BIRMINGHAM, England — King Charles III was “very engaged, very interested” and “exceedingly kind” when on Wednesday he toured the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Birmingham, becoming the first English monarch to visit the priestly community St. John Henry Newman established there in 1848.

The provost of the Birmingham Oratory, Oratorian Father Ignatius Harrison, said it was a very brief but joyful visit that was on “His Majesty’s own initiative.” His first engagement after the summer holidays, King Charles was also on a visit to England’s second-largest city to open a new hospital.

After welcoming the king and introducing him to the religious community, Father Harrison and Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham accompanied him on a tour through the sacred buildings that include a church, a shrine containing relics of Newman, the sacristy housing his vestments, and the English saint’s library and study. 

A former Anglican clergyman, St. John Henry Newman was a theologian, academic and writer who was received into the Catholic Church in 1845 and elevated to cardinal in 1879. Renowned for his great intellect and, before his conversion, for being a central figure in the Oxford Movement that tried to Catholicize the Church of England, Newman was canonized in Rome in 2019, attended by then-Prince Charles.

In July, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo will proclaim Newman the 38th doctor of the Church. 

Guided by the curator of the Newman Museum, Daniel Joyce, King Charles was shown various priceless artifacts, including the Polyglot Bible from 1657 with its dedication to King Charles II, as well as Newman’s own room, untouched since the saint’s death in 1890, containing some of his books, rosaries, clothes and other personal belongings. 

“I think probably the most interesting thing for him was Newman’s private study and chapel,” Father Harrison told the Register. “The king looked at that with great interest and asked a number of questions.” He was also shown the original handwritten score of the Dream of Gerontius, Newman’s poem of a dying man’s soul journeying to its judgment before God and into purgatory, and Newman’s viola, which dates back to 1800.

Father Harrison said the king’s visit was “really a red-letter day” for the Birmingham Oratorian community, adding that the monarch seemed “genuinely interested and wanted to know more” about Newman and the community there.  

Postponed Visit

Father Harrison said the king had never given up his wish to visit the oratory ever since he mentioned his intention to Father Harrison at Newman’s canonization in Rome. But the visit had to be postponed for five years as the premises’ roof was undergoing substantial repairs and some of the books had been put into storage. In the meantime, Charles was crowned king, assuming the title of supreme head of the Church of England. 

The visit then suffered another setback when it had to be postponed in July due to the health of the king, who has been battling cancer. “We were terribly disappointed,” said Father Harrison, but added that to their “great pleasure” they were told the king wished to reschedule the visit to coincide with his opening of the hospital. 

“He has been, if I may put it like this, sort of consistent in his wish to come,” Father Harrison said. “I was really delighted because I think it shows a real, personal interest on His Majesty’s behalf that he pursued the matter.” 

During his visit, the king, smartly dressed in a gray suit and a red patterned tie, unveiled a small plaque the Oratorian Fathers had prepared to mark the occasion. They also presented him with an original photograph of Newman taken in the 1860s. 

Asked by the Register what interested the king about Newman in particular, Father Harrison said primarily the fact that he is an English saint and that his virtues were discernible both as an Anglican and then as a Catholic. Also, he was interested in the effective influence Newman exhibited both as an Anglican and as a Catholic. 

“We think of his life as one whole life of sanctity,” Father Harrison said. “He became a Catholic, of course, in 1845, but, for example, his care for the poor and the unemployed was a notable feature of his Anglican ministry and his Catholic ministry here in Birmingham as well.” 

“It’s not a lot talked about because everybody concentrates on his very brilliant academic writings, but he took great pains when he was a Catholic priest in Birmingham to assist the unemployed to find work, and, also, he was very generous in almsgiving.” 

Father Harrison said that, on occasion, Newman would give a small box to a deserving person that contained a five-pound note, which was a significant sum in those days. “One of his purposes was not just to relieve the distress of the moment, but to help the person pay off their debts and get their business back on track,” Father Harrison said. “I told the king that, and, of course, he was very interested.”

He also said King Charles was interested in Newman being made a doctor of the Church and wondered if there would be an “ecumenical dimension” to it. “He seemed very interested in those sorts of things; he recalled that he had met Pope Francis and that he was hoping it would not be too long before he met Pope Leo.” 

As for the Birmingham Oratory today, the monarch took a keen interest in the large number of faithful who attend the liturgies there and their diversity of backgrounds, as well as that most of them are attracted to the traditional Latin Mass. “Over a thousand people come to Mass here at the weekend,” Father Harrison said. “The best attended is the traditional Latin Mass, and what is most interesting is that it’s the most diverse Mass, ethnically speaking, during the whole weekend.”

He said that many of the worshippers are Asians and Africans and that a significant number of them are students from Birmingham’s three universities. Charles was interested in that, he said, and the fact that an increasing number of Chinese Catholics, particularly from Hong Kong, are attending the TLM at the Oratory. “It’s a pleasure for me and the fathers to be able to say we have a very diversified congregation, really diversified, and many of them come for the traditional Latin Mass,” said Father Harrison. 

Newman’s Catholicity

Writing in the Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, on Newman’s canonization, the then-Prince of Wales praised Newman for his catholicity. 

“His faith was truly catholic in that it embraced all aspects of life,” Charles wrote. “Whatever our own beliefs, and no matter what our own tradition may be, we can only be grateful to Newman for the gifts, rooted in his Catholic faith, which he shared with wider society.”