conference on the occasion of World Pride in London in 2012.

Original text: St. John Henry Newman: The First Openly Gay Catholic Saint?