In honor of the 208th birthday of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman on February 21, The Cardinal Newman Society’s (CNS) Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education has launched the “Newman Commemorative Series” of lectures and essays on Newman’s insights on Catholic higher education. The series begins with the publication of a new essay by well-known Newman scholar Rev. C. John McCloskey, III, STD.

“We are delighted to celebrate the life and works of Cardinal Newman today,” said Patrick Reilly, CNS President. “The Newman Commemorative Series will be a lasting contribution to the intellectual legacy of one of the Church’s greatest intellectual treasures: the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman.”

This first installment of the Newman Commemorative Series was published today and is available at CatholicHigherEd.org. Father McCloskey’s essay is entitled “Newman’s University in Today’s American Culture.”

Father McCloskey is one of the world’s leading experts on the works and life of Cardinal Newman. Father McCloskey wrote his dissertation on Newman, has authored several articles on him, and was the host of an EWTN program on Cardinal Newman in 2000.

In 2001, after watching Father McCloskey’s EWTN program and praying a prayer for Cardinal Newman’s beatification that Father McCloskey recommended, Deacon Jack Sullivan of Boston was allegedly healed of a crippling spinal cord disorder. Doctors assigned to scrutinize the proposed miracle met with the Congregation of the Saints in Rome in 2008 and their opinion was that science offers no explanation for Deacon Sullivan’s sudden healing.

Ever since the opinion of the doctors was made known, Vatican-watchers have been speculating that an announcement of Cardinal Newman’s beatification could be imminent. Other reports have said that Pope Benedict XVI himself has taken a personal interest in the Newman cause.