William Bernard Ullathorne: A Different Kind of Monk by Judith Champ

Abstract

87 BOOK REVIEWS William Bernard Ullathorne: A Different Kind of Monk. By Judith Champ. Leominster, England: Gracewing, 2006. Pages: vii + 538. Cloth, £20.00, ISBN 0–85244–654–3. A couple of descriptive terms come to mind when one reads Judith Champ’s William Bernard Ullathorne: A Different Kind of Monk: either a handbook or compendium of English Catholic life in the nineteenth century. Perhaps an image would be even more apt: an opera. The opera being sung is English Catholic life in all its nineteenth-century moods,with an overture that situates the protagonist of the opera in Australia as a pioneer in the development of Catholicism on that continent, but more importantly as having experiences that will be of utmost value back in England. As Champ lays out the life of Ullathorne (1806–1889), the first Bishop of Birmingham, England, the reader encounters a multiple dimensional figure, whose influence on the development of Roman Catholicism in nineteenth-century England is often overlooked because too little known. He is unnecessarily hidden in the shadows of Newman, Manning, and Wiseman—all of whom enjoyed great prominence, for better or worse, during the century that saw the penal laws abolished, emancipation legislated, and the re-establishment of an ecclesial hierarchy played out. Ullathorne was a Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey,who as a boy spent time on the open seas,which prepared him for the hardships and discipline of not only his long journey to Australia where he spent a number of years as a missioner and was prominent in setting up the Roman Catholic Church there, but also as a powerhouse for the shock to the English nation of the return of Roman Catholicism, banned or gone“underground”since the sixteenth century. He played a major role on a number of different fronts, including the re-establishment of a hierarchy to govern the reemerging institution;the growth of the Catholic school system;the establishment and building up of a seminary system to which he devoted much of his energy; the defense of the church against biased attacks by uncomprehending politicians; the theological controversies of the time; Vatican I at which he desired a definition of Papal Infallibility—but a moderate one, not the extreme definition that Manning and others were proposing; an activist for social change, for example, the need to reach out to alcoholics, and the re-founding of religious life, especially among women’s congregations, for whom he had the greatest love and respect, and with whom he worked for the advancement of education,and charity to the poor. Some of his most important and closest friends were the foundresses of several of these congregations. He often enjoyed relaxation away from the heavy burdens of episcopal administration in the company of the sisters. It is in his correspondence—particularly with religious women—that he revealed his inner life and thoughts. One of Newman’s most revealing lines in his own correspondence is his belief that it is in a person’s letters that we come to BOOK REVIEWS NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 88 understand who a person really is and especially how that person develops his or her ideas.1 On the outside as bishop—a role which he accepted reluctantly but to which he gave himself unstintingly—he was caricatured as “the blunt, outspoken, snufftaking Yorkshireman, who dropped his h’s and stood firmly on a rather rigid set of self-imposed principles” (508); there is no doubt he was and needed to be a tough bird. However, he was a consummately pastoral bishop, who was on top of things and called for proper order in the life of his diocese. He responded to some situations not only by doing, but also by writing books, that demonstrated his knowledge and respect of the Church Fathers. He was a man of action but also a man of prayer, and advised others on the importance of prayer. The Benedictine life as ruled by Benedict himself combined the missionary and the contemplative; Ullathorne deeply involved himself in both. As one would expect, Ullathorne interrelated with—either in person or in writing to or about—many of the famous of the time...