Madam, –I fear the self-styled Bishop Pat Buckley’s use of two well- known quotations (February 26th) from John Henry Cardinal Newman (including “I shall drink to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards”) may sow a great deal of confusion concerning Newman’s attitude to conscience.
Bishop Buckley really ought to know that Newman’s letter to the Duke of Norfolk was in fact a defence of papal infallibility, in which “with his customary brilliance he [Newman] argued that there can be no collision between personal conscience and infallible Church teaching” (see page 13 of John Henry Newman by Avery Cardinal Dulles SJ).
Pope Benedict has been greatly influenced by Newman since his days as a seminarian. In the book entitled On Conscience (Ignatius Press), the then Cardinal Ratzinger examined the quote about toasting conscience first, then the papacy (page 23). He interpreted Newman as seeing a papacy “not put in opposition to the primacy of conscience but based on it and guaranteeing it”.
Also, “the centrality of the concept conscience for Newman is linked to the centrality of the concept of truth”, the law that is written into our hearts (Romans 2:14-15). On page 36, Ratzinger notes that “the true sense of the teaching authority of the pope consists in his being the advocate of the Christian memory”.
Newman was certainly no apologist for moral relativism, or self-will. In 1879 he described the spirit of liberalism in religion as “an error overspreading, as snare, the whole earth”.
If Bishop Buckley is determined to call Newman to the stand in a debate on papal infallibility, he is in for a shock. He will find the words of the venerable cardinal to be an articulate, unambiguous and firm witness in favour of Benedict’s authority.
St Paul also had some pertinent words in his second letter to Timothy (see 4:2-5).– Yours, etc,