By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
After a controversy concerning the exhumation of the body of John Henry Cardinal Newman in preparation for his beatification, officials unearthed the Cardinal’s tomb and found no body inside and only a few artifacts in the coffin.
In a statement released on Saturday, Peter Jennings. press secretary for the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory, which was founded by Cardinal Newman, said “Brass, wooden and cloth artifacts from Cardinal Newman’s coffin were found. However there were no remains of the body of John Henry Newman.
“An expectation that Cardinal Newman had been buried in a lead-lined coffin proved to be unfounded. In the view of the medical and health professionals in attendance, burial in a wooden coffin in a very damp site makes this kind of total decomposition of the body unsurprising.”
He added: “The absence of physical remains in the grave does not affect the progress of Cardinal Newman’s cause in Rome.”
A controversy erupted a month ago when a well known British homosexual activist, Peter Tatchell, made an erroneous claim that Cardinal Newman must have been a “closet homosexual” because the Cardinal was buried with his long-time friend, Father Ambrose St. John. Tatchell accused the Church of wanting to exhume the body in order to cover up the evidence of a possible same-sex relationship the two might have had.
Tatchell’s charges remain groundless and the Vatican proceeded with the exhumation in order to move the remains to the Birmingham Oratory in preparation for the Cardinal’s anticipated beatification.
In April of this year, the Vatican accepted as miraculous the cure of an American deacon with a crippling spinal disorder as a result of prayer to Cardinal Newman, thus paving the way for his beatification. A final decision was expected this week but officials have asked for more time to study the Cardinal’s cause. If they conclude in his favor, Pope Benedict XVI is likely to declare Cardinal Newman “blessed” in December with a formal beatification taking place in St. Peter’s Square sometime in the spring of 2009.
The case of a 17 year old New Hampshire boy who survived serious head injuries from a car crash is also being investigated as a possible second miracle, which could eventually lead to the Cardinal’s canonization.
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