Thursday, October 09, 2008
Gay priest leaves empty grave October 7th, 2008 Months of debate between gay rights campaigners and the Catholic Church over whether or not the remains of a 19th century Cardinal should be dug up have been resolved by nature. Cardinal Newman’s body has entirely decomposed, leaving no trace. The Catholic Church plans to make Cardinal Newman – who died in 1890 – a saint. His remains were to have been moved to a sarcophagus Birmingham Oratory in preparation for the process. However, gay rights group Outrage! had opposed the plans to dig up the Cardinal’s grave. The Cardinal had made it clear before his death that he wanted to be buried with his close male friend Father Ambrose St John’s. Newman wrote: “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.” There is no record of whether or not Cardinal Newman and Father Ambrose St John’s had a fully physical romantic relationship, but Newman was devasted when Ambrose died, and said that no grief of a husband or wife could be greater. Newman wrote: “He was my earthly light… as far as this world was concerned, I was his first and last.” Newman’s body was exhumed last week, but no remains have been found in the grave as he was buried in a wooden coffin in damp site. “Nature has thwarted the Vatican’s heartless plot to violate Cardinal Newman’s request to be buried with the man he loved, Father Ambrose St John,” said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. “The Vatican wanted to rebury the Cardinal’s remains in a marble tomb, separate from St John, to dampen speculation that he might have been gay. “Newman’s and St John’s bodies have decomposed together, uniting them forever in the same soil. They cannot now be separated, as the Catholic Church planned. Cardinal Newman’s wishes have triumphed over the Vatican’s homophobia.”DRAMA!!!