'Miracle cure' deacon begins tour of Britain
A Roman Catholic deacon whose cure from a crippling spinal disease after praying to a Victorian cardinal was approved as a miracle by the Vatican began a six-day visit to Britain yesterday. Jack Sullivan, from the US diocese of Boston, Massachusetts,...
A Roman Catholic deacon whose cure from a crippling spinal disease after praying to a Victorian cardinal was approved as a miracle by the Vatican began a six-day visit to Britain yesterday. Jack Sullivan, from the US diocese of Boston, Massachusetts, was to visit London, Birmingham and Oxford accompanied by his wife Carol.
Mr Sullivan, 70, prayed for the help of the Venerable John Henry Newman, a revered 19th century clergyman who famously converted from the Church of England to Catholicism, while suffering intense pain in 2001.
He spoke of how he had been able to walk and had become completely free of pain after the prayer.
Pope Benedict XVI cleared the way for the beatification of Cardinal Newman in July after he recognised the cure as a miracle.
The beatification of Cardinal Newman, who died in 1890, brings him closer to being made England's first non-martyred saint since the Reformation.
Mr Sullivan is expected to visit places connected with the life of Cardinal Newman including Littlemore, near Oxford, where the Cardinal was received into the Catholic Church.
He will also travel to Birmingham where he and his wife will be guests of the community of the Birmingham Oratory, founded by Cardinal Newman.
The couple are also expected to visit the City of London and see the blue plaque on the entrance to the Stock Exchange marking the site where Cardinal Newman, the eldest son of a banker, was born in 1801.