A Skeleton In The Closet?

Even as Anglicans gathered in Lambeth these days try to bury issues that embarrass and divide them, Roman Catholics seem intent on digging them up. 

Approaching the final phase of declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint, the Vatican has ordered his remains removed from the grave he shares with his long time, live-in, best "friend," Father Ambrose St John, and reinterred in a less --- umm --- unorthodox location.  

According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter for the UK paper, The Telegraph:

It was Cardinal Newman's dying wish that he be buried with his closest friend in the grounds of the house they had shared as priests. But now, nearly 120 years after his death, Britain's most famous convert to Roman Catholicism is to be reinterred in a sarcophagus in preparation for his becoming a saint, leaving the remains of his friend behind. 

The decision to separate the remains of John Henry Newman and Ambrose St John has upset figures in the Church and led some to question whether it is embarrassed about their relationship. 

They are buried in a grave in a secluded cemetery on the outskirts of Birmingham. But Newman is being moved to the Birmingham Oratory in preparation for his beatification. 

Elena Curti, deputy editor of The Tablet – a respected Catholic journal – expressed regret that the cardinal's final request was not being observed. "It's clearly documented that he wanted to be buried with his close friend and it's a pity that his dying wish is not being respected," she said. "I'd have thought Ambrose St John could be disinterred and placed with Newman." 

The cardinal repeated on three occasions his desire to be buried with his friend, including shortly before his death in 1890. 

"I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John's grave - and I give this as my last, my imperative will," he wrote, later adding: "This I confirm and insist on." 

Newman wrote after the death of St John in 1875: "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or anyone's sorrow greater, than mine."  (read the whole story here)

Talk about having a skeleton in the closet.

This would be funny if it wasn't so --- NOT.