Near the font we find the shrine to St John Henry Newman, our Cardinal. Newman was a fellow of Oriel College and the Vicar of the University Church but became a Catholic in 1845 having become increasingly dissatisfied with Protestantism. His studies lead him to see that the real “Church of the Fathers” was much richer and wider, and was to be found in the “One Fold of the Redeemer”, the Catholic Church.

Newman expressed with great clarity how complementary faith and reason are to one another, not enemies. He realised that we do not come to faith through argument, but once we have faith we can put it to rigorous examination and find it consistent with reason and our human experience.

John Henry Newman brought the Oratory of St Philip Neri from Rome to England in 1847, and whilst he longed to establish an Oratory in Oxford it was not to be in his lifetime (nor for almost 150 years). This Oratory in Oxford was founded from his community in Birmingham in 1990, and so we are his spiritual children. Newman was declared “Blessed” by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham in 2010 when this shrine was erected in his honour. He was canonised as a saint of the Church by Pope Francis in 2019. We seek the intercession of St John Henry that we may see another “second spring” of the faith in our day as he did in his.

There are few places in a Catholic Church which are not symbolic of some greater truth, and perhaps the church’s entrance is one of the best examples. This is a place of ceremonial welcome for those who are new Christians, but also for those come into the church for Mass, or those who come to pray or to seek some moments of quiet reflection. It is a transitional space where we move from the world into God’s house, marked by taking Holy Water and making the sign of the cross with it.

The Holy Water stoup in our church was given in memory of the priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins who was a curate here. Near the central pillar you will find the Baptismal Font. This richly carved — if rather battered — limestone font is the place where new Christians are baptised into the Church. It is placed near the entrance to this building because the sacrament of baptism makes someone a Christian and welcomes them into the Body of Christ which is his Church. It is the entry point into the life of the Church. It is carved with scenes of the fall and our redemption, showing something of the meaning of baptism. It is also the place from which we have the best view of the whole church building, especially to the altar and tabernacle.

On Saturday, we will welcome into the Church some of those who have been preparing in our classes since October. This reminds us of the promises that we made (or our godparents made for us) when we were baptised: when we renounced Satan and professed our faith in God; when we were washed clean and joined to Christ, anointed with the Chrism of salvation, clothed in a white garment and charged to carry it without stain, with our candles still burning, until the Lord comes as bridegroom to his marriage feast, and welcomes us into his heavenly court with all the saints.

Our church will be 150 years old this year, and over the coming weeks, we will be thinking about the oldest member of our community, without whom the major works of prayer, preaching and administering the sacraments would simply not be possible.

But Catholics in Oxford did not always have a church building. In the days when the Catholic faith was outlawed, Jesuit Fathers ministered to the faithful in secret in their own homes. From around 1620, a permanent mission to the area was established by the Society of Jesus, and by the mid-eighteenth century, Waterperry House (about eight miles from Oxford) was established as the base of their mission. Waterperry’s owners, the Curson family, left money for a priest to serve at Oxford. In 1790, Fr Charles Leslie used this money to buy property on St Clement’s High Street, across Magdalen Bridge, where in 1793 he built the first permanent public chapel in the district. The little chapel saw a steady flow of converts, including St John Henry Newman and his followers from Littlemore. In the 1860s, the Jesuits gave up the mission and two unsuccessful attempts were made by St John Henry Newman to establish an Oratory in Oxford.

The Jesuits returned in 1871 and in March of that year a legacy of £7000, left by Baroness Weld, enabled a fresh start. A site on the Woodstock Road was purchased, a design of stone and yellow brick was commissioned from architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom, and the foundation stone was laid on 20 May 1873 by Bishop Bernard Ullathorne. The event — something of a curiosity — was attended by a huge crowd, among whom were such individuals of note as Oscar Wilde, who remarked of the bishop, “By Jove, that little old gentleman with the big silver spectacles certainly spoke like one having authority.” The church was solemnly opened by Bishop Ullathorne on 23 November 1875. Newman was invited to preach at the opening, but found himself not yet ready to return to Oxford. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Manning, preached on the motto of the University, Dominus illuminatio mea, “The Lord is my light”.

The Jesuits left the church in 1981, and the Archdiocese of Birmingham looked after it for most of the next decade. But in 1990, the Archbishop of Birmingham, Maurice Couve de Murville, invited the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory to consider an Oxford project once again. Three members of the Birmingham community moved to Oxford, and by 1993, the Oxford community had grown enough to be granted independence by the Holy See. Newman’s dream of the Oxford Oratory was finally fulfilled.

The history of our parish and of Catholic Oxford may leave us with mixed feelings. As Fr Jerome describes in our parish history:

From the time of Saint Frideswide in the seventh or eighth century to the present day, the history of the Catholic church in Oxford spans thirteen centuries which witnessed the building of solemn Saxon minsters and their destruction at the axes of the Danes, the Norman rebuilding, the coming of the friars, the flowering of the University, the rise and fall of the religious orders, the dark days of oppression and persecution, the gens lucifuga worshipping in secret, the Second Spring with its stream of conversions, triumphs and disappointments, the building of churches, and their destruction, religious houses opened with joyous hope and closing in obscurity, congregations scattered, congregations reborn, Newman’s dream of an Oratory twice frustrated and at last fulfilled. The towery city has observed the Church through the centuries, and has contributed as much to her history as any city in England.

The history of the faith in our city teaches us not to be discouraged. The Church has always found ways to continue and to grow in the face of every challenge. “We must often remember what Christ said, that not he who begins, but he that perseveres to the end, shall be saved,” said St Philip. And, “The Lord grants in a moment what we may have been unable to obtain in dozens of years.” That was certainly true for the arrival of the Oratory in Oxford. It will continue to be true of the many good things we hope for in our own lives, as well as the good we wish for the Church in our city.