Francis Alphonsus Bourne

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francis Alphonsus Cardinal Bourne (1917)

Francis Alphonsus Cardinal Bourne (born March 23, 1861 in Clapham , † January 1, 1935 in London ) was Archbishop of Westminster .

Life

Origin and early years

The son of an English civil servant and an Irish mother, he entered St. Cuthbert College in Ushaw Moor , County Durham in 1867 and St. Edmund's College in Ware in 1877 . He joined the Order of the Dominicans in Woodchester in, but left it in 1880. From 1880 to 1881 he attended the St Thomas's Seminary in Hammersmith and then went to study in France to St. seminary Sulpice in Paris and later to Belgium to the University of Leuven . During his time in Paris he met the Italian saint Don Bosco and there are reasons to believe that he was considering, at least temporarily, joining the Salesians of Don Bosco .

Priest and bishop

He was ordained a priest on June 11, 1884 and served as a pastor in Blackheath , Mortlake and West Grinstead until 1889 . Bourne was rector of the Konvikt in Henfield Place from 1889 to 1891 , at the same time he began teaching at St. John's Seminary in Wonersh , of which he became rector on March 14, 1896. Pope Leo XIII. appointed him honorary prelate of His Holiness in 1895 .

On March 27, 1896, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Southwark and Titular Bishop of Epiphany in Cilicia . The Archbishop of Westminster , Herbert Alfred Henry Cardinal Vaughan , gave him on May 1 of that year in the St George's Cathedral , the episcopal ordination ; Co- consecrators were John Baptist Butt , Bishop of Southwark, and Thomas Whiteside , Bishop of Liverpool . As a motto he chose Ne cede malis ( something like : do not give way to evil ).

Archbishop and Cardinal

After John Baptist Butt's resignation, he succeeded him as Bishop of Southwark on April 9, 1897. On September 11, 1903, he was appointed Archbishop of Westminster, thus becoming the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Bourne became famous when, in 1908, contrary to a government decree that he had planned a Eucharistic procession during the Eucharistic Congress for fear of unrest, he gave the Eucharistic blessing from the loggia of Westminster Cathedral .

Pope Pius X accepted him on November 27, 1911 as a cardinal priest with the titular church Santa Pudenziana in the college of cardinals . He took part in the conclaves of 1914 and 1922 , which Popes Benedict XV. or Pius XI. chose.

Bourne responded to Ramsay MacDonald's request for an interpretation of the encyclical of Pius XI. Quadragesimo anno , banned Catholics from becoming socialists by an English Catholic prelate, stating: "There is nothing in the encyclical that discourages Catholics from joining the British Labor Party ..." However, the cardinal continued to warn Catholics cautiously be against the "wrong principles that sometimes influence parties".

The more conservative Bourne was an opponent of the modernists . He did not support the dialogue of religions or ecumenism (he was particularly against the holding of the Mecheln Talks between prominent Anglicans and Catholics ). He also condemned the freedom to divorce and the right to strike . He has also wanted the UK to recognize the Roman Catholic faith as its state religion . On the other hand, he stood up for the rights of the Arabs in what was then the British mandate of Palestine and condemned acts of violence in Ireland .

He died after a year of illness in the archiepiscopal residence in London at the age of 73. Bourne was buried in his alma mater St Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire in the chapel founded in memory of college members who died during World War I , and his heart was laid in the chapel of St John's Seminary in Wonersh, Surrey in June 1935 buried.

literature

  • Ernest James Oldmeadow: Francis Cardinal Bourne . 2 volumes. Burns, Oates & Washbourne, London 1940 and 1944, respectively.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
John Baptist Butt Bishop of Southwark
1897–1903 		Peter Emmanuel Amigo
Herbert Cardinal Vaughan Archbishop of Westminster
1903-1935 		Arthur Cardinal Hinsley
personal data
SURNAME Bourne, Francis Alphonsus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bourne, Francis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English Catholic theologian and cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Clapham
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1935
Place of death London