A Catholic Chancellor of Oxford

When John Henry Newman was canonised by Pope Francis in 2019, the ceremony in Rome was attended by many members of his old colleges at Oxford and by representatives of the University as a whole. I went myself and was able to give a short speech at a meeting in the Vatican with senior cardinals in the audience about the impact of Newman’s writing on the teaching and scholarship at universities.

Cardinal John Henry Newman by John Everett Millais, 1881.

I noted at the time that it would have been inconceivable for a Catholic to have been Chancellor of Oxford when Newman was a member of the University himself; not just inconceivable but impossible since at the time a Catholic could not attend the University let alone graduate from it. A Catholic Chancellor? Whatever next? Even defenders of the faith would have turned in their graves, not just “even” but presumably “especially”.

I was once sitting next to the late Prince Philip, then Chancellor of Cambridge University, at a dinner in the painted Hall at Greenwich to celebrate an anniversary of the boat race. I was a great admirer of the Queen’s consort, not only of his sense of public duty but also of his entertaining views on University research and its impact on society. During our conversation before the toasts, he asked me, ‘Is it true that you are a Catholic?’ ‘Yes’, I replied. ‘Who was the last Catholic Chancellor of the University?’ he continued. ‘Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1558. He died 12 hours after Queen Mary of influenza. I guess it saved Queen Elizabeth the job of having his head cut off.’ ‘Well’, he concluded, ‘I guess that in the light of that story you will have to watch your step.’

Chris Patten, The Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH, Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Not any more, as we both knew. The fact that I am a Catholic is today of little or no interest to anyone. Times have changed so much, and not only for Catholics. And at Oxford as for the rest of the country that covers differences in language, race, ethnicity, and nationality as well as religion. I hope that whatever the background and identity of our students and scholars, all accept the fundamental importance of the liberal values of free speech and free enquiry which are the foundation stones of a great university.

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin viewed from Radcliffe Square.

The world has changed, though I suspect that in some respects the Catholic Church has changed rather less than the attitudes to it. Now we have a Catholic Prime Minister (at least I think we have) who recently married in Westminster Cathedral his Catholic wife. We wish them both well. However, as a recently retired and very distinguished British diplomat wrote the other day to The Times (he is himself an old member of Oriel College): ‘I find some consolation that whatever indignities the Catholic Church has suffered in recent years, it retains its pre-eminence in the area of casuistry.’ As a lifelong Catholic, married to a baptised member of the Church of England, I find myself sympathising like many others with that observation.

Memorial to Oxford Martyrs of the Reformation, both Catholic and Protestant at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin.

One of my proudest moments as Chancellor came early on when the then Lord Lieutenant and myself (he was a member of the Church of England) raised the money to place a plaque in the University Church to commemorate all those Protestant and Catholic martyrs in Oxford, who died for their faith during the years of the Reformation. We were advised by one of our pre-eminent historians, Diarmaid MacCulloch, whose histories of Christianity and the Reformation are peerless. Many of the trials of these martyrs took place in the University Church itself. There was no casuistry about them, but simple faith in a religion that has too often been split asunder by those who have ignored or forgotten its main messages of charity, reconciliation, forgiveness, redemption, and hope.

Chris Patten, The Rt Hon the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH, Chancellor of the University of Oxford.