Louis Newman

“In Dublin in 1852, Newman delivered a series of nine discourses intended to set the tone for a proposed Catholic university in Ireland. These discourses represent, to my mind, the finest modern attempt to unite the twin legacies of Athens and Jerusalem. Though the university was never built, the discourses were published as The Idea of a University, and in this form they continue to beckon believers in the Christian revelation to consider the legacy of the ancients.””

“So it is told of the disciple who confessed to the Sage, “I try so hard to atone. I try to wrestle with temptation. I try but I do not succeed. I remain mired in the mud of transgression. Help me to extricate myself from sin and to truly repent.” The Sage answered, “Perhaps, my dear friend, you are thinking only of yourself. How about forgetting yourself and thinking of the world?” (Martin Buber, Hasidism and Modern Man, p. 162).””

“What these diverse experiences, to which were added that in the International Commission of Theologians founded by Paul VI,45 after the Council, and above all that in the Consilium for the reform of the liturgical books,46 have most firmly impressed upon me is the truth of Newman’s quip on the inability of committees in general to produce anything of value.””