Church cover up of his love for Ambrose St John & their joint burial
London, UK – Sunday 13 October 2019
Cardinal Newman will be canonised as a saint in Rome by Pope Francis today, Sunday 13 October 2019.
Commenting on his canonisation, human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, said:
“The Vatican is guilty of historical revisionism. It has erased from the official record all recognition of Cardinal Newman’s love for Ambrose St John and his wish to remain buried alongside him. Digging up Newman’s grave and separating the two men was an act of sacrilege, betrayal, disrespect and homophobia,” said Mr Tatchell.
“The homophobic desecration of Newman’s grave and the denial of Newman’s gayness is entirely consistent with the Vatican’s long-standing cover up of its many past and present gay priests, bishops, cardinals and popes.
“Newman and St John were mentally and spiritually in love; sharing a long-term same-sex relationship. They were inseparable. They lived together for over 30 years, like a married husband and wife.
“Newman wrote in his diary about Ambrose’s love for him: ‘From the first he loved me with an intensity of love, which was unaccountable.’ He later added: ‘As far as this world was concerned, I was his first and last.
“Newman also stated that St John had come to him as the angel Raphael came to Tobias, as Ruth to Naomi.
“Reflecting on St John’s death, Newman stated: ‘This is the greatest affliction I have had in my life….he was my earthly light.’
“Newman and St John were buried side-by-side in the same grave when Newman died in 1890. It was what Newman wanted. He wrote to his executors shortly before his death stating emphatically: ‘I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Father Ambrose St John’s grave – and I give this as my last, my imperative will.’