Charism

Charism 

The College is named after Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890), an English Catholic Cardinal, Theologian, Poet, Musician and one of the great religious geniuses of modern times.  He had a crucial influence on education. After his conversion to Catholicism, one of his greatest achievements was his service as rector at the Catholic University of Ireland, Dublin, and later publishing a volume of lectures entitled “The Idea of a University”. He is proudly our Patron.  We are blessed to build our college on such a renowned person.

Newman Catholic College and the Catholic Church of the Diocese of Cairns are part of the one reality, and we are enjoy being connected to something bigger than ourselves. To be part of the local and diocesan church is integral to our charism.

Evangelii Gaudium reminds us that at the heart of our faith is a communion of difference, the God of the Trinity.  At Newman Catholic College we acknowledge that the Spirit is at the heart of our Catholic Tradition. Our Catholic Tradition is kept alive by creative and authentic dialogue centred on seeking the truth. We are committed to nurturing a shared faith and promoting a shared commitment to service and hospitality. Our challenge is to bring creativity to bear, while risking the vulnerability which comes from being open to the new. (EVANGELII GAUDIUM).

Bishop James Foley, former Bishop of Cairns was instrumental in initiating the charism of our college. He stated from the words of John Henry Newman that: “To establish the truth is the goal of any serious study” and “the Truth is the reason for existence of institutions such as universities” and Colleges. Newman’s Doctrine speaks of the movement from … shadows and images into truth. John Henry Newman wrote: “To be alive is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often”.  Bishop James spoke of church, according to Newman, is not a museum…if it is faithful, it continues to develop… We hope that over the coming years, through authentic dialogue, we continue to develop our charism. Those who come and serve within our walls will be like layers of fine lacquer imprinted on our narrative.

Wisdom is one of our college values. John Henry Newman had the following to say about wisdom. Wisdom is the first and highest gift of the Holy Spirit because it is the perfection of the theological virtue of faith. Through wisdom, we come to value properly those things which we believe through faith. The truths of Christian belief are more important than the things of this world, and wisdom helps us to order our relationship to the created world properly, loving Creation for the sake of God, rather than for its own sake. This is where our Newman Charism is infused by a Franciscan theology. Wisdom links Creation to God. Wisdom is the clear, calm, accurate vision, and comprehension of the whole course, the whole work of God; and though there is none who has it in its fulness but He who "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of" the Creator, yet "by that Spirit" they are, in a measure, "revealed unto us."  John Henry Newman- Oxford Sermon 14 (https://www.newmanreader.org/works/oxford/sermon14.html)

Newman draws his definition of faith from St. Paul, who defines it this way, ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ Hebrews 11:1

"Faith," he says, "is the substance" or realizing "of things hoped for." It is the reckoning that to be, which it hopes or wishes to be; not "the realizing of things proved by evidence." Its desire is its main evidence; or, as the Apostle expressly goes on to say, it makes its own evidence, "being the evidence of things not seen." And this is the cause, as is natural, why Faith seems to the world so irrational, as St. Paul says in other Epistles. Not that it has no grounds in Reason, that is, in evidence; but because it is satisfied with so much less than would be necessary, were it not for the bias of the mind, that to the world its evidence seems like nothing.’

Cardinal John Henry Newman:
"Out of the shadows and symbols unto truth"